File comparison for RoboHelp?

Is there a way to do a file comparison for RoboHelp projects?
I've read in the online help that you can do a file comparison if
you're using version control software, which we're not. Our
reviewers would like a way to see what has changed between
versions.
Thanks.

I have always been impatient with editors and reviewers who
insist on changes being flagged. In my view, this is the lazy
person's way of doing a half-hearted job. They don't want to look
at anything but the changes. I wouldn't handle my contributors that
way; why let reviewers off the hook?
The underlying assumption is the material was at least
correct, if not perfect, before changes and doesn't warrant a
second look. A foolish assumption. Additionally, this approach will
fail to spot contradictions and inconsistencies between new
material and earlier text that wasn't revised.
Yet I can and will suggest a tool, one I would never use for
editorial review, that pinpoints with dead-on accuracy any
differences between files.
It's useful for controlling the publishing process and for
checking back on what RH has published between versions.
An inexpensive application available on the Web is Beyond
Compare. It will let you set up side-by side (or above-and-below)
comparisons with options for various degrees of control, such as
file revision level, date/time stamps, file size and so on. You can
flag files that differ by checksum or as little as a binary value.
You can open a mismatched pair and review differences line by line.
You can even suppress the display of files and lines with no
changes.
That's my rant for today. Good luck.
Harvey

Similar Messages

.dot Files and Adobe RoboHelp 9 for HTML

I have a problem that I have been discussing with Adobe Technical Support for over a month now and I do not seem to be getting anywhere with them.
The problem is this, I have a large help system that I have authored under RoboHelp 8 and Windows XP. In it I have 8 Single Source Layouts, 4 that generate HTML Web Help and 4 that generate Printed Documentation.
When I used RoboHelp 8 it generated the printed documentation using Word 2007. My company recently upgraded all of our systems to Windows 7 and Office 2010 (64-bit) and when they did that I found out that RoboHelp 8 was incompatible with Word 2010, so I called up Adobe and they suggested I upgrade to RoboHelp 9, which I did. I now have Robohelp Version 9.02 on my new machine. Unfortunately, my RoboHelp project still does not generate all of the printed documentation the way I want it to.
Initially, 3 out of the 4 Single Source Layouts generated printed documentation fine, but the fourth one actually caused a crash in Word 2010 and I received the complilation error from RoboHelp 9 that said "failed to generate Filename.docx" or something like that. I called Adobe Technical Support and they had me uninstall Office 2010 (64-bit) and install Office 2010 (32-bit). That solved the crashing problem, but the specific single source layout that caused the problem still doesn't generate the printed documentation correctly. There are missing pages and pages in incorrect order and ghost pages that I don't even expect to be there.
The Support Desk person feels, and I believe he is correct, that it has to to with the template file that I am using. That template file is pretty complicated, involving macros and fancy styles. I did not create the .dot file myself, I came to the project after someone else had already done it, so I am not that familiar with how the template file was created. Moreover, the Adobe Technical support fellow also seems not to know much about Word template files, so at this point we are sort of at an impasse, where he is claiming that the problem lies in my .dot file, and I am claiming that even if that is the case, RoboHelp should work with all .dot files, and moreover, why does my template file work with 3 out of 4 of my single source layouts?
Anyway, we need to break this impasse somehow, does anyone out there have any helpful suggestions?

I think you are misunderstanding how the forum works. You say "your developers." Nearly all posts here are handled by users of the product, such as myself. Adobe staff do drop in from time to time and we always welcome their intimate product knowledge.
Anything you regard as a bug or needing a feature change needs to be fed direct to Adobe.
http://www.Adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform&product=38
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
@petergrainge

File comparison tool for Windows 8.1?

I'm looking for a file comparison tool. I'm on Windows 8.1 Pro (Upgrade). There was a program called Windiff. Is it still available, and functional for Win 8.1? If so, where do I get it? If not, or if there's anything better, what should I use? Thanks
in advance for any help.

