Successful build produces empty result

[toreba]

Hi,

I am using RoboHelp for Word 8.0.0.203 with Word 2007 and XP SP3. I have a project comprising 45Mb of RTF text. When I build to WinHelp 2000, it all finishes suspiciously quickly with this commentary:

Created D:\Redfiler\Help\RHTemp\Redfiler.hlp, 7,556 bytes

Compile time: 0 minutes, 0 seconds

1 note, 2 warnings

Finished compiling WinHelp in 11 sec(s)

Compilation complete.

WinHelp (WinHelp 2000) was built successfully:

D:\Redfiler\Help\!SSL!\WinHelp_2000\RedFiler.hlp

There are no errors! But the .err file says:

    HC4004: Warning:
redfiler.rtf is not an RTF (Rich Text Format) file.

But the .rtf opens fine in Word and WordPad.

When I view the ,hlp, 'contents' is empty, 'index' is empty, 'search' is empty, and if I cancel the search build then I get the error message 'cannot find file ''' under the caption WinHelp 2000'.

All my other projects seem to work fine. How do I diagnose what's different about this one?

Thanks for any advice

Trevor Cooper

[RoboColum_n_]

Hi Treveor and welcome to the RH forums.

First you need to establish whether the issue is with your projetc or RTF file. Create a new project and import the RTF file. If this doesn't work, try saving the RTF file somewhere else as a different file file and import that. Possibly the issue maybe the size of your RTF file. Have you tried splitting it?

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The RoboColum(n)

@robocolumn

Colum McAndrew

[toreba]

Colum,

Thanks for welcome!

I created a new project and imported the RTF. The same problem occurred. I copied and renamed the RTF and tried again. The same problem occurred.

I can split it if necessary. Do you know what sort of file size I need to get down to?

The original Word document from which the RTF is generated is a mere 5,000-odd words but with lots of images embedded. It still only amounts to 694Kb as a Word document. Are images likely to cause difficulties?

TC

[Peter Grainge]

Yes the images probably are the problem.

Before you generate the help you must convert the images to True Code on the RoboHelp menu in Word.

If they don't convert, it probably means you probably added the images by pasting them in instead of inserting via the menu.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[toreba]

Peter,

Yes, that did the trick. In fact, I only needed to convert the first image, and then the build produced the correct result. But I converted all the images anayway.

I did indeed originally add the images simply by pasting in screen captures. I didn't know that wasn't the way to do it. It's always worked in the past, and my other help projects seem happy with it, but they are smaller projects.

Incidentally, I don't have a 'RoboHelp' menu in Word. All the RoboHelp controls appear on the 'Add-Ins' menu. Is that how it should be?

Thanks for your help.

Trevor Cooper

[Peter Grainge]

I think that is where they will be if you are using Word 2007.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge