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K
kmaddox1
Inspiring
July 6, 2010
Question

importing PDF into IFrame crashes RH8?

  • July 6, 2010
  • 1 reply
  • 1836 views

I'm using RH8 and producing WebHelp. I'm trying to use the new IFrame feature to display a PDF in my webhelp output, but get an Adobe Acrobat error, followed by a RH crash.

Here's what happening:

  1. From RH8 topic, insert IFrame and browse to a one-page PDF.
  2. Click View Selected Item to preview topic. The PDF appears as expected (and it's way cool).
  3. Generate the WebHelp.
  4. View the topic in the Webhelp using IE8. The PDF does not appear--just an empty rectangle.
  5. Go back to RH8 and try to preview the same topic. This time the system hangs with the Adobe Acrobat error:   "Initialization of the font server module failed."
  6. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del and shut down non-responsive Robohelp.
  7. Repeat several times with the same results, realize I'm crazy, and post this message here.

Any ideas?

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    1 reply

    Captiv8r
    Captiv8r
    Legend
    July 6, 2010

    Hi Kathy

    I'm confused about why you would need an  Iframe to view the PDF. Doesn't it display in the topic pane? Or are  other elements surrounding the Iframe and that's why you want it?

    Perhaps  you need to add the PDF to your baggage files list?

    Cheers... Rick

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    K
    kmaddox1Author
    Inspiring
    July 6, 2010

    Yes, I have text in the topic before and after the PDF, which is why I thought an IFrame would be a good option. Plus I don't know how to display a PDF by itself as a topic. I'd like to try that--can you give me some basic instructions?

    And, yes, the PDF is listed in the baggage files.

    Thanks!

    K
    kmaddox1Author
    Inspiring
    July 7, 2010

    Hi Rick,

    Thanks for instructions. I didn't realize you could do that and, in theory, that works like a charm, but I'm still having issues. Here's what I just tried:

    • Added a new page to the TOC and linked to the PDF in the baggage files directly. I was still unable to view the PDF in the generated output (nothing happened when I clicked the page in the TOC), but RH8 didn't crash and I didn't see the Adobe error message.

    • Inserted a hyperlink in the topic and linked to the PDF file. This time I got the "Initialization of the font server module failed error", followed by a dialog saying "There is a problem with Adobe Acrobat/Reader. Please exit Adobe Acrobat/Reader and try again." But there was no specific instance of Adobe Reader running, just Robohelp. After wating a couple of minutes, RH8 stopped working altogether.
    • Created a brand new project in RH8 (Since the other was migrated from RH7) with one topic that contained a hyperlink to a PDF. I could see the PDF in preview mode, but the project froze when I generated the WebHelp output

    Since I just installed RH 8, I suspect that what I'm seeing is more of a problem with how Acrobat and Robohelp are interacting. I had Acrobat 8 Professional installed before installing Robohelp 8. Could that be it? If so, what's the best way to recover?

    Thanks!


    I fixed at least part of the problem by uninstalling and reinstalling Acrobat Pro. But the other part of the problem had to do with PDFs and Mark of the Web. Since that's a separate issue, I'm starting a new discussion....

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