No margins when printing RoboHelp 7 topic from Windows Server 2008, text cut off

[amandagRNS]

Hi all, I'm a minimally-techy person at a small software company who maintains our program's RoboHelp 7 HTML help file and have for years.  Many of the end users that access this help file do so via RDC, connecting to various Windows servers we host.  Those that get to our 2000 servers (all virtual machines) have no issue printing the Help topics.  However, when on a Windows 2008 server, printouts of any topic from RoboHelp 7 html have no margins, and so the printer cuts off all around the document what it can't print to the very edge.  We have multiple 2008 servers (again, virtual machines) and it happens with each one, and no matter what printer (including .pdf writer) we go to.  2000 and 2008 are the only server types used via RDC.

LAN users don't seem to have an issue regardless as to the OS (~0.75" margin appears automatically, including to .pdf writer), but then no LAN users use a 2008 server as their workstation so I don't have a way to test that.

I have access to a virtual machine workstation via RDC that runs Windows 8, and again no issue with margins missing/printing cutting off.

The file extension on the Help file is .chm and the items users print are titled topics in RH.  Robohelp 7 html, 7.01.001 is what I've got in Help | About RoboHelp html.

Any ideas?  I don't have access to any admin functions on these servers, I just maintain the RoboHelp file that ends up on them.  Thanks all!

[Peter Grainge]

Since 2004 CHMs should not be hosted on servers. See CHM Files Not Working. Instead they should be hosted on the users PC.

I suspect your copy of RoboHelp may be on a PC with an operating system for which Rh7 was not designed. In other words not Vista or any later version? If it is not on a supported system that too could impact. However, as you can run the CHM on a Windows 8 machine maybe for your use of Rh is such that the output is OK on that OS.

As CHMs should not be hosted on servers any malfunction would not be surprising and I would not expect any one malfunction to be consistent across different server OSs.

This is a difficult question to answer as there are a number of aspects that are not normal.

Are the users also using RDP to access an app that sits on the same servers or is the app accessed some other way, in which case how?

What link is there between the app and the help, does it just open the help at the default topic or does it link to a topic related to where the user is in the app?

If anyone else has any ideas about this one, please wade in.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[amandagRNS]

Thanks for your reply Peter.  I read through that link you sent, interesting!  Yes like it mentions, the .chm updates regularly along with the app it's for on the same servers.  We used to use indexes, etc. in the .chm file to link with specific program features and they can launch the Help file from the program as well, however with the newest .chm we created for a new version it does always open the same topic, I haven't figured out the index feature yet - another day!  So, let's say we have 8 servers - the app is installed on all 8 and the .chm file is also on all 8.

We have a whole new app we have yet to create a .chm file for - before we start sounds like we should perhaps upgrade RoboHelp?  Will a more current version remove this issue with the Terminal Server?  Nearly all of our clients access this way.

Thanks again!

Amanda

[Peter Grainge]

I would not expect a later version to help. You are working in a non-standard way.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[amandagRNS]

Thanks so much.  Can you suggest maybe another product, or way of creating a help file from RoboHelp that might be OK for that environment (I think there were other ways to create this Help file if I recall)?  I can tell you the environment will not be changing (other than upgrading servers to newer versions)...  Thanks!

[Peter Grainge]

Probably what you need is webhelp on a web server. You need to talk to your techie guys to see if the servers used will host webhelp.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge