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Anonymous

Question

Rebuild source files from Webhelp output?

Forum|Forum|14 years ago
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.

WebHelp

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A

Anonymous

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

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

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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A

Anonymous

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

Bizarre stuff.

1. I import (into RH9) a Word document (which was output from an application I very much suspect of some sort of skullduggery).

2. RH9 duly creates a folder of *.HTM documents (because I selected the "paginate on Heading 1" option before running the import), and puts the images in a *_files folder.

3. On close inspection, I find that one of the *.HTM files created by the import appears to contain nothing but the table of contents from the imported Word doc. I do not want this table of contents, so I delete it.

4. The instant I do that, all images (some 300 +) disappear from all topics.

I don't hold RoboHelp responsible entirely, because surely there is something horribly wrong with that source file, but still it would be nice to have an "undo" button on the RH9 topic delete function.

All I can do next is reimport, of course, and let RH9 put everything back where it is supposed to go. Unfortunately, the "do not over-write" has no effect whatever (has anyone reported that?) during the import, so any work I did between the original import and the deletion of the killer *.HTM is lost. I can import from the last build, yes, but have to redo all dropdowns, image maps, etc, which is pretty much like starting over at the beginning.

2. RH9 duly creates a folder of *.HTM documents (because I selected the "paginate on Heading 1" option before running the import), and puts the images in a *_files folder.

Rick has already explained that the folder is the way Word works when it converts a file to HTML. RoboHelp has to take what it is given.

I don't hold RoboHelp responsible entirely, because surely there is something horribly wrong with that source file, but still  it would be nice to have an "undo" button on the RH9 topic delete function.

Neither do I at this point as you already acknowledge doubts about the program creating the Word document and I have not been able to delete any topics simply because they were associated with a CSS file.

Please try importing some other document to prove this to yourself.

I always advise importing into a new project and when everything is as you want, import the topics into your main project. That way there is an easy get out if things don't work.

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

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Captiv8r

Legend

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

Helpful and Handy Links

RoboHelp Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form

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Adobe Certified RoboHelp HTML Training

SorcerStone Blog

RoboHelp eBooks

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Anonymous

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

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Amebr

Community Expert

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.

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