Importing FrameMaker Projects in RoboHelp

Hi,
I currently have FrameMaker 6.0 and a trial version of RoboHelp HTML 8. I want to import FrameMaker files (.fm and .book) but get the error message "This operation cannot be completed without FrameMaker. Please instrall FrameMaker and try again"...but I have FrameMaker...
Thanks.

I am having the same problem. I have a RoboHelp 8 project and want to import a file from Framemaker 6.0p405.
I even opened the Framemaker book and from there launched RoboHelp. I am still getting the message:
"This operation cannot be completed without FrameMaker. Please install FrameMaker and try again."
In the RoboHelp help, it says:
"FrameMaker book files created in a version earlier than FrameMaker 6 (BK) can only be imported into RoboHelp; they cannot be linked."
So, I'm assuming that I should be able to import a Framemaker 6 file into RoboHelp 8.
Best regards,
Debbie

Similar Messages

Error trying to import FrameMaker documents into RoboHelp 8

Using FrameMaker 9 and RoboHelp 8.0.0.203 (Adobe Technical Communication Suite 2) on Microsoft Vista (w/SP2) as administrator user. I get error when attempt to import a very simple FrameMaker 9 document (not book) into a RoboHelp 8 project. Attempted import using menu command File > Import > FrameMaker Document. Error (in dialog box with "RHUtils" as title) is:
Unable to install RoboHelp plugin for FrameMaker.
Please close FrameMaker and try again.
Verified with Windows Task Manager that FrameMaker is not running. Even get error when I reboot computer and RoboHelp is the only application started. Error occurs for all FrameMaker documents. Simplest test was a FrameMaker document with one heading and one body paragraph.
Searched knowledge base and found article rb_4416 ("Importing FrameMaker Files"), which advises that best way to import FrameMaker documents is to convert them to Microsoft Word format and import those files (!?). The article does not indicate which RoboHelp versions it applies to.

Thanks. It was a new project. I only recently installed RoboHelp 8 and am in the process of familiarizing myself with the new (for me) version. So it was not a production project that was involved. But it is a feature I can see using.
I will next contact Adobe technical support on this issue.

Adobe Technical Communications Suite - Importing Framemaker Files into Robohelp

We have just started using the Adobe Technical Communications
Suite to import our Framemaker files into Robohelp. (We have about
a year’s experience of taking Framemaker files into Web Works
Publisher, with good results so we were hoping for a similar
experience with Robohelp).
Please can you help us with the following two problems:
1. Importing FM files into Robohelp has posed some immediate
table formatting problems. We imported the FM files by reference
according to the instructions but cannot format the tables, ie.
Colors etc.
2. Can you also tell us if there is a way to set up our
graphics in Framemaker to import into Robohelp without first having
to run them through a batch file scenario to change the size for
online help. Also, can you explain why the imported graphics are
being put into separate folders in Robohelp – is there a
system option where we can stop this from occurring.
We are a little frustrated because we are long-time users of
Robohelp and Framemaker and are finding some of the new features of
TCS are not as helpful as we first thought. I am sending these
questions after spending several hours going through the Robohelp
Help and the Adobe website and not finding the answers.
Thanks for your help,
Asra S.

I have purchased the Technical Communications Suite and am
working with it now. I am finding several short comings in the
product – 60% great product and 40% not so great. I have been
using FrameMaker and RoboHelp for about 11 years and also I am a
Webworks (ePublisher) user. I was expecting (at a minimum) to have
the same functionality as ePublisher in TCS - ePublisher works
seamlessly with FrameMaker. Quadralay worked with me the first
month to answer my questions to ensure I was pleased with the
product - and welcomed/appreciated my feedback. In some cases they
provided me with scripts to accommodate my needs. I am finding on
message boards and forums that a lot of users as very disappointed
with your product so far. Are there any plans on
improving/enhancing the product to accommodate our basic requests?
The standard answer we get concerning graphics and tables is
to use conditional text. This is not single-sourcing and is a
horrible recommended work-around – a hack if you will. We use
conditional text to handle differences in program functionality. I
understand there is some set up required when you create a new
project in RoboHelp, but after that I would like to run the Batch
File process to simply generate my newly updated FM files to online
help. How efficient is that? VERY!
I have provided a list of the basic missing
functionality/oversights that would greatly improve the product and
satisfy a lot of your current users. Some of these issues may be
user misunderstanding and in that case I seek guidance on what
I’m doing wrong. Take the other issues into consideration
because these are not just my issues, but a TON of your users.
Hopefully you are user focused and are as concerned as we are.
Please welcome this feedback as a way to improve the product.
- No Breadcrumbs supported with MS HTML Help - supported in
your other outputs and is available in ePublisher, so it must be
possible.
- Table formats are not configurable – why? Sometimes
the converted table format from FM isn’t 100%.
- Imported file structure (folder for each chapter) totally
hoses my fix to poor graphic rendering. Currently I use a batch
file to run a Photoshop macro/action on my graphic source files to
reduce the file size by 50% and sharpen. I replace the graphics
with my graphics and they look marvelous in online help. I copy my
source graphics back into my “graphics folder” imported
into FM at 260 dpi for my printed docs. Can we have the option on
the structure for imported FM files to put them all into one
folder?
- Text entered into the Auto numbering field is not converted
when importing by reference. It is when just doing a straight
import. This is used for standardizing my inserted tables with
pre-populated column titles– Troubleshooting, If/Then, etc.
- Too many CSS issues. It would be nice to have one main
template that we can sync to when the master template is changed.
- Can’t specify a default template to apply to all FM
files when imported.
- My output .chm file is not picking up my Project Settings.
It will not display Favorites, My Window Size, it’s not
showing the TOC.
- Cross-references – sometimes they work and sometimes
they don’t.
- Markers – we use markers for glossary terms and the
character tagging carries forward throughout the rest of the
sentence.
I started testing the product four days ago and these are the
major issues that are keeping me from moving forward with my
overall plan to move to structured FM. I’m now between a rock
and a hard place because now my department does not have the
software to do their job. Do I go to management and tell them that
I made the wrong decision in my tool selection? I choose your TCS
over the updated Quadralay ePublisher that works with FM8…
Maybe they went up on their price because the knew their former
users would come back and be willing to pay the increased price for
their software that generates online help with just a click of a
button.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and for your help
in advance. Please direct these concerns to those in charge of
enhancing the product (Product Evangelist). A reply and technical
support is greatly appreciated.
Director of Technical Publications - Horizon Software
International, LLC
Nikki Bridwell

Can't Import HTMLHelp Project using Robohelp HTML RH8

We have an HTMLHelp project that contains over 1000 HTML pages that are grouped into subfolders under the main project folder. Currently, we use the HTML Workshop to create/maintain the project files and generate the master chm. The master chm also includes baby chms that are generated using DocX or a home-grown program. Going forward, we want to start using a Help authoring tool . We downloaded a trial version of RH8. We clicked the Import option to import the project and received the following error: "The parameter is incorrect". I checked the forum and saw that other people also received this error message but for different reasons. Can you help us move forward so that we can evaluate RH8? Thanks.

Welcome to the forum.
Sorry, your post fell into the "mm, take a look at the weekend" category.
I've not seen the problem you report in connection with importing a project but it's not a RoboHelp project you are importing but you are using that option.
You have CHMs so try Reverse Engineering them. See that topic on my site. Try Method 2 first.
There is also a topic on Merging Help and the RH8 version includes merging CHMs.
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
@petergrainge

Import FrameMaker info new RoboHelp project with extendscript

Hi,
I have done the following in robohelp 11 from Adobe Technical Communication Suite 5
1) select file|new|project
2) select import tab
3) Select the FrameMaker Documents option icon
This works quit well. I get a new RoboHelp project.
I would like to do the same via a RoboHelp extendScript but I can't get it to work.
Does anyone have some hints or good exampels to be inspired from?
Thanks
Alex

It does depend on how fancy you want to make it. Creating a GUI with
file picker is quite a bit of work.
But if you only want a script to create a new project and import an FM
book, that's not too hard. For example:
RoboHelp.newProject('', 'MyProject', 'C:\temp\rh\scriptproject',
'MyProjectTitle',);
RoboHelp.project.importFrameMakerDoc('D:\FM\FMBook.bk','FMFolderinRH','D:\FM\FMBookTOC.fm' ,'RHTOCName',true,'RHIndexName','RHGlossary');
(Untested)
Run RH via command line with the script name as parameter: robohtml.exe
-x script.jsx
There is not much information on ExtendScript in RoboHelp. You can find
two introductory articles in the RoboHelp Developer Center to get you
started: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/robohelp.html
If you want to do something more advanced, I have a free RH library for
extendscript to make working with scripts easier. It includes functions
as reading/writing files, setting context sensitivity, saving settings
and more. See
http://www.wvanweelden.eu/product/robohelp-extendscript-library
Kind regards,
Willam

Best Practices for importing FrameMaker books into RoboHelp?

We are getting ready to purchase RobHelp, and I'm trying to get a head start on the conversion. We have ~600 base FrameMaker (v7) files that are pieced together to create ~11 different manuals. I've got a couple of simpler books picked out for testing purposes, but if there's a white paper or anyting on the subject floating about, I would appreciate it.

I've tried to use RH8 to produce HTML help from a FM9 book. I found that it mostly worked as advertised, with the exception of automatic TOC generation from a book TOC (which can be worked around) and disappearing HTML tags when conditional text is used (no work around found yet). I've posted about both of these issues in this forum, and while many have read my posts, no-one has yet acknowledged that they have seen similar problems or pointed out incorrect usage on my part. So I might just be mad (or furious, depending).
Before purchasing and committing to an approach, I recommend that you use the 30 day eval to thoroughly exercise these products and see if they work as advertised for you. If you need more than FM9 and RH8 (which can be downloaded as full-featured trials), then you can get a DVD of a 30 day trial of TCS2 from Adobe. I ordered the DVD and it arrived in about 3-5 days (at least, it did for me, and I'm in the USA).
-Adam

Importing Projects into RoboHelp 7

I am migrating our RoboHelp 2002 HTML Help projects into
RoboHelp 7. It seems that they import just fine, but if I
don’t save and close RoboHelp 7 and then re-open the project,
problems occur.
If I import a project and immediately try to view/edit the
Properties for a Single Source Layout (for example, right-clicking
Microsoft HTML Help>Properties), RoboHelp chugs along at a
snail’s pace. Sometimes it takes 4-6 minutes just to open the
Properties dialog box, and on other projects it takes so long that
I have to let it process overnight. This also happens if I import a
project and Generate Primary Layout (for example, compiling a CHM)
without closing and re-opening the project first.
To summarize, if I open RoboHelp, import a project, close
RoboHelp, and then re-open the project in RboHelp 7, all is well.
However, if I open RoboHelp, import a project, and then compile or
try to access the HTML Help Options dialog, it takes at about 20
times as long to complete the process.
Any feedback would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Karen

Hi Colum,
I am able to edit Project Settings, Topic Properties,
Templates, Baggage Files......pretty much everything, without
problems. I am also able to create new projects without any
processing delays. So far as I can tell, it's only when I try to
change SSL properties or compile that I run into the extremely slow
processing.
Because I can import, save, close, re-open, and then work in
the projects without any problems, I thought it may have something
to do with the .ldb file running in the background while I have the
newly imported file open for the first time.
Thanks for your quick response. Any ideas?
Karen

Images in my FrameMaker 10-sourced Robohelp Web Help project are turning out as blank JPEGS appearing as blank spaces in the final output. How can I fix this?

I'm attempting to create online help sourced from a FrameMaker 10 book using Robohelp 9 and Web Help (primary layout).
The text is interspersed with numeorus small icons which, in the FrameMaker documents, are .bmp images inserted into anchored frames in the lines of text.
Most of these icons were imported by reference into the FrameMaker book's chapters. Some were copied from another FrameMaker book and pasted into the present book.
Many of these images are turning out blank in the finished Help project.
Robohelp seems to convert these images into JPEGS.
In the source FrameMaker book, the images which appear OK in the Help project have Object Properties including: Facets: FrameVector JPEG ... Referenced File: No File
The images which appear blank have different object properties there: Facets: DIB ... Referenced File: (address of the image's source file)
How can I fix this and make all of the images appear in the Online Help?

Sorry, Jeff. I missed the key word in your instructions. Well, I did the import and still no luck. I'm getting the exact same results with the same images. (In some cases, I'm even getting hidden conditional text from the FM document body showing up in the image's frame instead of the image! See below.) This is bizarre behavior, but it's not new with the import. It is happening both in the linked and imported WebHelp with the same exact images. (Just another piece to complicate the puzzle.) So we have some jpeg images that are blank, and a few that are glitchy. From what I can tell, the commonality, besides the fact that all these new images are in jpeg format instead of gif format, is that all the blank and glitchy images are in a text inset. I'm beginning to think maybe RH just doesn't support text insets at all.
Arnis, I'll have to ask my colleague how she created the images next week when she's back from vacation. I have no clue if there are any differences between the jpegs and why some are showing up correctly. What do you mean by "compression type or level?" Are you asking about the resolution (high, medium, low) she chose when saving the images, or which program she used to do the screen capture and editing? (We have Adobe Photoshop CS5 and FM 11).
My next step is to copy-paste all the content from the text insets into my FM document (in the book I am linking) and re-render to see if that solves the problem. It will make single-sourcing impossible because I'll have to copy-paste the new content and images my colleague creates into my document each time we do an update, but oh well.
Here is an example of a glitchy image in RH:
And here is what it looks like in FM:
So bizarre!

