RTF corruption with conditional tags in RH 7.0.3

[Guest]

I get RTF file corruption errors when compiling a project to WinHelp 2000 layout in RH 7.0.3 with conditional build tags on topics.  The problem also occurred earlier under X5, but upgrading to 7.0 cured (ignored?) the problem.  Now I've installed three RH patch releases--7.0.1, 7.0.2, and 7.0.3--and the problem is back.

I've tried removing the RTF files and resaving and compiling.  I've also tried to open the project outside RH in MS Help Workshop and saving and compiling.  Nothing helps.  The error messages include "jumps to undefined topic IDs" in about 20 places all over three of the four project files.  They aren't in any particular sequence, and it's impossible, for me anyway, to tell where the RTF corruption begins.

When I turn off the conditional build expression, the project compiles without errors.  Does this make any sense??

[Peter Grainge]

I have been trying to get this resolved for someone else. At the moment his only solution is not to install the patches. If you go to Add / Remove programs and uninstall, it will only uninstall the last patch. Press F5 to refresh and you uninstall patch 2. Same again for patch 1.

Sorry but there is no other solution until Adobe fix this. It is the same in RH8 and there you cannot remove the patches.

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

[Guest]

Thanks much for your help...  will try the Add/Remove plus F5 X 2 today.

[Guest]

Peter, your recommendation worked.  Add/Remove removed 7.0.3, then after the first uninstall finished, pressing F5 redisplayed the program list in the Add/Remove dialog.  This time Adobe RH 7.0.2 displayed in the list and could be removed.  Pressing F5 the last time displayed 7.0.1 and I could remove it.  That left the 7.0 baseline, which handled the conditional tags on topics without corrupting the RTF files.  7.0 has some other issues, such as displaying some incorrect topics from the TOC links, positioning some topics too low in the pane, and being unable to write messages to the .err log file, but I think these can be worked around manually or, in the case of the log file, ignored for now.

In my opinion, being unable to handle conditionals correctly is a critical defect.  If Adobe continues to have this problem, I could easily see our service organization, which has several hundred communicators across a global enterprise, switching to WebWorks ePublisher for its Help projects.

Thanks again for your help!  Your expertise is invaluable to the RH community.