Hi,
It's ok to use fc command:
>fc /?
Compares two files or sets of files and displays the differences between
them
FC [/A] [/C] [/L] [/LBn] [/N] [/OFF[LINE]] [/T] [/U] [/W] [/nnnn]
   [drive1:][path1]filename1 [drive2:][path2]filename2
FC /B [drive1:][path1]filename1 [drive2:][path2]filename2
/A         Displays only first and last lines for each set of differences.
/B         Performs a binary comparison.
/C         Disregards the case of letters.
/L         Compares files as ASCII text.
/LBn       Sets the maximum consecutive mismatches to the specified
             number of lines.
/N         Displays the line numbers on an ASCII comparison.
/OFF[LINE] Do not skip files with offline attribute set.
/T         Does not expand tabs to spaces.
/U         Compare files as UNICODE text files.
/W         Compresses white space (tabs and spaces) for comparison.
/nnnn      Specifies the number of consecutive lines that must match
             after a mismatch.
[drive1:][path1]filename1
             Specifies the first file or set of files to compare.
[drive2:][path2]filename2
             Specifies the second file or set of files to compare.
Kate Li
TechNet Community Support

File comparison utility for OS X

In Dreamweaver CS6 on Mac OS X Lion, what file comparison utility should I use and what is the path to it (for the Preferences setting? I have TextWrangler installed via the App Store, but selecting that does nothing. There is supposed to be a twdiff command line program installed but it can't be found on my Mac.

delaneypub wrote:
In Dreamweaver CS6 on Mac OS X Lion, what file comparison utility should I use and what is the path to it (for the Preferences setting? I have TextWrangler installed via the App Store, but selecting that does nothing. There is supposed to be a twdiff command line program installed but it can't be found on my Mac.
What do you need it for? As I understand it, you no longer need it.
<http://www.reedolsen.com/mac-os-x-file-comparison-software-no-longer-needed/>
Please tell us what exactly you are trying to do so that a better approach can be given.
Good luck.

Good file comparison app for mac

I've been using Dreamweaver for years but have never set up an app for file comparison. I don't even know where to start or what to look for. Any suggestions?

I chose DifMerge. It is great and very fast. Registration is now half price. Tried FileMerge, also nice but xcode has a lot more overhead on my MacBook Pro R. There are versions for Windows and Linux

File Update Crashes Robohelp

This is a persistent problem that I've had from Day One of
using this product. And yes, I have all updates installed.
I am able to create the RH project and copy by reference the
FM book, and generate webhelp alright, but occasionally and for no
apparent reason, when I update a single file (chapter) in RH, the
update goes to an unspecified point and crashes the program. Every
subsequent update of that file results in the same crash. Now I am
afraid to update the entire book for fear of corrupting the entire
project. When I re-open the RH project following the crash, all the
cross-reference markers in the updated file appear in RH as red
boxes. Does this indicate a problem with a specific cross-reference
in the FM source file?
Any help would be greatly appreciated as the amount of manual
post-synchronization work in the converted RH files is significant
(due to Chinese translation). By the way, other larger FM files in
the same project updated successfully (and were also subject to the
same Chinese translation process), so I'm at a loss as to the cause
of this problem. It must be in the specific FM source file
somewhere.

Hi there
The tenor of your post would seem to infer you believe the Adobe engineers are intently watching the forums in search of issues like yours to address. I'm basing that from your statements:
michaelscohen wrote:
Please Adobe, answer this question and/or address this persistent problem...
...Adobe, where the heck are you on this? You have long-time customers getting increasingly angry and considering a move to a different software vendor for a solution.
The fact is, these forums aren't the place to seek help from Adobe. Sure some of the Adobe staff will visit here from time to time, but if you really want them to see the issue, you need to submit it via the proper channel. That channel is called the Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form.
Click here to visit the Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form
Largely these forums are user-to-user support.
Cheers... Rick
Click here for Adobe Authorized Captivate and RoboHelp HTML Training
Click here for the SorcerStone Blog
Click here for RoboHelp and Captivate eBooks

Very slow Word file import on RoboHelp HTML 8

Hello,
I am currently using RoboHelp HTML 8.0.2 on Vista 64-bit and when I import Word files (both .doc and .docx) it takes a really long time to complete (10-15 minutes for a 200pg/50topic/10MB Word file). Is this normal? At the end of the process it says "Updating Word file..." on the progress bar, and hangs up here for ~10 minutes. What exactly happens during this stage?
The Word file has a bunch of pictures and equations in it, was made using Word 2007, and is a pretty normal file otherwise.
Let me know if you guys need more information.
Andy

That is a pretty big document but it does still seem quite a time. You don't say what happens if you import smaller docs into a test project. Is the doc local?
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
@petergrainge

Changing the display name of project file folders for TOC

I'm interested in changing the display names of the project file folders for my TOC. For example, I want to name the folder "01-intro" so that it is short and lowercase. But I'd like the TOC to say "Introduction to the System." I know I can manually rename the folder in the TOC either through its properties or by right-clicking => Rename, but I auto-create the TOC occasionally and I don't want to have to rename every folder every single time.
Does anyone know if there is a way to set a persistent property for the folder so that its display name in the TOC is different? I am using RoboHelp 9. I saw an option called "Detail" in the properties of the WebHelp layout in RoboHelp 8 that seems like it may have done that, but I no longer see this property in RoboHelp 9.
Any assistance would be much appreciated. Thank you.

