Generating hlp files in RoboHelp HTML

Is it possible to generate .hlp files from RoboHelp HTML version 9? We're generating help files for an older program that only uses .hlp or .chm files. I've only been able to generate .hlp files from RoboHelp for Word, and I don't really want to use it any more. But I haven't been able to generate .hlp files from RoboHelp HTML.
Thanks.

Hello PP
I'll be happy to hazard a guess as to why RoboHelp doesn't "do" WinHelp. It has to do with the history of RoboHelp. Way back around 1992 or so, RoboHelp existed largely as a plug-in to Microsoft Word that made it a lot easier to create WinHelp files. Basically it was a set of macros that formatted the arcane coding necessary inside Word documents that made things work for the WinHelp compiler.
HTML emerged later on and the first version of RoboHelp HTML was born. This created an entirely new format and an entirely new application (RoboHelp HTML or RoboHTML) was born. HTML help was the new kid on the block. As such, I'm guessing the developers were sort of watching to see if or how much it would "catch on".
So the application code bases were totally different. And remain so to this day. As Microsoft has taken measures to try and dissuade folks from using WinHelp, I'm sure RoboHelp for Word is likely on life support and probably has been for some time. RoboHelp for Word and RoboHelp HTML work in totally different ways. And given the fact Microsoft wants WinHelp gone, it simply doesn't make any sense to expend effort on making RoboHelp HTML capable of outputting WinHelp.
Cheers... Rick
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Similar Messages

Importing FrameMaker 7.2 files to RoboHelp HTML doesn't work

Hello,
When trying to import FM 7.2 files to RoboHelp HTML 10, I get the following message:
"This operation cannot be completed without FrameMaker. Install FrameMaker and try again."
I have FrameMaker 7.2 installed. So why am I getting this message? More importantly, why isn't it working?
Many thanks in advance for any helpful advice!
Donna
P.S.
Tried saving the book file as .mif and importing the .mif, but again got that message.

I don't know the answer to your question but I think what Matt was getting at is that if you download the trial onto another machine it will not affect your existing setup but will allow you to see if version compatibility is the problem. 7 is an old version so it would not surprise me that RoboHelp 10 will not play nicely with it. Although I am not a FM user, I do have FM11 and will be happy to upgrade your document if that will help. See the Contact page on my site and send the file as instructed there. Do make sure you include a link to this thread and please do not email the file direct.
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
@petergrainge

Can I generate .hlp files

We just upgraded to Frame 9 (from 7.1) and RoboHelp 8. Prior to the upgrade, I was using WebWorks to generate my .hlp files - is there a way to generate .hlp and .cnt files with RH8?
Thanks in advance!
Debby

Hi there
Sounds like you are creating 32 bit WinHelp files. If you want to switch to 16 bit WinHelp files, the viewer is already present on Vista and Windows 7, so no download would be needed and WinHelp would still work.
Whether WebWorks allows you to choose between 16 and 32 bit WinHelp files is another matter... Rick
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Linking to .hlp topics from RoboHelp HTML 6

We have a comprehensive help file for our CADD systems built
in RoboHelp 6 for Word that has been compiled to WinHelp 2000
(.hlp) format. We now want to link to specific topic from a project
being built in RoboHelp HTML 6. This is easy to do in RoboHelp 6
for Word but I cannot find out how to do this in the HTML version.
Any help is greatly appreciated, and please dumb down the
responses, I will be appreciative not offended.
Thanks,
Kelly

Hi Kelly and welcome to our community
Whether you may do this will depend on whether you are
creating WebHelp or a Compiled .CHM output. I don't believe it will
work with WebHelp. If you are creating a compiled .CHM, first off
make sure your primary layout is configured for Microsoft HTML
Help. If it isn't, you won't see the option I'm about to point you
to.
Once you cross that hurdle, click inside a topic and choose
Insert > HTML Help Controls > WinHelp Topic...
Hopefully that helps some... Rick

Generating XSD files from an HTML form......

