Imported RoboHelp Content Does Not Match FrameMaker Content

Report · Feb 04, 2015

Hi

I recently upgraded to RH 11.0.4.291 and FM 12.0.4.445.

I have been importing a FrameMaker book into RoboHelp for several years, without any issues. The Framemaker book is a "master" book consisting of 17 books. Some of the books have multiple chapters. For these, I created a folder each sub book and put the chapter files in the folder. Until today, when I imported the FrameMaker book into the RoboHelp project, and I got the FrameMaker TOC structure in RoboHelp:

Book A

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Book B

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Book C

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

When I imported the FrameMaker files into RoboHelp today, I got this:

Book A

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Book B

Chapter 1 from Book A

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Book C

Chapter 1 from Book A

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Book D

Chapter 1 from Book A

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Book E

Chapter 1 from Book A

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 1 from Book A appears in the TOC for every book. Also the content in the project is Chapter 1 from Book A (it's not just the TOC that is wrong, the htm files for Book A/Chapter 1 are also repeated in Chapter 1 of Book B, and so on. Only Chapter 1 was erroneously used in every book. All of the other chapters were correct.

I tried removing folders and chapters from the FM book file and it did not help. The resulting RH just did the same thing, but this time it copied Chapter 1 from what is now the first folder in the FM book.

Has anyone seen this? I am up against a deadline (of course). Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Report · Feb 04, 2015

I use the master book-of-books technique in RH11 without any issues & I’m pretty sure I beta-tested it in FM12 too. However, I don’t use folders, just sub-books. My ToC is at the master book level and encompasses all the sub structure fine. Is the FM ToC the way you want it to appear and are you telling RH to grab it to use?

Report · Feb 04, 2015

Hi Jeff

The FM TOC is fine. I am telling RH to grab the FM TOC. The RH TOC is wrong. AND, after I import the FM content in RH, the content in the RH Chapter01.fm folders is wrong. Every Chapter 1 folder has the content of Chapter 1 from Book A rather than the content for its own Chapter 1. If the TOC was broken, but the RH project had the correct content, I could work with that. But I can't do anything if the correct content is not coming in from FM.

Here's a screen shot of the FM master book.

Here's a screen shot of the RH project.

It all looks dandy, but the Chapter01.fm folders for the Android, iPad, iPhone, and DCR books all have the content of Chapter01.fm of the Android Tablet book. The other chapters in each of the books have the correct content.

I tried removing the Android Tablet book from the FM book, and importing into RH again, but then Chapter 1 of the Android book was used as Chapter 1 in the iPad, iPhone, and DCR books.

Report · Feb 04, 2015

Try using FM's book function to rename the CH01.fm files (perhaps using a more semantic naming like Android_Intro.fm, iPad_Intro.fm, etc.) FM will take care of sorting out any links, cross-refs, etc. when you use the rename facility in the Book file. That way, you won't have identical file names, so the potential for RH picking up the wrong file when using really long paths is minimized.

Report · Feb 05, 2015

Hi Arnis

Thanks for the suggestion! I tested this solution and it works! I have this same FM master book containing 17 sub "books" (folders with .fm files) in 12 languages. Renaming the FM files requires touching hundreds of files. I will do that as a last resort, but I am hopeful that a solution will be found. I think Adobe has seen this post and is looking into it.

Report · Feb 05, 2015

Hi Jeff

Thanks for the speedy reply. Although I could import books into my master book, that solution does not address the issue of why importing my FM book into RH stopped working. I have this same FM book in 12 languages, with 12 corresponding RH projects. Changing the structure of the FM book is no small task. And there's also the problem of the FM sub books containing files (chapters, appendices, etc.) that I do not want included in the master book. I am still looking on a solution, perhaps a bug fix. BTW, I'm not sure how this answer got marked as correct. I don't think I did that because I don't think it is answered yet.

Report · Feb 05, 2015

No sure either as I think only you can mark it that way (& Arnis’s suggestion is better). The only way Adobe notices something officially is to log it with them in the bugbase.

Report · Feb 05, 2015

It's unmarked now.

If you have that many files to work with, then the rename could be accomplished with a script using a lookup table for the renames, but that's a whole other ballgame...

Future solution: simply avoid using chapter numbering for filenames and use semantic naming. Murphy's law almost always guarantees that you will need to re-shuffle some files in a book, so using CH01.fm, CH02.fm, etc. when re-shuffled in a book will lead to a lot of head scratching by future authors, maintenance questions and issues.