Skip to main content
A
Anonymous
February 8, 2013
Question

Generating WebHelp/HTML After Upgrading from RoboHelp for Word X3

  • February 8, 2013
  • 2 replies
  • 8245 views

My client is looking to change the way they generate help for an internal application. Until now, they've been using RoboHelp for Word X3.  I was able to import the existing project into RoboHelp 10 and generate "Primary Layout (WebHelp)."  I opened the generated help in IE and FireFox and found the Table of Contents, which generated well.

Most but not all of the individual help pages will not open, however. Those that will not open are in CHM format. FireFox is reporting errors like "Firefox doesn't know how to open this address, because the protocol (rmation.chm) isn't associated with any program."  Can anyone advise me on how to proceed?

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

A
Anonymous
February 13, 2013

New information. I found that if I change some of the "upgrade options," I get much better results. Specifically, when I first open the old .hpj file, I selected the following options:

  • In "Import WinHelp Project: Folders": select "Do not create subfolder" under "Folder for HTML Files"
  • In "Import WinHelp Project: Features": select "Retain" under "External Topics"

All the links come into the upgraded project correctly.  I'm wondering how I might have known about these option settings at the beginning of this effort.

I appear now to have a functionally-equivalent web-based help system.  It would have been nice if the glossary in the old system were imported into RH10 as a collection of glossary items but I'm not sure how the links to those items that are currently in the help topics ought to have been handled in that situation.

Peter Grainge
Community Expert
Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
Community Expert
February 14, 2013

The two links do show one was created as a link to another topic within the project and the other to a topic in a CHM. Can you identify in the new project one of the links that was broken and see how it is written now.

There is something on my site in Snippets about converting from WinHelp but you have fixed the issue now.

Importing from WinHelp is always a trial and error process.

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

Use the menu (bottom right) to mark the Best Answer or Highlight particularly useful replies. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here.
A
Anonymous
February 14, 2013

I understand what you are saying about the links having been created differently but there is no apparent difference when I examine the link properties in RH4W.  Also, I don't think that there are any .CHMs to link to in that project.  Why would changing the two options I selected convert an external link to a .CHM into an internal topic link?

The Adobe documentation of the "convert from WinHelp" process is seriously lacking.

RoboColum_n_
RoboColum_n_
Legend
February 8, 2013

Can we clarify a few things first.

It sounds like you have migrated the RHX3 output into the RoboHelp HTML application and are not using the old RoboHelp for Word application at all. Is that correct?

Second you start talking about WebHelp generating OK and then say the problem is with a CHM. Do you mean that you are creating both WebHelp and CHMs and that the generated WebHelp is all displaying OK?

Next I am confused what Firefox has to do with CHM files. Do you get this error message when you double click on the CHM file to open it?

A
Anonymous
February 8, 2013

My apologies for being such a noob with Robohelp:

  • I imported the existing RoboHelp project by opening the .hpj file in the project. There's also a .HLP in the directory; however, when I try to open that file, I'm consistently getting "The specified file could not be opened.  Ensure that the help file is not running and try again." It's not running.
  • I'm not using the old RoboHelp for Word application at all.
  • Once I opened the old project, I immediately generated web help using the File/Generate/Primary Layout(WebHelp) menu option. I'm not intentionally doing anything to generate CHMs.
  • If I open the top-level generated .htm file in Firefox, I see a left-side navigation bar with the table of contents.  The index is fully populated; however, clicking on many of the TOC entries leads to the error I posted above.
  • There are no .CHM files in the generated WebHelp content (which is what I expected and hoped for)
  • I found a bunch of references in the generated HTML that look like this:
      <nobr><a href="../n.chm::/V_I_P_Definition.htm"><b>V.I.P. - Definition</b></a></nobr><br>
    I have no idea where "n.chm::" came from.  It's not in the generated folder structure.
  • The TOC entries have similar incorrect links with portions of .chm filenames and double-colons.
Peter Grainge
Community Expert
Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
Community Expert
February 13, 2013

I met with the person responsible for maintaining the help content.  There doesn't seem to be anything different about the links that function properly as opposed to those that end up corrupted.  It seems as if most of the TOC entries (maintained manually), all of the index entries (also maintained manually), and half or more of the inter-topic links are bad.


Can you please post a good link alongside a bad link?

Did the RoboHelp for Word project generate webhelp or CHMs?

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

Use the menu (bottom right) to mark the Best Answer or Highlight particularly useful replies. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here.
Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices