Import template from one save project into another saved project Robohelp 2022 3.93

[JenniR_12]

Last week I was working on my project template when my screen locked up for whatever reason.  I couldn't get anything to respond in Robohelp.  I eventually had to power off my computer and when I logged back in, all of my content was still there, but when I generateed and viewed output, all of my changes to the template were gone.  I have a copy of my project, althought a little outdated, it still shows all of the changes that I have made to my template using the template editor.  I have a couple of questions:

1)  Here is what my "zapped template" looks like.  It's empty for the most part and the little "expand" arrows are not showing for Home Page and Topic Page.  Settings that hold all of the different parts and pieces that we can edit.  

My template immediately after my machine locked up. Missing all of the little drop down arrows that we can use to find and edit different parts of the skin.Here is what it should look like.  

Here is what it should look like.

If I export the .skz file from the lower picture  and then switch over to my project and choose import, should that bring it back?  I'm doing this and it brings the skin into my new project, but it still looks all jacked up.  Does this just mean I've got to start over?  Is my main project corrupt or is the skin corrupt?   I don't want to continue on with the main project just to have it happen again.  Again, all of my content is in the project still, it's the skin/template that got messed up. 

Here is my project content and it still works.  I'm just trying to figure out the best way to move forward and get the 2 combined agian (the template skin that is still good from an older backup with the content in my current project that wasn't affected by my machine loocking up.)  If anyone has any advice, I would apperciate it.  I've lost a fair amount of template work.. 
Content is still here and working

[Peter Grainge]

In short your RoboHelp locked up so you rebooted and now the template is incorrect, however you have the template with the changes in a backup or somewhere else. Correct?

If so open whatever that has the correct template and export it. Then in the project with the messed up template import the good copy.

When you say it locked up, was it just RoboHelp? If so should it happen again minimise the window and then maximise it. It's a problem some people have seen but Adobe cannot replicate it. Minimise and maximise gets it going without any loss of data, saved or not.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[JenniR_12]

Hi Peter.  Yes, you are correct.

In short your RoboHelp locked up so you rebooted and now the template is incorrect, however you have the template with the changes in a backup or somewhere else. Correct?  - YES.  You are correct.

If so open whatever that has the correct template and export it. Then in the project with the messed up template import the good copy.  I did this prior to posting on the forum.  I exported it from older "out-of-date" version of the the same project, but had all of the template settings that I needed.  I then imported it into my current project and it's messed up, too.   

Out of Date Project - it has the correct color schemes and template settings.  What it looks like in the out of date project:
Out of date project - but the template is correct. This is what I export.

When I import this .skz file into my current project this is what I see:
This is how it imports into my current project.
I also noticed that when I try to generate, I ge the following error:
Error message I get after I import the template into my project and try to generate

Here is the log file.  I don't really know what it's tellng me 

frameless.ehtml error log file.

[Peter Grainge]

The first image is of the Home Page tab and the second image is the Topic tab so they will look different.

Is the imported Home Page tab not the same as in its source project? Did you delete the damaged template before importing it?

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[JenniR_12]

Peter.  Yes, I unerstand that the Home Page and Topic Page look different.   I was wanting to demonstrate that the drop down arrows are present in the "good templates", but missing in the one that I'm having the issue with.  The one that was open and being used when my machine froze (I was in the template editor when my machine locked up). When I rebooted and went back tothe template editor and chose my template, it looked completely blank almost.  No settings were present and all of the colors were gone from the live preview .  I then just tried to generate and view and I got the error message when I tried to generate.  Then I tried to look at the tmp file but am not sure what that temp file is telling me.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Looks like a couple of things to me - the first is that you seem to have files located in a OneDrive synched desktop location (generally not a good idea with RH files); the second is that there's an error in your css file with an unclosed bracket - maybe located on line 1603, position 17 on the line.

[JenniR_12]

Wow.  Thanks, Jeff for pointing me in that direction.  I looked at my default CSS and it doesn't go to line 1603.  It stops at 1302.  I'm guessing you were able to find this by looking at the temp file, perhaps?  Is that correct?

[Peter Grainge]

So if you open the old source project from which you exported, the arrows show but not when you import. 

________________________________________________________
My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[Peter Grainge]

I'm looking on a small screen. What dropdowns? Functionality? 

________________________________________________________
My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[JenniR_12]

If I open the old source file and choose my template that I've been working on and editing for the last 4 months, the drop down arrows to the left of each piece or part are missing.  Like If I click on the Home Page tab and then I see all of the stuff under the Home Tab, like Top Section, Header Links, Buttons, etc......ususally there are little expand arrows to the left of each of those that when clicked, will drop down and I can choose which thing to edit. These arrows are gone.  As if everything has been wiped out.  I believe it's corrupt.  The log file today when I look at it, is full of symbols and garbage.   It looks nothing like the other log files that I have looked at for other issues.  

Here is the log file from the RHTMP folder. It's jacked UP!! Assuming my template is corrupt, is the answer that I just need to start over on a fresh template where I DO see the drop down arrows and I am able to make edits again?  This time,  I would just use the Studio template to start with instead of Oceanic.  When I pull up the Studio template in my source project, it is working and seems to generate fine.  I just have to go back in and try to get it as close to what I had. Fortunately for me, I do have all of the settings that I made changes to on the Oceanic template to make it look the way it did, recorded so I know I have the information. It's just a matter of going back in and make all of those changes. 

I think the thing I'm most concerned about is ....

is it safe to continue working from my source project or should I copy the content from my source project into a completely new container and save and work from a brand new project?  I don't want to get down the road again and have the same thing happen.  Although, I know it's entirely possible with the project I've been working on or if I work from a new project (especially if I'm copying and pasting the info from my old project).  If it's better to start over with a new project, I'd rather do that now than 4 months from now.  

There is no Save As button in RH, so I have never been entirely sure how to make a valid good working backup.....which is just stuipid.  I know better.  Thankfully, I did on a few ocassions just copy the entire folder containg all my project files to a different location, but I was never fully sure that it was going to be correct.  It would be good if RH could include an option under the file menu or something to create a backup that easily accessible.  I don't know how difficult that would be, but I know I've worked with many programs that have that capability built right in.  I've been skating on thin ice for a while now as it relates to backing up and I knew it.  

[JenniR_12]

The other reason I say I believe my template is corrupt is because if I open your footer project that I downloaded, Peter, and import my template that I've been working on for months into your project, the same thing happens. It's missing all of my changes.   It looks like this:

this should be blue and yellow in the live preview and have all of the "stuff" that I added in my template, but as you can see, no colors - it's all white and the drop down arrows are missng from the Home Page and Topic Page items available to be edited.

[Peter Grainge]

I'm 99% sure I told you in our chat never to use OneDrive. Search the forum and count the number of users who have ended up in tears.

I'll look through your posts now.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[Peter Grainge]

is it safe to continue working from my source project or should I copy the content from my source project into a completely new container and save and work from a brand new project? 

There is never a way of telling. After fixing a project it usually works fine. At this point we haven't identifed how to fix things so no way of telling. I wouldn't be bothering at this point. Copying and pasting could easily import the problem so let's try and get things going.

There is no Save As button in RH, so I have never been entirely sure how to make a valid good working backup.

Use File Explorer to copy it or zip it. The latter is better as it stops you working on it.

OneDrive

Yup. A pretty good way of screwing up a project.

If I open the old source file and choose my template that I've been working on and editing for the last 4 months, the drop down arrows to the left of each piece or part are missing. 

Is that when you open the old source file? Check it is still good there.

If it is, did you delete the bad template before importing? (If you have not, right click the template and select Show in Explorer, then move the corrupt template somewhere outside the project. Then import again.

****************************************

You make several references to templates but you are not saying good template or bad template.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[JenniR_12]

The template (which is now bad) doesn't work if I import into my current project (the one I've been working on for 4 months) or any other project.  The template (that is now bad) has not been deleted or removed.   I've exported it from my project that I have been working on for months.  When I import it into any project it doesn't work and shows up the same way.  Blank white background and text and missing the drop down arrows that should be available to make edits to parts of the page.    It's missing all of my edits.  It's basically empty with only text.  (no colors, or anything of that nature).

It should look like this.....

It should look like this.

But instead looks like this....but instead looks like this

If I open the old source file and choose my template that I've been working on and editing for the last 4 months, the drop down arrows to the left of each piece or part are missing. 

Is that when you open the old source file? Check it is still good there. (it' s not good in the source file or any other file.)

I'm not exactly sure wht you mean when you say "is that when you open the old source file".    Hopefully I answered your question with the first sentence of this reply.

[Peter Grainge]

For what it's worth, it's pretty unusual for a project to go completely corrupt these days but with OneDrive, who knows.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[Peter Grainge]

You said you had a copy of the template with the arrows. I am assuming that is in a old copy of the project, it must be for you to have exported it. If you open that old copy of the project and go to the template, are the arrows showing?

If not, then it was never a good copy. Let's get this point clarified first.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[JenniR_12 · Accepted solution]

Peter...........I am not crazy.  I did what you suggested yesterday (but I must have done it incorrectly except I feel like it's so easy I couldn't have possibly done it wrong).   I opened the backup copy of my project and I checked the template and it works and looks good.  As it did yesterday.  So I exported it (and the only thing I did different yesterday was I saved it to my desktop so it was easy to find.   Then, I opened my current project that was no longer working and I imported the skz file that I had just exported to my desktop.  When I went to Templates and picked that template - it didn't work.  

But, today, when I did those excact steps, the only thing different is that I left the export location where it was and didn't change it to my desktop and when I imported into my current project, it works like a charm.   

I feel like I'm back up and running.   I had whole heartedly accepted the fact that I was going to have to start over on the template.  What a difference a day makes.  I'd hug you if I could, Peter!!!!  Thank you so much for staying with me and not giving up when I had.  I think we can close this out and I can get going again.  

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Could the difference be that your desktop is synched to a OneDrive location?

[JenniR_12]

Jeff:  I checked and both are being synced to OneDrive.  I will get that changed today so I don't cause myself unnecessary trouble in the future.  I don't remember Peter telling me about OneDrive - but he's a lot sharper than I - so maybe I just overlooked it.  We've already etablished that I tend to move at a very rapid pace at all times. 

[Peter Grainge]

Remember the old saying, more haste, less speed.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Judging from forum posts over the years, RH and OneDrive have not had a good relationship. Best practices recommend that you keep projects local in a dedicated (non-synched) short folder off your C:\ drive, like C:\projects\{project_name}\

[JenniR_12]

I have heard that saying.  Good words to live by I would assume.  I wouldn't know, but I have a hunch things might not get so messy at times.  Thank you guys again.  Jeff, I'll move my project folder out to my c: drive.  

[Peter Grainge]

Peter...........I am not crazy.  

Let's debate that one. 🙂

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[JenniR_12]

I knew you were going to say that.....but I still maintain that I'm not crazy.   I do get a tad excitable and I go faster many times than I should......but I draw a line at crazy.  It's whatever comes right before crazy!

Thank you Jeff and Peter for your help on this.  You have literally no idea how happy this makes me.  Peter, you will be happy to know, though, that when I thought I had to start over, I was going to use the Studio template and THAT, my friends, is growth!!!