Importing TOC from other RoboHelp Project

Is it possible to import a TOC from one RoboHelp project into
another one? I searched the help file but couldn't find any
information on it.
TIA.

Hi Rick,
Thanks. I figured a way around it by importing the entire
book again and not overwriting the files I already had in the
project. Basically we have 4 manuals that share the same chapter.
It's a long chapter with alot of sections and I didn't want to have
to import that into each RoboHelp project and "clean" it up for
each manual. So I did it for one manual and then just copied the
files to the other manual folders and did a quick find and replace
for text I needed to change (manual name). However, the TOC for
that section wasn't being created because I omitted it from the
book. And I was too lazy to create a TOC by hand for that section.
But I think I have a workaround that will still have some clean up
but saves time over creating the whole TOC. Make sense:-).
Anna

Importing .htm files into RoboHelp project

In my project in RoboHelp, when I go to File > Import > HTML File… to add a .htm file to my project, it locks up on me instead of providing a directory listing allowing me to select files to add to my project. The only way to get out of it is to go to the Task Manager and killing the process.

Hi there
Your use of "The Vault" would seem to most certainly describe some form of a Source Control system. Source Control systems offer a combination between a Librarian and a Traffic Cop. Typically you log into these systems with a user ID and a password. That way the system knows who you are.
Typically with these systems the data resides on a coroporate network. And also typically you will have a "working folder" on your hard drive where the files exist. When everything is checked into the Source Control system, the files on your hard drive are flagged as "Read Only".
When you need to work with a file, you perform a process of checking out. The Source Control system then changes the Read Only status of the file on your hard drive to Read/Write. But it also makes a note of the date/time stamp. If the file stored in Source Control is newer than the counterpart on your hard drive, it copies the newer file to your hard drive before allowing you to make changes.
I'd begin with a simple sanity check. Create a totally separate and new project. Add a topic or three. Add an image. Generate. Do things work okay? If not, you have some form of issue with RoboHelp that needs to be resolved before you attempt to troubleshoot what is happening with your project in Source Control.
Perhaps try copying the content from Source control to a different folder and see if you are then able to make edits.
Hopefully something here either helped directly or sparked a thought that does.
Cheers... Rick
Helpful and Handy Links
RoboHelp Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form
Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7 or 8 within the day - $24.95!
Adobe Certified RoboHelp HTML Training
SorcerStone Blog
RoboHelp eBooks

Wiki or Robohelp - What are the benefits of using a wiki vs publishing projects in robohelp?

What are the benefits of using a wiki vs publishing projects in robohelp? I currently use RH9/RH9 Server and publish multiple SSL. The company is looking to stop using Robohelp and replace our online help authoring tool (RH) with a wiki. Are there any benefits of going to a wiki environment. What RH features/functions that I have today will i not have by having IT import our robohelp files into a wiki?
I know that a wiki is not an authoring tool, but someone must think it is and we'll still have all the functionality of publishing multiple SSLs, reports, etc once in the wiki environment. Any comments - is this the best route?

Hi,
There are many differences. The idea of a wiki is to allow anyone to view and/or edit the content. Depending on the wiki system, you can set access control for viewing and editing.
Wiki's typically have simple syntax (html in a wiki is a serious security risk), allow image embedding, links and attachments. You will need to learn the specific syntax (rather easy, but also very limited).
What will you lose? This depends on the features available in the wiki system as well as the available plugins. A few downsides:
- WYSIWYG editor limited, if at all.
- No snippets
- No variables
- Dropdowns (may be possible through plugins)
- Index
- Styling based on css classes (mostly supported through HTML which is a security concern)
- Only one version of your support system: multiple versions require multiple installations/configurations.
- No searching in attachments.
- No CBT (Though some wiki's allow comments in the wiki code)
- No Word/FrameMaker import.
- You have to create your own CSH calls.
On the upside:
- Most wiki systems are free, even for commercial use.
- The syntax is quite simple, allowing you to quickly write text.
- Wiki's typically offer good support for syntax highlighting.
- They are very easy to set up.
- Most wiki's have plugins to enable comments.
The greatest downside in my opinion is that you always have the latest version of all files. Whenever you update a page, everyone immediately has the latest version. And if you want to create help for a feature that isn't released yet, you will have to use access control to make sure not everyone sees the (unfinished) help for the unreleased feature. With RoboHelp you have a single source that creates a one way output.
We use both RoboHelp and wiki's: RoboHelp for customer help and wiki internally to share knowledge. And sharing knowledge is what wiki's are designed for.
Greet,
Willam

Framemaker link to Robohelp 8 generates umlaut in file names - How to remove?