What is the best way to generate XML Schema files from an HTML form? Are there any APIs, Frameworks, software products, that already do this for you? What is the best way to do this programmatically?
I was thinking about using DOM...
Any help and/or advice will be greatly appreciated...
With thanks,
Unnsse Khan

users select what they want in their schemas
If the Schema info is added in a JSP.
Element Name: elementA
Data Type: string
Sub-Elements(Sequence): elementB, elementC
The field values may be retreived with with the getParameter method.
String elementName=request.getParameter("ElementName");
String type=request.getParameter("DataType");
From the values retreived a Schema may be constructed with the org.w3c.dom.* classes.

Import InDesign files into RoboHelp HTML

Hello,
My company is moving toward online help. We currently use InDesign to author our manuals and then export them to pdf for publication. I've been on the phone with Adobe trying to see if there's a way to easily import InDesign into RoboHelp. We're on an older version of RoboHelp, so I'm told this is possible, but I can't get any help until we buy RoboHelp9. I know that we can import our pdfs into RoboHelp--I'm just wondering if there's a way to import InDesign files directly into RoboHelp. Has anyone tried to do this? Anyone have any suggestions? It seems these two programs should play nice together, doesn't it?
Louley

Hi there
To my knowledge it is not possible to accomplish. I've been using RoboHelp since 1992 and I've never seen it done.
The only way I can fathom it working would be if InDesign could save as an HTML page. Then import the HTML. Or possibly produce a PDF from InDesign, then import that. But even importing the PDF may not give you the results you want.
Cheers... Rick
Helpful and Handy Links
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Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7, 8 or 9 within the day!
Adobe Certified RoboHelp HTML Training
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Generated Word document from Robohelp HTML

Hi Everyone,
I have two questions regarding the word document i have
generated from RH HTML.
First, in my Word document which i have generated from RH
HTML my footer is not displaying the one i have used in online
help.
Second, the hyperlinks i have in my online help, they are
also not displaying in the Word document.
I would appreciate if anybody who knows the answer to it and
can please let me know.
Thanks

Headers and footers are not transferred across.
Hyperlinks are only available in RH6 or better.
Take a look at the topic on Printed Documentation on my site.

"RoboHelp for Word" vs "RoboHelp HTML"

Hi all,
I note there are two flavors for RoboHelp (wrt also working
with Word + importing + exporting):
- RoboHelp for Word
- RoboHelp HTML
Questions:
1. Am I right that it seems you can do everything with
RoboHelp HTML that you can do with RoboHelp for Word?
2. If not (1, above), what are the relative advantages and
disadvantages of each for starting a new RoboHelp project?
3. Is there a reason for ever trying to change application
for an existing RoboHelp project, and would there be expected any
particular conversion problems?
Tia,
- avi

Welcome to our community, Avi
I see you posted the question here as well as the TechShoret
list. I further see you have at least one reply over on TechShoret.
Here are my thoughts. Yes, you can do most of what RoboHelp
for Word can do using RoboHelp HTML. I say "Most" here because
there are a couple of things you can't do. You can't easily create
a .HLP file using RoboHelp HTML. RoboHelp HTML doesn't offer tabs
like you can use with RoboHelp for Word.
Now I realize that may sound a bit as if I'm saying that
RoboHelp for Word is superior to RoboHelp HTML. I'm not. As with
anything in life, there are trade offs and things to consider. In
this case, I would say you should consider the output type.
Most everything is moving away from WinHelp (.HLP files) and
toward an HTML based format. I noted the TechShoret reply mentioned
that with RoboHelp for Word, everything is stored in a single Word
file, vs having multiple HTML files with RoboHelp HTML. While this
is true, I would say that if your output is going to be HTML based,
you should seriously consider using an editor that was designed
from the ground up to support HTML. Let's face it. Anything HTML
coming from Word is a kludge, as Word was designed for print. There
are also some things that will constantly frustrate you if you
elect to use RoboHelp for Word and are creating HTML output.
So while it may seem an attractive option to use, I'd suggest
avoiding RoboHelp for Word and going with RoboHelp HTML.
Sincerely... Rick

