Question mark icon instead of space in chm after RH Upgrade 2022 version

[Kdale2]

After upgrading to RH 2022.4.179, we have some spaces, apostrophes, and other random areas that are showing as the triangle with the question mark. We checked and the Window OS is set to English and the Preset Output is set to English. These are old .chm files that we continually update. We also looked at the HTML and there is nothing in there to indicate a problem. Examples attached.

[Peter Grainge]

Please use the photo icon to insert images within the post. Seeing an image inline with the text makes it easier for anyone answering or viewing the post.

2022 and the earlier new UI versions are all strictly HTML5 and CSS3 compliant. The ? symbols are telling you that the characters used are non-compliant. Two of your images don't have the query so what's the issue there?

I would start by inserting one of the symbols again and seeing what difference there is.

________________________________________________________

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

[Kdale2]

OK, trying this with the photo icon thing (and thanks for any help):

Example 1: Image from help file should not have the diamond after Important = 

Same place in HTML = 

Example 2: Image from Help File footer where copyright symbol is replaced with diamond and hyphen is replaced with diamond = 

HTML in footer = 

[Kdale2]

And we did try replacing apostrophes and such, but our very massive help file is now littered with these icons... This is a massive mergerd help project that has about 60+ help projects merged into the final master. If we have to revert, is there a way to revert our existing projects back to the previous version if we upgraded/saved them in this version?

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

You should be able to revert to patch 3 without damage (but of course, make a backup before).

[Kdale2]

Thanks! I guess we'll wait and see if y'all find a cure/patch/fix first. I did verify that we made changes in April using version 2022.3.93 and that project's generated .chm was fine on that date.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

"I guess we'll wait and see if y'all find a cure/patch/fix first." - psst, we're just users like you - not Adobe staff or anything like that. 😂

[Brad30090183d0hz]

I too am having the same problem. I upgraded this morning from 2022.2.22 to 2022.4.179 and all my projects have "?" symbol scattered throughout. Seems to be at special characters, like the Registered Trademark symbol, and some blank spaces. Attached is screenshot example.

We tried replacing the Registered symbol in html with "®" but it didn't help.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I need to publish updated Help files (CHM) for our products next week. Thank you.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Also, what were you upgrading from? Was it working fine in that version?

[Kdale2]

We were on an earlier version of 2022 and before that 2020. I think we were on 2022.3 something and we did not encounter this then. It's only just now that we are seeing it and only when we upgrade a project to that vesion. 

[Peter Grainge]

For some reason I was thinking about an upgrade from Classic. My error.

If you are willing, create a single project in 2022.4 and then in just one topic copy in one line that problem. You can change the text as long as you don't lose the problem. If you send that to me, I will run in Update 3 and 4 to see if it is a break. It does seem like it might be.

See the Contact page on my site and send the project as instructed there. Do make sure you include a link to this thread and please do not email the project direct.

________________________________________________________

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

[Kdale2]

Thank you! Well, some of the files were originally created in a much older version, probably Classic, and have continually been added to/upgraded etc for 20+ years! If I don't get this to you today, I will on Monday after my internal RH expert is back. 😉 We do NOT seem to have this issue with our Responsive HTML5 projects, only these .chm files.

[Peter Grainge]

This is looking suspiciously like a bug. 

Give me a few characters that cause this issue. Tomorrow I will create a project in Update 3 and then run it in Update 4.

I will then either liaise with my Adobe contacts or seek further information here. 

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

[Kdale2]

For us, it has been some apostrophes (but not all), hyphens, copyright symbols, and any time there is a second space.  I did start to recreate you a project but I have to run and won't get it to you today. I did test removing the masterpage that has an old footer file in it and that seemed to fix some of it, but again, it was fine before the upgrade.

[Peter Grainge]

I suspect but cannot be sure this relates to content created in older versions. Creating new content using the examples shown does not present the problem.

I wondered about the characters not being compliant with the HTML5/CSS3 standards applied by the new UI versions but dismissed that. If that were the case, this would have been a problem in Update 3.

I can take this forward with Adobe but I need a project that has this problem. It doesn't have to be your full project, just enough to demonstrate the problem.

See the Contact page on my site for instructions on how to send the file.

________________________________________________________

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

[Brad30090183d0hz]

Peter, I tried to send a sample project to your email but it gets rejected with this error message returned:

"550 Executable files are not allowed in compressed files."

So I then tried to email you about this with no attachment included, and the same error happens. Is there some other way to get the sample project to you?

Thank you.

[Peter Grainge]

I received your email without the attachment and have replied. It's not just my server, most will reject exe files. That is why my contact page says to use a transfer service. If your server allows the file to be hosted there, a link to that is fine. Links to your Google Drive or suchlike are also OK.

________________________________________________________

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

[Peter Grainge]

For @Brad30090183d0hz at least, the issue seems to be having a link to a topic layout. Generate your project without that and the symbols will be fine.

It's not the topic layout itself, it is purely having a link to a topic layout.

@Kdale2 Does this stop the incorrect characters? 

I realise this isn't a fix but at least we know where the issue is. I will take this up with Adobe.

________________________________________________________

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

[Kdale2]

@Peter Grainge , yes, I did think it was the Topic Layout and I was going to create a new one today to see if that fixed it. We have our copyright notice/footer in the Topic Layout and the Topic Layout has old file informaiton with a date of 1999. But you are saying that even a new topic layout will cause this? Yes, if Adobe could have a patch for this, it would be great so we don't have to rework and regenerate all the files again. Thank you for your research and help!

[Peter Grainge]

@Kdale2 It's not what is in the topic layout, it is simply a link to one that is breaking things. I tested in a new project.

________________________________________________________

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

[Kdale2]

Ok, we did more testing this morning and came to the same conclusion. Our other problem is that for some reason, we have some projects that not only have the Topic Layout at the project level but also at the topic level, so we have to remove it from the topic level also if this isn't fixed quickly. (We have 1000s of topics. Hopefully this isn't an issue with all of them.) If we can't use masterpages/topic layout for our copyright footer on each topic, what do you suggest we use to put a footer on each topic in a way that's easy to update across projects? Also, do you still want/need sample files? Thanks for all of your help!

[Peter Grainge · Accepted solution]

I'm pretty sure it will be an issue with all of them but you can select mutiple files in the Contents panel, right click and remove the layout in Properties there. It still won't be a quick job but it will be quicker. Obviously you only need to do that in projects you have to generate before we hear more.

You could also use any tool to find the topic layout line in the header section of the topics.

Adding the footer content to a snippet seems to work OK. 

The snippet code would be something like this with the name of your footer.

<div data-conref="assets/snippets/Footer.hts"> </div>

and you could use a find of

</body>

with a replace of 

<div data-conref="assets/snippets/Footer.hts"> </div></body>

That seemed to work but do back up first.

________________________________________________________

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

[Peter Grainge]

Wild thought but if you rename your topic layout file outside of RoboHelp, the generation process won't be able to find it.

UPDATE 2 - This does work for Topic Layouts linked to a topic. For Topic Layouts linked to a preset it does not work but there you simply deselect the layout.

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

[Kdale2]

Hey @Peter Grainge , we really hesitate to use Snippets as they've given us problems in the past. I'm not sure what to do right now. Any idea how long we are looking at for Adobe to address this? Is it days, weeks, months typically? I know it's for outdated chm files, but I'm sure there are still a lot of them out there like ours.

[Peter Grainge]

It all depends on what is needed to fix the problem. Until they find that it's not possible to say how long. 

I would give a Snippet a try, it is only one and they're working OK now to the best of my knowledge. 

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