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August 11, 2011
Question

Rebuild source files from Webhelp output?

  • August 11, 2011
  • 3 replies
  • 1805 views

Today I deleted an unwanted *.css file from my RH9 project with the result that 300 images files were suddenly deleted. Subsequently, I reimported the source Word files to create a new image folder. The result of this, even though I cleared the selection boxes on the "Do you want to over-write" prompt, was that RH9 proceded to overwrite the topics anyway. So I have now lost 20 reformatted topics.

Why these things happened is not my main concern right now, though clearly it indicates that RH has some serious issues in file handling. (It has happened before).

Before RH9 deleted and over-wrote all my topic files, I generated webhelp output, and I want to know if I can recreate those topics to my project somehow using the latest Webhelp output files.

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3 replies

August 11, 2011

Thanks, good people, for such prompt and helpful responses.

Peter Grainge
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 11, 2011

How did you delete the CSS file? I cannot think of any way whereby it would affect topics.


See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

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August 11, 2011

Hi Peter. I deleted using the right-click Delete command in the Proj Mgr.

There certainly seems to be something buggy in the way RH9 handles its pointers within those "virtual" folders. As we have discussed before, when I import Word files into a project, RH creates an unwanted (by me) *.css file and also a folder with the name _files. Sometimes this folder contains images as I can see by expanding the folder in Proj Mgr. Other times, it appears to contain nothing, but if I delete it, or delete an unwanted *.css, suddenly images are blown away.

If I ever get my real work done, I am pretty certain I can create a script for reproducing this issue and send it in.

Michael West | Business Improvement | Aurecon

Peter Grainge
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 12, 2011

It was never my practice to link to Word documents. I use the Import command.

But your suggestion that there may be something dodgy about the Word source documents could be correct. These are Word documents exported from an application that has not in general earned my trust or high regard. Sometimes they import without problems, sometimes they behave like a ticking time bomb.

I understand that I don't need to use the .CSS created by the import. What alarms me is that deleting them can have totally bizarre results. In future I will just let them be, as much as I dislike having a lot of rubbish lying around.

Cheers,

MW


Early on you said you delete the CSS by right clicking it in the Project Manager. If a CSS is not linked to a topic, it does not show in Project Manager so something is not ringing right. Even with a CSS that is linked though, you should be able to delete it.

Can you create a new project project, import a document and get this  behaviour? If you can, please send me the document. See the Contact Page  on my site for instructions.


See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

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Captiv8r
Legend
August 11, 2011

Hi there

Indeed you are able to re-use WebHelp output as source, but you will need to scrub them of code as described at the link below.

Click here to view

Cheers.... Rick

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August 11, 2011

Hi Rick! Thank you for the prompt response. If I scrub code then I presume that means I lose all pop-ups, Drop-downs, image maps, etc?

Michael West | Business Improvement | Aurecon

Community Expert
August 11, 2011

Rick's website specifically states that DHTML effects (drop-downs and expanding text etc) will have to be recreated, simply because it's much easier than trying to hack code. This may also include popups, but I *think* image maps should be okay as that uses standard HTML. But I'm not 100% certain of this.