I think the lack of response confirms that if you are going to use Auto Create, you have to accept the way it is.
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
@petergrainge

How do i change the HTML file names for existing index

Hi,
How do i change my existing HTML file names for indexes. The Html file name is disabled when we click on properties.
Ex: Index Keywork : Architecture
Old HTML Page/URL =: Architecture.htm
I want to change Old HTML Page/URL =: Architecture.htm to architecture_new.htm
Please find the screenshot attached.

That's because you are looking at the Properties and that is not how you create index entries.
Highlight the Index keyword ("Paste" in this example). It shows below what is already linked. If you delete that, the keyword will be displayed in bold to show no keyword is attached. You can add further keywords by dragging them from the Topic List.
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
@petergrainge

Internet Exploer 11 suddenly isn't showing my Table of Contents or Index for RoboHelp 10 output

I generated a WebHelp project with Adobe RoboHelp 10 last November. I had no problems with the TOC or index. Whenever I try to view output today, IE won't show the left pane with the list of topics in the Table of Contents. It also doesn't show index tags. I have no problem viewing this same output in Mozilla Firefox. I just set Firefox to be my default browser b/c it is so frustrating that I can't immediately view changes to my help project. Has anyone else experienced issues with IE 11? I even cleared cookies and the cache, and I still can't see my TOC and index. This never happened before.

Hi,
Thanks to the forums I have found useful patches for RoboHelp 10 (sample links are below). I find that even after installing the latest AdobePatchInstaller.exe fix for RoboHelp 10 that I have to overwrite the whutil.js file in my !SSL! WebHelp_PRO output folder every single time I need to check changes in my output in the browser. I just want to confirm that there is no better workaround than manually copying whutil.js every time I generate my output to check it. Thanks.
RoboHelp Patches and Updates | WvanWeelden.eu
https://helpx.adobe.com/robohelp/kb/webhelp-output-issues-firefox-35.html

Do integrity checks by file comparison really work?

Hello,
I use a program (Beyond Compare) which has a Folder Compare module, with a function for doing a binary comparison between the files inside two folders. I use it to check the integrity of my backups, by comparing my main hard disk files, with the ones on
the backup hard disks. If two files get recognized as being different, then one of them should be corrupt (if they didn't get modified "normally").
My question is: will this method work to detect real file corruptions? Will it detect any kind of corruption, both copy corruptions, and "bit rot" corruptions? Will there be no problem regarding read cache? I mean: if the first file to compare gets read
from disk, and is kept in a read cache (by Windows or by the hard disk, or by something else), will the second file get read from the same cache (if Windows or the hard disk think they are identical files)? Do Windows and hard disks have some kind of procedure
to detect if a file to read from disk is already available in cache, even if it is in a different folder than the "original" one? Perhaps some kind of file-checksum-system which decides that the files are same? (And this system would not notice if the file
to compare is corrupt). If this would be true, then integrity checks by file comparison would not work, because in practice the same file would be read twice (first from disk, and then from cache), instead of reading both the two files to be compared from
disk.
I have already done tests by manually "corrupting" files (changing slightly the contents, while keeping size and timestamp the same), and it works (the files get recognized as different). But I'm not sure if it will work also with "real" corrupt files.
I'm interested mostly about Windows 8 Pro 64bit and NTFS (but would like to know also in general).
Thanks.

I also have Beyond Compare and have used it to check backup data.
Yes, Windows does RAM caching. If you have a comparison program read enough file data that you
can be sure the RAM cache is flushed, then you can be sure that reading the file data back and comparing it with the original data is a valid way to ensure you have uncorrupted backups.
Note that NTFS now does online recovery, so just the act of reading back the data can trigger processes inside the file system implementation that will recover the data if it should start to experience "bit rot" (weakening or failure of the
storage medium). But this is not strictly necessary as other operations, such as defragmentation etc., will occasionally access the disk data as well.
Some time back I wrote a small utility that calculates a CRC-32 on all the data from all the files in a set of folders. This is another way that re-reading all the data can be triggered, as well as producing a summary number that can be easily
compared to determine that all is well - though one doesn't need my software to do it... There are hash programs available that can accomplish the same things. Search for SHA-1 programs, but beware there can be malware associated with free programs
and download sites.
It's good that people think about data integrity. There's all too little of that nowadays.
-Noel
Detailed how-to in my eBooks:
Configure The Windows 7 "To Work" Options
Configure The Windows 8 "To Work" Options

File naming in RoboHELP 8

Hi all,
In my most recent thread I was advised about naming of output files in a merged project and how they should not contain underscores or non alphanumeric characters. Please can people advise whether this should extend to any or all of the following:
xpj project name
topic filenames (these show underscores if you insert a space in the fielname or if a duplicate of the topics title is used which always includes spaces.
graphics file names i.e screenshots included in the project
Thanks.

You only have to avoid underscores in the CHM name.
It is best to avoid spaces in filenames but not mandatory. Underscores are OK in topic filenames and the XPJ. In a new project the CHM default to the same as the XPJ but you can change it in the wizard.
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
@petergrainge

Is there a user guide for Robohelp 7?

I've used Robohelp before, but now am faced with having to create a stylesheet. I've tried using the Help but it seems to make assumptions that I've done created .css before. For example, the kinds of things that I can find no information on:
What is the Design Editor? I can't seem to find it to be able to create an external style sheet.
In the "Create a style sheet" topic, you must first click style sheet, but the style sheet button isn't enabled.
Bottom line: I'm looking for all inclusive documentation that will give me concepts and procedures for creating a style sheet.
Thanks for your assistance.

Thank you so much for sharing these resources with me. I have viewed
Adobe's tutorials on a number of topics and where their documentation
falls short of the mark, the tutorials are excellent. I can't wait to dig
into them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mary K. Greer
Information Developer - Learning Management Solutions
Intelligent Automation Solutions Client Services
407.771.8187
lwright18 <[email protected]>
07/21/2009 01:22 PM
Please respond to
[email protected]
To
Mary Greer/CIMG/CVG@CVG
cc
Subject
Is there a user guide for Robohelp 7?
Hi..
I COMPLETELY understand your frustration, because i've just gone through
the same ordeal.
Its impossible to figure out how to import frame files into RH and how to
use style sheets from the on-line help, because as you said, you only get
bits and pieces of information out of context, and many of the
descriptions of settings don't explain what they are for/do. Its the same
old paradox; the only way you can understand the on-line help is if you
already understand the product; in which case you wouldn't need the online
help.
What finally helped me to get a basic grasp of the mysteries of style
sheets, etc. was the tutorial: "Adobe Technical Communication Suite
Getting Started series - Part 3: FrameMaker 8 and RoboHelp7: …" @
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/robohelp. (it runs about an hour and a half).
It explains how to enter and apply custom style sheet settings, mapping,
etc. and should probably clear up your confusion.
The only thing I STILL not certain about though, is what relationship, if
any, template (.htt) files have to do with anything, and whether they
relate to .css files. So i'd appreciate it if another poster can shed some
enlightenment on that.

Are .FLV Files Supported in RoboHelp?

Are Flash Video (.flv) files supported in RoboHelp 7, or do
we still have to use other types? I tried inserting one into a
topic page just to see, but noticed that the .flv file type isn't
in the "Files of type" drop down field.
Thanks.

At present, this is correct. You can upload and download .swf and .flv files like all other files. Creative Cloud has additional functionality around certain file types that enables you to view individual layers (.psd) or artboards (.ai) or pages (.pdf, .indd) directly in the browser. We will be adding additional capabilities like this for other formats in the future.

Synchronizing Frame files updates in RoboHelp?

I created a RoboHelp WebHelp project using Frame source files
and generated WebHelp. Now I've updated several Frame files and for
some reason the updates to the Frame files are not showing up in my
RoboHelp project. I thought updates to my Frame source could be
propagated into RoboHelp easily. (When I created the project, I
imported the Frame source files). Does anyone know how to
synchronize udpates in Frame to the RH files?

Welcome to the forum but please don't cross post. Only one
post will get answered so someone searching might see an unanswered
post and conclude no answer was found. The truth could be the
duplicate post did get answered.
Anyone helping with this question, please post to the other
thread at
http://tinyurl.com/2xflsj

File comparison for RoboHelp?

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