Robohelp for Word 7.0--WinHelp 4.0--Corrupt Word File--how to fix??

[Jenn_MM]

Hi All--
I think one of the .doc files in my project is corrupt. When I compile the project in RoboHelp for Word 7, the context sensitive Help (F1) for all the topics in a particular file does not work. However, if I take the project out of RoboHelp and compile it in Help Compiler Workshop--the f1 help works like a charm. Ideally I don't want to ever have to compile this file outside of RoboHelp, but I'm kind of stymied. I can't figure out what is wrong with the file and the error wizard hasn't been exactly helpful. I did however notice that while the Help was compiling that the message 'removing watermarks' came up right after the problematic .rtf was compiled (didn't show up in the error wizard for some reason), but I can't find any watermarks in the file. I inherited this project (the other writer left before I started here) and it's been a while (OK like 10 years) since I last worked with WinHelp (converting to HTMLHelp is not an option) so any suggestions for what I should be looking for would be appreciated. Thanks, Jen

[fyz123]

Hi,

I think your doc file is corrupt, too. You can try a utility called Advanced Word Repair to repair your Word document. It works rather well for my corrupt Word documents.

Alan

[bawd]

Did you try deleting the .rtf? (Close project, open Explorer, browse to the appropriate .rtf file and delete it - RH produces a new one when the project is next opened, usually without the untraceable error if there was one!)

Brian

[Jenn_MM]

Hmmm...interesting...that seemed to fix some of my problems but not all of them. Here's another puzzler---if compile the project outside of RoboHelp (in Help Compiler Workshop). all the f1 links work. So it must be something RH is doing to the file during the compiliation process. That's all I can figure anyway. So I'm going to try this as a workflow and see if it works:

1. Work on the project in RH for Word.
2. Compile in HCW.

[Peter Grainge]

Are you fully patched? 1 and 2.

[wgmeisheid]

Peter, you mentioned two updates. I cannot do online updates here at work. I am in an offline secure environment, and I only saw one update on the RoboHelp Update page (7.02). Did I need to find and apply 7.01 or some other update first? It did not alert me to anything when I applied it.

At the installation at home office, the Adobe auto-update only found 7.02. My installed version in both places is 7.0 Build 145 and I launched the Help|Updates from RoboHelp Explorer in RoboHelp for Word.

Thanks in advance.

[Jenn_MM]

Thanks! That did the trick! Although I wish I'd known about it before I went through the whole CSI routine with my project tho... : - (

[Peter Grainge]

Set it to autoupdate.

[Peter Grainge]

You can download the updates to a memory stick or CD.

http://www.adobe.com/support/robohelp/downloads.html

[Jenn_MM]

I checked my settings and auto update was selected but obviously never occurred. The app prompted me to register the product a couple of times--maybe I need to do that in order to get the fixes.

[Peter Grainge]

I think auto update might not happen if your profile does not have admin rights.