RoboHelp HTML does not generate .chm file

We have a large help system for F1 help with about 2,000 help
topics in about 50 different Word .doc files. We had used RoboHelp
for Word previously, but with the goal of generating a single .chm
help file, we tried using RoboHelp HTML to change the Word .doc
files to .htm files. RoboHelp HTML does this conversion and creates
2,000 .htm files.
When we try to generate the .chm file for the help system,
RoboHelp for HTML does not respond and does not create the .chm
file. Is RoboHelp HTML not capable of handling such a big help
system? Are there any workarounds to generate the .chm file
successfully?

Peter, thanks for your input. Here's where we are. We opened
RoboHelp HTML and converted the Word docs into .html files. Then we
were able to generate the .chm file (it worked this time) using
RoboHelp HTML. We have about 50 .gif images, and no external links.
The actual number of HTML files with help topics is close to
4,000 for this F1 field help in our application. Ideally, we would
love to have a master project with sub-projects, but it doesn't
appear as a practical alternative. The .hh file (for F1 field help)
is generated from the application by the developer and given to us.
In order to have a master project and slave projects, we
would have to manually split that automatically-generated.hh file
into individual .hh files, true? That means we would have to
correlate which .html help topic file corresponds with which map id
number, then chalk out how we want to divide the .html help topics
into individual projects that correspond to their .hh files?
This help system I inherited is 10 years old, and the
resource time we would spend (if we chose to modularize this help
system) would be gigantic in scope. If there is a simpler and
efficient way to modularize our F1 help system, I would love to
hear about it!

Robohelp HTML crashes after emptying a project

Hi,
I use Framemaker to do most of my authoring, and then import
the files into RoboHelp HTML to generate the HTML help. As the
first step in importing the files, I delete all the topics, TOC
entries, and IX entries from the RoboHelp project. If I don't do
this, I end up with duplicates all over the project.
After I empty out the project, and try to save it, RH goes
belly up and I have to click through two sets of the "Adobe
Robohelp 7 has encountered a problem and needs to close" dialog
boxes. Having clicked "Send Error Report" a dozens of times, I'm
wondering if there is anything else I can do about this problem.
Thanks,
John B.

Hi all
John, I couldn't help but notice that you said you are trying
to delete
ALL content from the project. And here is where my gut is
telling me the issue lies.
My thought is that you might take the following approach.
Create a single topic. One that will never exist in Framemaker.
Only in RoboHelp. Then forget about that topic. Never delete it or
anything. Then when you do your clean out, I'd take this approach.
Flush the TOC and the Index. Shouldn't matter which order you
use. Just that you flush these first. I say flush these, as they
depend on the content in the topics.
Flush the Topics. Well, all but the single topic that should
remain.
My thought here is that if you are deleting everything from
the system, RoboHelp is going belly up with no topics. And if you
deleted the Topics first, RoboHelp may be gagging on gobs of
updates as it wildly is trying to track all the sudden broken links
to TOC and Index items. That's why I suggested these as a first
step.
Please give that a go and let us know if it helps... Rick

RoboHelp HTML 11 Webhelp output not compatible with IE9?

We recently updated our software Help files using RoboHelp HTML 11. Today our customer support team received a call from a customer that cannot access the Help files from his system. He is using IE9 and an older version of Chrome, and cannot view Help in either browser. The customer refuses to update the browser on his server, presumably because he's afraid something else won't work if he does. I can sympathize with that, since there are certain applications on my own system that are incompatible with IE11, so I've had to roll back to 10. So, I know the files work on IE10, IE11, Firefox and the latest version of Chrome. Searching through the discussions, I found one that indicated that RoboHelp 11 required IE9 or above; if so, it's odd that it won't work. Do you have any suggestions of what I can do that might help the customer?

Sorry, different thread – I thought Willam had posted site’s article reference on this one (it’s here - http://www.wvanweelden.eu/articles/robohelp-patches-and-updates).
I think you may need to do a bit of exploration on what’s going on at the client site to see what they’re getting. You may want them to clear out their cache to refresh what they’re getting when they access your help. You also probably want them to have a look at what zone their IE9 thinks you help is located in & if they’ve enabled ActiveX and JavaScript (not Java) in their browsers.

