WebHelp compile crashes in RH8 and RH6

[Linda267]

I am currently evaluating Version 8 of Robohelp and would like to get all my projects on the same version of Robohelp. Most of my projects are at Version 6. I have another project that is currently at Version x.41 that I would like to upgrade and was testing it to see how it runs with Version 8. The X4.1 project converted to Version 8 without a hitch but when I compiled the WebHelp , it crashed and I received the following error: “Adobe Robohelp 8 has encountered a problem and needs to close. “  Here are the details:

AppName:  robohtml.exe

AppVer:  8.0.0.203

ModName: msvcr80.dll

ModVer:  8.0.50727.3053

Offset:  0008aa0

After researching the error on line, I found that it was the conditional build statement that was causing the crash. When I compiled the WebHelp without the conditional build statement, it compiled just fine.  I could not find any help on line for dealing with this error for Version 8 so I made a new copy of the project and converted it to Version 6, which apparently had a patch I can download. I applied the patch that was in Peter Grainge’s site to my copy of Robohelp 6. The X4.1 project opened without a hitch in Version 6. But when I compiled the WebHelp, it crashed again with the same error – even with the patch installed. Here are the error details:

AppName:  robohtml.exe

AppVer:  6.0.99.0

ModName:  msvcr80.dll

ModVer:  8.0.50727.3053

Offset:  0008aa0

Can someone please shed some light into this? I really would like to have all my RH projects at the same version.

Thanks!

[RoboColum_n_]

Hi Linda267 and welcome to the RH community.

The first thing I'd do is download the two updates to RH8 so you are using 8.0.2.

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[Linda267]

Hi Colum,

Thank you for your reply. I upgraded to version 8.0.2 and am still getting the same error. This is most frustrating.

[MergeThis]

You might try deleting the conditional, then re-creating it (work on a copy of the project to test this). Conditionals, single source layouts, publishing paths, etc., sometimes need to be scrapped and restarted.

Good luck,

Leon

[Linda267]

Thanks, Leon. I deleted all the conditionals and created a new WebHelp layout. Compiled the WebHelp for the project again and it compiled just fine. I recreated one of the conditional tags and then applied it to just one of the topics. Tried to recompile the WebHelp and received the same error. No go.

[Linda267]

For what it's worth, I was able to come up with a solution to this. But it is a bit of a pain.

First I converted the x4.1 help to RH 8. Then I created a new blank project in RH 8 and imported a few of the files from the converted project into it. When I complied WebHelp, it did not crash, even with the conditional expressions. This is a huge help project I'm working with, so I'm doing the import a few directories at a time and so far, all seems to be working fine (knock on wood). Of course this means, I'll also need to recreate the TOC, which is not a big deal, but recreating the index will be another matter. But I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

[Peter Grainge]

The TOC and Index might be easier than you think. In RH8 you can create a TOC and Index that is a copy of another one. This works well with TOCs and Indexes in the same project but usually a TOC or Index in another project will have different links to topics so they will be pretty useless. If you create exactly the same folders though, then you might be able to copy the old TOC and Index. Back up first though.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Linda267]

Thanks, Peter! I was hoping I could just copy over the old index. Just tried it and it looks good.