Re: RoboHelp Word Errors and Malfunctions
Hi Sara:
Sorry to hear you are having such a hard time. A couple of questions:
* Does the Word document have tables in it?
* When you convert Heading 1 to topics, do they all show up when you
compile (I know you get an error, but bear with me)? Or are some
of the headings missing?
* Is there a template attached to the huge document, or is it based
on Normal.dot?
* Your output is RoboHelp for Windows, correct?
Assuming that you do not have tables in the document, then the fact that you have over a hundred styles tells me that it is likely that's part of the problem. Plus, if that document is that large, it is likely getting corrupted when you try to compile it. The Normal.dot template may also be part of the problem.
You have a couple of choices. can "clean" the Word document by reducing the number of styles (first method), and breaking it up into several documents (by sections or something), and then apply a new template to it. Or (second method), you can convert it to RTF and strip out all the formatting and start over (not recommended except as a last resort!)
I'd try the first method. Before you start, though, you should rename your Normal.dot (Normal.dot old or something) and then delete the Normal.dot template. Then, in Word:
1. Create a new template with a minimum number of styles (with standard style names) Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, Normal, and then whatever speciality styles you need, like Bullet, Numbered, and so on. But keep it simple. You can add styles later if you need more.
2. Break up the original document by copying each section into a >new< document based on the >new template<, but avoid copying the first and last character (from the very beginning and end of final page) from the original document. Save the old doc in case you need it.
3. Apply the new template to the documents. Open Tools-->Templates and Add ins, open the new template, and copy all the styles from the new template to the new document. You will be prompted to overwrite the existing styles (if there are any, and there usually is). Say Yes.
4. In each document, search and replace to convert any existing styles that made it over to the new documents to the basic styles in the new template. (For example, Find --> Body Indented -- Replace --> Normal, Find--> Bullet -- Replace --Bullet to get the new style applied).
5. Delete all unused styles from the Styles panel when you are finished.
6. Check for and remove any manual page endings. Save the document.
In Robohelp:
1. Create a new RoboHelp project and start adding the documents, one at a time.
2. Convert each Heading 1 to a Topic. Make sure the Robohelp template is applying the styles.
3. Rebuild the TOC
4. Compile and generate for each document.
5. Check to be sure the document shows up in the document list panel.
It's important to rebuild the TOC each time you add a document. It may be that only one part of the original doc is causing a problem, and this will let you know if there are further problems that were missed. (You can arrange the TOC, but do that last because you will be rebuilding every time you add a document.)
If a document you add shows in the Project panel, but does not show a plus sign and Heading 1 topics, then there is still something wrong with the document. Check for and delete any manual page endings, save, and compile again.
It sounds long, but it takes less time than you would think :-) I know.
If you can't get any of this to work, please reply off list and I will try to help you directly on the phone if you need it. I think that's everything, but if I think of more, I'll send it along.
Good luck, and I hope the instructions make sense.
PT
On 12/15/06, Sara Stewart <sara -at- sara-stewart -dot- com <mailto:sara -at- sara-stewart -dot- com>> wrote:
Hi, everyone,
I'm a new RHW user and having a terrible time with it:
I inherited a file from the previous TW at the company where I'm
consulting, and it is completely a mess. I've also added about 10K
words to it and a bunch of screenshots.
I keep getting Word Error Code 1257 intermittently when I try to save
the file (and I did consult the Adobe knowledge base to find a fix for
it, and then turn all autosave functions in Word off as suggested, but
it keeps happening). When I get this error code, it claims that the file
is in use by another process and it won't save. If I try to close the
file, I can't save it, and sometimes it crashes my machine.
On top of that, when I reopen my projects, all the topic links are
broken and the .cnt file is missing. I have tried resolving the links,
one at a time, and I'm having trouble getting them inserted in the
correct places in the document. Is there any way to automate or speed up
the process? I have a 40 000 word help document with 288 topics.
Can anyone tell me a) what's going on and why this is happening, and b)
how I can fix it with a minimal amount of pain and anguish? I have tried
manually rebuilding the file in RHW (and I got Word Error 1257 again,
then my manually-rebuilt file was corrupted). I have tried
(re)importing
the .doc source file into RHHTML and RHWord, and it crashed both times.
I am using Word 2000. I don't know what version the original file was
built in; the company seems to have several.
I don't even know what's wrong, but I think there are potentially
several problems here:
1) My version of Word is incompatible with the file somehow and/or with
RoboHelp;
2) The original file is a mess (there are 143 styles in it, which I
didn't do, for instance) which means it won't import cleanly;
3) The file is overwhelming my system resources (it's 1.2GB,
approximately);
4) I've done something in RoboHelp that is causing the problem and I
can't diagnose it or fix it because I don't know the app that well.
The only possible solution I've come up with so far is to rebuild the
entire file basically from scratch in RHHTML, and I really don't want to
do that if I don't have to. Help?
Thanks,
Sara Stewart
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References:
RoboHelp Word Errors and Malfunctions: From: Sara Stewart
Re: RoboHelp Word Errors and Malfunctions: From: Pro TechWriter
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