Robohelp HTML 8 - Generating files with apostrophe in file name

Before I start, I have read this thread
http://forums.adobe.com/message/1062904#1062904 and several others, yet I still have questions.
Previously I used Robohelp 5x, which worked perfectly. Our user manuals are in MS Word and each have several topics that have apostrophes in the topic name (that are necessary in the topic). Robohelp 5x would import the Word Document without issue and create HTML files that automatically replaced the apostrophe with an underscore. All references (Index, TOC, etc) to those files also automatically changed to underscore.
Fast Forward to Robohelp 8.0.2 (yes, I have the update). Even if I go into the options and make sure "Use Underscores in file names" is selected - it no longer replaces the apostrophe with an underscore (though it does replace the spaces with underscores).
Locally, when I generate the online help (WebHelp) and put it on our local webserver - it works just fine. Even with the apostrophes in the file names and references.
However, when the WebHelp files are hosted at our server hosting facility, any links within the Webhelp to files with an apostrophe result in a 404 error. I have searched and searched to see if there is some kind of server setting to allow these special characters to be recognized in the file name but have not had any luck.
Per the link at the beginning of this post, the issue in that thread was resolved by changing the file name of the HTML files. I attempted to change the file name of the HTML files that RoboHelp created. However as far as I can tell there is no way to do this within RoboHelp 8. If I attempt to do it outside of RoboHelp 8, I need to import all of the "new" HTML files and all references (Table of Contents, Index, etc) now show broken links and need to be re-linked to this new topic. This is not an option. I have 12 user manuals that are updated on a regular basis and the renaming\relinking process would take forever.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
-Noob

I was able to log into the server hosting facility and look at the html files themeslves.
It appears that at some point (between when I created them locally and now) all of the apostrophes in the file names were changed to "Æ". This blew my mind. And sure enough if I plug in the URL and replace the apostrophe with "Æ" the page shows up just fine.
From what I've been reading it looks like that may be related to the conversion from MS Word and "Smart Quotes". I'm looking into that now, but any help would still be great.
Thanks,
-noob

New version no longer generates .cnt, .fts, or .hlp files?

Hi! I inherited a project to update a Help application that hasn't been touched in 7 years. I'm not sure what version the old one was in, I think it might have been 5, but I'm using Robohelp HTML version 7. It seemed to convert my files fine and I've made my changes. These are the output options I have available:
WebHelp
WebHelp Pro
FlashHelp
FlashHelp Pro
Microsoft HTML Help
XML Output
The developer who links to the Help application from his program is looking for three files ending in .cnt, .fts., and .hlp. When I outputted mine to WebHelp (which is what I normally use), these three files were not created. I researched the .cnt, .fts., and .hlp file types and discovered that they all seem to be opened primarily by Microsoft Help applications. This made me think that maybe I should be outputting the files as # 5, Microsoft HTML Help. Alas, none of the three required files were generated using this output method, either. For good measure, I tried publishing the files as each of the 6 output options but no luck, the three required files were not generated using any of these methods.
This is making me think that maybe in the last 7 years, Robohelp has made some changes and it's no longer possible to output .cnt, .fts., or .hlp files. Is this true? If so, I'll have to get the developer to change his code to point to some other file type, perhaps the Microsoft HTML Help .chm file. If it's not true, can anyone tell me how to generate these three files? Thanks!

