RoboHelp 10 Crashes consistently when trying to delete linked FM11 book

[Mark Southee]

I have a linked project where RoboHelp absolutely refuses to display part of a topic and some of the images. So I decided to delete the linked FM book file and start again from scratch (this was a FM10/RH9 project originally). This causes RH to crash consistently. Any ideas?

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Try importing as an experiment to see if RH will accept the FM content that way.

[Mark Southee]

Hi Jeff,

Yes, importing the FM book into a new project has worked. But is there a way of 'fixing' my current linked project?

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Not sure – was it working fine at one point and something changed? You could try reducing the size of the FM content initially, creating a new linked project, then add content back into FM and Update All to try to get it back into the RH project.

I know in my own case when I first started with TCS2, linking couldn’t handle my “master book of books” structure in FM, so I ended up importing. Supposedly, changes have been made in TCS4 to handle that scenario better, but I haven’t had time to mess around with experimenting with it.

[Mark Southee]

I think I've tracked it down to a couple of conditional text links (on for the pdf output, one for help output) which when removed allow the missing text to display in the help (even though the text isn't conditionalised at all!). Will try adding back in from scratch and see what happens.

[Mark Southee]

One step forward and 2 steps back. Re inserting my conditionalised links ( one an internal link for the PDF version, one an external link to an enclosed PDF target) is the culprit in some way. Not only does the external help link to the PDF chapter get mangled (the a=href link is all over the place), but any images below the link then won't display in the help, despite being in the output folder!

[Mark Southee]

By process of elimination, the culprit is the external link to the PDF. Using the Go to URL hypertext option, my link looks like this - message URL ../../PDF/ICM_User_Manual.pdf#F18" target="_blank"

The PDF is in the baggage folder for the help, and I have plenty of old links of this type that still work fine. However this is the first time I've added one since the TCS 4 upgrade. It doesn't matter if you add conditional text settings to it or not. Once it's added, none of the text below it in the particluar file is then converted for the help output (WebHelp).

Weird

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

As a temp workaround, can you remove the hyperlink in FM, link the FM content to the RH project and then add the hyperlink back in on the RH topic page?

[Mark Southee]

Hi Jeff,

Yes, that's the plan. I think I'm going to raise it as a bug as well.

[Mark Southee]

It would appear that the hyperlink properties in RH wont accept anything past ../../PDF/ICM_User_Manual.pdf, which means the PDF just opens at the first page, not the specific target - #F18" target="_blank" - doesnt get copied in or added by hand, it just chops that bit off.

Not satisfactory

[Peter Grainge]

@Mark

Can you please confirm that I am following correctly.

• The same link worked with Rh9/Fm10
• The same link works in a new Rh project
• It only fails in your existing project.
• You have tried generating to a new folder.

@Jeff

Is it possible that Mark's Project Settings for Linking did not get upgraded and something needs checking there? A wild guess on my part.

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Mark Southee]

Hi Peter,

• This is a new link, added since the RH9/FM10 upgrade to RH10/FM11. All links done in previous versions still work as intended
• Not tried this, will give it a go
• This is my only current Linked project
• I will try generating exist project to new folder

Thanks

Mark

[Mark Southee]

Ok, here are teh results:

• New Project in new folder
• Link Same FM Book to project with PDF taget link added
• Results same as with existing project - nothing below the link is displayed on the page (although the image problem has been cured (but with strange gaps between bottom of image and bottom of image frame)

If I remove the new PDF link, and Update then Generate WebHelp, the text that was below the link is now displayed.

[Mark Southee]

Sorry to add to the list of problems, but how come a Cross-Reference conversion setting works properly in some places, but not in others (for the exact same cross reference style - Heading & Page). This is happening on the same page.

The second example is exactly the same cross reference setting in FM as the first, but this is not getting converted at all (no hyperlink inserted!)

[Jeff_Coatsworth · Accepted solution]

@Mark - this is probably the result of the "secret" limit on path and file links that I've run into before - move your source FM content into a shorter path and the xrefs will work again.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

@Peter - possibly, but I've never heard of it happening before; looking at Mark's post on the xrefs, I'm suspecting the same "length" bug may be at play. If your source FM content is on a path that is too long (just exactly what is too long seems to be a secret on Adobe's part, but way less than 255 characters; somewhere around 30-35 seems to make it go tilt) all sorts of things seem to fall off the radar when brought into RH.

[Mark Southee]

@Jeff, I moved (cloned) my Mercurial repository to C:Docs and this cured the xrefs issue (and I can't sing Mercurial's usefullness for source control highly enough - my link to the FM book automatically updated to the new location!)

I therefore tried the external link to the PDF chapter to see if this was also cured by the shorter path. Sadly it did not. Exactly the same outcome as before 😞

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Ok, so that sounds like there’s another bug there – contact Adobe Support.

[Mark Southee]

@Jeff,

Done, thanks for all your help.

Mark

[Mark Southee]

I thought that moving my project location to a shorter path had solved my Cross references issue, but it hasn't. Here is a page from the Help:

These are all the same Heading style in FM

The X Refs are all to headings within the Current FM file

They are all the same Cross Reference Format (Heading & Page)

Thje Cross Reference conversion setting is set to Para Text in RH

Here is the code for the Graphical Circuit Trace (which doesbn't work) and the Quareo and Analyzer Configuration which does.

<li><p class="FM_Bulleted"><span class="FM_Emphasis">Graphical Circuit

           Trace</span>&#160;- see <a href="Circuit_Trace_Layout.htm#XREF_67922_Graphical_Circuit"><span

           class="FM_Emphasis">Graphical Circuit Trace on page&#160;85</span></a>

           for more details</p></li>

          <li><p class="FM_Bulleted"><span class="FM_Emphasis">Quareo and Analyzer

           Configuration</span>&#160;- <a href="Quareo_and_Analyzer_Layout.htm#XREF_15265_Quareo_and">Quareo

           and Analyzer Configuration</a> for more details</p></li>

The extra span class seems to be the problem, but why is it getting applied?

Baffled.com

P.S Adobe don't seem able to replicate my problem with the PDF link, so I'm stuck there as I can't get it to work!

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

What's the path to the FM source files now?

[Mark Southee]

C:\Docs\User Guide\

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

That seems short enough - what about the full path to the xref that's misbehaving?

[Mark Southee]

C:\Docs\User Guide\Frame_reference.fm

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

That's definitely short - the only thing I could see that could have an impact is the space in "User Guide."

How's it behave if you use the same setting.isf file and import (instead of link) to brand new RH project?