Unknown Error in Word Output

[Kevin5FC2]

I'm getting an unknown error in Word and haven't been able to pinpoint the cause. I get this when I try to open the Word output:

My other projects are fine, just this one. Also, the HTML output is fine (I checked each page). I did some testing by changing the CSS with a project that works, removing the link to a template (same template as the working projects), and adding individual topics to a test TOC. This last test with the TOC showed some success. A topic without a variable was successful. However, removing variables from other topics that failed previously was randomly successful.

I'm using 2020.5.71. When I checked for updates, I got 2020.5.0, which I did not install.

[Amebr]

I haven't encountered the error in my testing so far. But let's start with a few questions that may or may not be relevant. 🙂

• Is your project upgraded from Classic, or was it created using the New UI (either 2019 or 2020)?
• Is source control involved?
• Is your project on your C drive or on a network or cloud storage service? If C drive, is it in your Documents folder or elsewhere?
• Where are you genenerating the output (c drive, network, cloud storage?)

[Kevin5FC2]

Thanks for the reply.

• The project was created from 2020.
• I tried to integrate with GitHub, but couldn't get it working. I have been pushing updates through Bash.
• Both project and output are on C:

Additionally, I tried a fresh Word preset and was able to generate a PDF. It just seems to be with Word.

[Amebr]

Because you have source control involved, perhaps something has been set to read-only that shouldn't be. In Classic there were files that would cause issues if included in source control. I'll see if I can find any information about similar requirements for New UI. In the meantime, perhaps check that your whole project is checked out before generating.

Also, can you see if there's anything in the log file? After you generate, right-click on the output preset and select View Log.

Another test to check if it's just your project would be to open one of the sample projects and try to generate a Word doc in that project. They should be in your Documents folder under My Robohelp Projects. If they haven't been copied there, you can copy a version out of the robohelp installation folder (in Program Files) - don't try and run the project from the installation folder as it won't work because of security on that folder. Make sure you take a copy.

[Amebr]

This thread says you don't need to check in the .rh folder (and also mentions a few other files). See Surbhi's correct answer. It doesn't say they cause any problems, but you could try removing them from source control if they are included currently.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/robohelp-discussions/cache-files-in-robohelp-2019-source/m-p/10951747

[Kevin5FC2]

I removed source control, which didn't seem to matter. Here are the last few lines from the log:

[Amebr]

Does one of the sample projects work?

[Kevin5FC2]

Yes, as I stated in my original post, all other projects are fine.

[Amebr]

In that case, I reckon there's some funny code in one or two topics in this project.

First thing I'd do is check the log file (right-click on the output preset and select View Log). Check for any errors and the last successfully included topic. That might give a clue for the topic to look at.

Next troubleshooting idea is the divide and conquer method.  Create two tocs based on your real toc. Delete half the toc in one and the other half in the other one. In the output preset, make sure "Include all referenced topics" is not selected, to make sure only tiopics in your toc are included in the output. Try generating each. If one works you know all those topics are fine. Repeat the division process with the other toc until you find the problem topic.

[Kevin5FC2 · Accepted solution]

Solved - One thing I noticed in my testing is that clearing Include all referenced topics had some impact on my results using a test TOC containing the first three topics. With that cleared, I systematically added topics until the error occurred. Fortunately, the offending topic was eighth on the list of 41. I commented out everything inside the <body> tags and got a successful result. This allowed me to switch back to my project TOC and resume testing my commenting out portions of the topic. Here is what I found to be the issue:

<th colspan="3">Lorem ipsum <em>dolor</em> sit amet</th>

 Apparently, you cannot have <em> tags inside <th> tags. Once I removed the <em> tags, success!!!

[Amebr]

I'd suggest reporting a bug. 

You can request features and report issues here: https://tracker.adobe.com/

Post the item number in the discussion so people can easily vote if they want the same functionality.