Search stopped working in AIR

[Guest]

Hello,

It's me again. Sorry, but I am still poking around with RH 8 and AIR and trying to learn everything. I just inserted a second pdf into my project and installed the AIR output. However, the search is no longer working (was working before this pdf was embedded). I read around in this forum and found the following thread (http://forums.adobe.com/message/2284312#2284312). It indicated that the problem was with an error in the person's pdf file. How in the world did they find this error? I'm not sure how to check a pdf to make sure it is okay. Is this the reason people think the search stopped working for me as well?

Thanks again for the great help.

[Guest]

I just removed the 2nd pdf file and now the search is working again. So it is definitely something wrong with that pdf. Does anyone know what would be wrong with the pdf that AIR search doesn't like or a way to check for what is wrong? The pdf views fine with no errors. Thanks.

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

Unfortunately the AIR output is something reasonably new to all of us. As a result, there really isn't a good base of knowledge out there with regards to it. So in one sense, you are somewhat navigating uncharted territory. Many of us have no clue what to suggest. When issues have emerged, largely it's been the Adobe RoboHelp Engineers that have provided the solutions.

In your case, it might be that the PDF you were adding has issues. Or, it could be something as simple as the AIR output only allowing ONE PDF to be inserted. I would think that would be easy to sort. Try removing the PDF where search is working. Add the other and compile. Does search break or continue to work?

If it breaks, likely it's got something to do with the PDF.

If it continues to work, likely it's got something to do with AIR not liking multiple PDFs.

If you don't mind, I'm going to move the posts that are AIR related into the AIRHelp forum category.

Cheers... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links RoboHelp Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7 or 8 within the day - $24.95! Adobe Certified RoboHelp HTML Training SorcerStone Blog RoboHelp eBooks

[Peter Grainge]

One possibility. There is a problem in RoboHelp 8 importing PDFs that have been created in recent versions of Acrobat. If you generate a PDF of the same source document using another PDF writer, it will import. I wonder if that could be relevant? Were your PDFs created using a recent version and could you recreate them in something else?

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

[Guest]

Interesting. I will test the thing that you suggested Captiv8r. Also I will try to generate the pdf using something else. The one that is working was created 1.5 years ago so it would have been an older version of Acrobat. The one that didn't work was created 2 weeks ago so it would have been the new version. What other programs can I use to create pdf files. I was using Framemaker 7.2 and creating .ps files from that. Then I used the Adobe Printer/Distiller to create the pdf file from the ps file. Thanks again for your help and sorry for not posting this in the AIR forum. I'll be better about that in the future.

[Peter Grainge]

Test with any of the free PDF creators. Google will list them.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

[Guest]

I tried the tests recommended by Peter. When I had more than one PDF generated by Adobe PDF, search would not work. I downloaded a free PDF creator (PrimoPDF -- it was one of the first ones Google returned, so that's why I picked it), and generated a couple of PDFs with that. Put those two PDFs in the help file and search works fine.

So I would say there's a problem with PDFs created using an Adobe PDF print driver. At least if you want to have more than one in your help file.

[Peter Grainge]

Not quite what I said. Unless your tests prove otherwise, it is about not including PDFs produced with recent versions of Acrobat. You should be able to have any number of PDFs created with older versions or other products.

Is that not what you found?

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Guest]

OK, I tried a more rigorous test and the results are even a bit weirder than what I found before. I'm not sure that any of this exactly fits the scenarios folks have outlined above, but here goes in case it sheds some light:

I'm running Adobe Acrobat 7.0, and I usually create my PDFs, from Word or FrameMaker, by printing to the Adobe PDF printer driver, which I assume is current with Adobe Acrobat 7.0.

I had two Word files. I printed each to Adobe PDF and to PrimoPDF (which is also installed as a prnter driver). So I now have four PDFs, two from Adobe and two from Primo.

If I put the two Adobe PDFs in as baggage files and then create links to them in the project, each in a separate topic, then generate the AIR file, search in the AIR Help file works fine. If I put the Adobe PDFs as links in the SAME topic, search does not work.

If I put the two Primo PDFs in as baggage files and create links to them, each in a separate topic, search works fine. If I put the links in the same topic, search works fine.

So from what I'm seeing, having two Adobe PDFs in the same topic, creates problems. But having them in separate topics, or having PDFs created with a dfferent driver, creates no problems.

[Peter Grainge]

Thanks Stephen.

Please follow this link and report that.

http://www.Adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform&product=38

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge