Malformed Topic.

[OpalGamble]

I have a webhelp project that, if run on my pc, generates a word document flawlessly. However, on a co-worker's machine, the project throws a "malformed topic" error, and skips the rest of the topics in the TOC.

Since it runs properly for me (and I didn't create the topic in question, or the project) I'm going to presume that the problem isn't actually the topic.

Any votes as to if I should reinstall RH, Word, or both?

(Version x5.0.2)

[Peter Grainge]

Welcome to the forum.

I would prefer to identify the difference in the installations or the problem with the topic. Otherwise you could end up with two machines that throw a wobbly.

Can you give us more information about the error message?

What happens if you remove the topic that is causing the problem? Does it all then run sweetly or does some other topic then cause a problem. Save a copy of the topic outside the project and try that.

UPDATE: Are you both on the same version of Word?

[OpalGamble]

The error message is the typical "Malformed file: Word document became corrupt when adding [topic name]."

Both computers are running Word 2003, sp2.

If I remove the topic on the other computer, RH throws the same malformed file error for a topic 4 or 5 later in the TOC.

[Peter Grainge]

Really not sure about this one. What happens if you both open one of the supplied projects and try to generate a printed output? Does it work OK on your machine and not your colleagues? Similarly do you have another project to test?

Both of you are working with the project on your respective hard disks and generating the printed document to your hard disks?

Also please confirm that Word SP2 was applied before RH was installed? If not, then uninstall RH and reinstall that. Leave Word alone.

Click here for information on installing RoboHelp.

[OpalGamble]

quote:

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Really not sure about this one. What happens if you both open one of the supplied projects and try to generate a printed output? Does it work OK on your machine and not your colleagues? Similarly do you have another project to test?

Both of you are working with the project on your respective hard disks and generating the printed document to your hard disks?

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That's correct: the project, when copied to my harddrive from my colleague's, creates a Word doc without a problem.

All other projects have been no problem at all, which is why the head scratching!

quote:

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Also please confirm that Word SP2 was applied before RH was installed? If not, then uninstall RH and reinstall that. Leave Word alone.

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Yup, we installed in the right order.

This process has been working for us for months, and now just this one is going kablooey. Or projects are all one-offs, created specifically for each client (common html files, a new project for each one).

This one is particularly large, at over 1200 pages of Word doc when it's done generating. Until I got it to generate without a hitch on my PC, I was suspecting a file size limitation on Word.

[Peter Grainge]

"the project, when copied to my harddrive from my colleague's, creates a Word doc without a problem"

So when does it create a problem?

Given the size of the resultant Word document I also need to ask if there is a significant difference in the PCs, particularly memory?

[OpalGamble]

Co-worker's computer: will not generate Word document from Webhelp project created on her machine. RH throws Malformed file errors.
My computer: no problemo! I can take the project coworker created and generate a Word document without an errors (or swearing )

I have 512 meg of RAM while my co-worker has 1 gig.
Both computers are less than a year old.

[RoboColum_n_]

Could you try generating two separate documents on your co-workers PC. Try generating half the topics in one go and then the other half. If this works, try adding additional topics to one "half" and redo. Keep trying until you get the error. Maybe this is a threshold problem as Peter suggested. If so, this would help find out.

[Peter Grainge]

Given what you have come back with I go along with Colum's suggestion.

Right click the print layout on colleagues PC and create a copy, do that until you have five print layouts.

Leave the first one alone.

Go into the other four and delete roughly 75% of the topics so that the remaining 25% in each makes up the whole.

Do any of the four layouts fall over or do they now all work OK?