What your developers are using is a WinHelp file. This is produced from the RoboHelp for Word application rather than the RoboHelp HTML application. Don't worry though as you still have this as part of Robohelp 7. Just look inside your All Programs list for it. It uses Word as the editor and produces the files your require. Of course your developer could also change the application to start using Webhelp which would negate you doing anything ;-)
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RoboHelp HTML 9.0.2.271 crashes when opening .htm files

Hello. I'm using RoboHelp HTML 9.0.2.271. When opening a certain RH project (I have three that I access regularly), the project opens fine, but when I try to open any of the topic files, RH hangs/crashes. I can perform any other tasks in the project (generating, publishing, updating the browse sequence, etc.), but I can't open any .htm files. In trying to fix this problem, I have:
Updated from 9.0 to first 9.0.1 then 9.0.2
Renamed the .cpd file
Imported one of the topics in the crashing project to a project that isn't crashing
Updating and renaming the .cpd file didn't work and importing the topic into a healthy project allowed the topic to open (so the topic doesn't seem corrupt).

Also using 9.0.2.271, I had exactly the same problem: open project, double-click a topic in the Topic List pane... crash.
However, immediately after opening the project I had Windows 7's blue 'busy' doughnut symbol constantly flashing under the mouse pointer. This is described (for RH8) in Peter Grainge's description on his excellent website (RoboHelp > Opening RoboHelp Projects). The same topic mentions the .hhp file, so I checked the contents of mine...
At the very end, in the [MERGE FILES] section, it listed two other .chm files; one which was supposed to be there, and one which was not (Dummy.chm). I had merged Dummy.chm only during the early testing stages of my project, and had long since removed all references to it from my project. I have no idea why it was still listed in the .hhp file.
I deleted the reference to Dummy.chm from the .hhp file and regenerated the project... and Dummy.chm reappeared in the .hhp file! After deep-searching my project files using NotePad++, one remaining reference to Dummy.chm was also listed in the .xpj file:
<file>
<name>Dummy.chm</name>
<comments></comments>
</file>
So I manually removed those lines and saved the .xpj using NotePad++, reopened the project using RoboHelp, and regenerated. The rogue reference to Dummy.chm is now gone. I have opened, saved, and closed the project several times and it now seems to be reliable.
Probable cause of bug: I had recently performed a cleanup of my project folder and deleted Dummy.chm, but unknown to me I suspect RoboHelp was still looking for it when opening the project, hence the permanent 'busy' doughnut and the crash when trying to do anything else, like opening a topic.

RoboHelp HTML v9 - Browse Sequence not appearing when generated

RoboHelp HTML v9
New project - eg not converted from previous version
Added a browse sequence as per the help documentation - I've followed the help documentation however when I get to view result of the generated WebHelp - the browse sequence is not present on the topic pages that were added to the browse sequence.
I read previous forum postings for RH8 - where reinstalling or repairing the software seemed to assist - however when I access through control panel - add/remove programs the only option in to Remove RH9.
So I thought I'd ask the question here before uninstalling.
There was also mention of a dll file that needs to be registered on the viewers pc before the browse sequence would appear and if this is the case due to the possible audience for the publish I would not be able to control that.
Any help is appriciated, thanks.

Hi
Thanks - I guess I was looking for the page icons that visualized the
sequence for the viewer.
That being said - the navigation arrows are present in my published file
however seem to hold no functionality - while on a topic that is within
the browse sequence clicking the arrows does not move through the
sequence.
I was initially looking for onscreen navigation for a series of topics -
I though browse sequence would do the trick but I think I will move to
another method.
Karen Voycey, BSc
Learning Solutions Specialist | Human Resources
10 Wellington St. E. | Toronto, ON | M5E 1L5
t. 416 366 7600 x 2451|1 800 569 1163 | cell +416 568 2551
[email protected]
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From:   Captiv8r <[email protected]>
To:     Karen Voycey <[email protected]>
Date:   13/07/2011 04:52 PM
Subject:        RoboHelp HTML v9 - Browse Sequence not appearing
when generated
Hi there
Your mention of: "the browse sequence is not present on the topic pages
that were added to the browse sequence" seems to imply that you are
expecting to see the sequence directly on those pages. But that usually
won't happen.
Perhaps it will help to start by viewing the link below:
http://www.robowizard.com/RoboWizard/NewProject.htm#MonthlyScry/012006.htm
Then come back with any questions you may have.
Cheers... Rick
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Generating hlp files in RoboHelp HTML

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