RoboHelp 2019 Styles Disappeared and Application Crashes

[michelem86690694]

I just upgraded to RoboHelp 2019 and am having the hardest time setting up and applying styles. I was just trying to figure out how to add spacing between items in a bulleted list. I went out to the Internet and found that I shouild add a line-height atribute to the ul tag. I did this, saved the project, and all of my styles have disappeared. I click the Styles tab and then the dropdown and  each group (Paragraph, Character, Lists, etc.) is empty.

When I try to add a new style to any group, the application crashes. I get an Application Error and am told to restart from the Help menu. I do this and the Styles are still gone and when I try to add one, it crashes. So frustrating!

Does anyone know how I can fix this? Is my project corrupted?

Thanks,

Michele

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Possibly - new UI or Classic? Have you updated RH2019 to the latest patch? There's been a few since initial release (don't assume that just because you installed it fresh that it includes all the latest fixes).

[michelem86690694]

It's the new 2019. I went to the Help > Updates menu and it says the application is up to date. 

[Peter Grainge]

The fact that you are not seeing any styles in the Styles tab suggest it is not seeing a CSS. With a topic open, go to the Topic tab and look under Style Sheets.

1. Is there a CSS attached?
2. Try another one.
3. Try with a previously backed up copy.

Do any of those suggestions fix things? If not or once you have got that part working come back and let's look at the original part of the problem. That should be something you can do with the CSS editor.

www.grainge.org

[michelem86690694]

Peter:

Thanks for responding. I checked the Topic tab and there is a default.css file attached (in the assets folder).

I do not have a backup css file as this is a new project and I was just developing an outline of topics via the TOC and had just started creating styles for one of them.

In an attempt to troubleshoot, I created a new project  and copied the css file to the new project's assets folder. Same issue: no styles. And, if I attempt to add a style, I again receive an application error and a message that tells me to save the file and restart RoboHelp.

Even though there are no styles listed, the topic shows styles applied. For example, I selected a cyan color for headings. In the topic, the headings show in the cyan and the font and font size I set for the heading styles. 

I'm totally confused and thinking that perhaps I should go back to RoboHelp Classic, but I will try to build a new project and new css from scratch before doing that.

Michele

[Peter Grainge]

Can you send me the affected project? See the Contact page on my site.

[michelem86690694]

Hi  Peter.

Just emailed the project to you,

Many thanks for looking at it.

Michele

[michelem86690694]

Peter:

It occurred to me that the problem with the Styles not showing was when I added that line-height attrribute to a list style in an attempt to get spacing between bulleted lists. So, I just removed that attribute, saved the CSS file, and the styles are now showing in the project. I can also add new styles.

I still have to figure out how to get spacing between list items, but at least I've recovered the css.

Thanks for your help on this.

Michele

[Peter Grainge]

It looks like you must have applied that change to whatever CSS you tried. When I suggested trying default.css the idea was to try it without that change to prove that is what was causing it. That's why I was surprised when you said default.css also caused the problem because that css has not caused the problem for anyone else. Hey ho, you found your change was the cause by another route.

That leaves you back with the original problem of modifying your lists. What exactly are you trying to achieve.

---

www.grainge.org

[Tracy24207371nz0s]

I came across a similar issue when trying to create a style in my css for a table.  When I set the row height of the parameter to 65px per our company style guide, all my topics lost their connection to any css that was assigned to them.   I would have both my custom.css and default.css attached to topic, but neither would show their styles in the style menu when you were editing a topic.  I had no idea why this was suddenly happening, and then came across this discussion.

Peter, I took your suggestion and did the following - 

1. Remove the custom.css from the topic, and then all of a sudden I could see the default.css styles available to apply.

2. Went back, and deleted my Table style I created and saved custom.css.  

3. Added custom.css to topic again, and finally I was able to see the style choices available from that css. 

4. I did not have to reapply styles, and all seemed to reconnect to the initial style I had assigned to them, so that was a relief.

5. Another relief, I did not have to delete and add back the custom.css on all my topics.  Probably wasn't even necessary with the first topic I was troubleshooting on.  I just needed to delete that Table style I had created.

So, it doesn't solve the issue of what's going on with spacing and my row height, but at least helps with the dissappearing styles.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Wouldn't the line height on the list be set in the CSS applied?