I'm linking translated German Framemaker files into Robohelp.
The heading 1 and heading 2 topics in my Framemaker source files often contain umlauts in the words/phrases.
Unfortunately, when linking to Robohelp 8, the umlauts appear in the topic file names.
And the umlauts are not allowed characters in file names.
How do I remove the umlauts and yet keep a single source construction to my Framemaker-Robohelp project?
(To remove them for the source files would of course be tedious and render the words incorrect.)
(To somehow strip them from the file names would create numerous broken links.)
Our manuals are translated into several languages. I really need the single source aspect of Frame to Robohelp 8 to work properly.
Any process/procedure would be very appreciated!

By default RoboHelp creates topic names based upon the paragraph(heading 1, heading 2 etc.) text on which the FrameMaker document is split. However, this setting can be manipulating the "Topic Name Pattern" option.
To access this setting please follow the following steps.
1. Click File->Project Settings menu to open the "Project Settings" dailog.
2. Go to "Import" tab.
3. Click "Edit" button for FrameMaker conversion settings.
4. Click "Other Settings" on the left tree.
5. On the right you can set the "Topic Name Pattern" settings.
This field allows you to define the pattern based upon which you can generate topic names. One can also insert some specific text to be included in the topic names.
Mayank

Unable to Open Project with RoboHelp 9

I've been working on a project using RoboHelp 9. Last night when I attempted to save RoboHelp froze. Looking at the CPU usage in task manager I saw it was still hovering between 45 and 50% CPU usage. Seeing as it was the end of the day anyway, I decided to leave the program running overnight in the hopes that it would eventually unfreeze.
When I came in this morning it was in the same frozen state, still using between 45 and 50% of the CPU. So I used end task to stop the program from running and tried to re-open the project. The project tried to open but froze during loading.
After consulting the forums I made a back-up of my project directory and deleted the CPD file. The project hung again on open (though it created a new CPD file was slightly smaller than the original CPD file).
I restored from backup and tried to open from the XPJ file but had no luck.
Restoring from backup again, I deleted the CPD and XPJ files and tried to open the HHP file with similar results.
Other projects are working fine so I created a new project and attempted to import the HTML file (a file which opens fine in Firefox) and it also causes the project to hang.
A bit of additional info:
I'm running the project on a local drive on Windows 7 32 bit edition.
Does anyone have any ideas for next steps I should try? I really don't want to have to restart the project from scratch.

Hello Peter.
Thanks for the speedy reply.
I have rebooted my system to no effect. I also am able to work on sample projects (adding and removing content, modifying topics, saving, generating output, etc) without any issue.
I tried the items you talked about on your Opening Projects page that I hadn't already tried. I even tried deleting the HHP file and using the HHP file to generate a new one in the hopes I might luck out but it also hung. It did create a new XPJ file that would open but all the content was missing (I could see the table of contents but the links were all x'd out because the page they were pointing to wasn't being loaded).
One thing I have noticed is that most (though not all) of the times I try to load the project and it hangs it hangs out "Loading topic files" (other times it hangs without any text indicating what it is doing).

Headings are getting bookmarked while importing word document to Robohelp 9

HI everyone. Easter wishes in advance.
I have a problem while importing word document to Robohelp.
Version - MS Word 2010
Robohelp 9
While I import word document to Robohelp after mapping styles, my heading styles are getting tagged as bookmarks in RH.
I have customized word template along with customized RH css.
How can I prevent the headings (all the heading level used in a document) getting tagged as bookmark after I import word docs to RH.
If there is no solution is there any solution to remove bookmarks at one go from RH.
Help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

The quickest way to resolve this is to create a new project and import a document that causes this problem. Zip up the project and document and send it to me via my site so that I can take a look.
You can strip out any confidential content and it only needs to be a document short enough to show the problem.
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
@petergrainge

Losy images after importing Word document into RoboHelp 7 HTML

We imported a simple Word document into RoboHelp 7 HTML, as a
new project (from scratch).
Everything worked out pretty well (afterall, this was just a
simple Word document), and we expect to have to tweak the styles,
etc. That is understood.
However, the images that were embedded in the Word document
(as opposed to saved to disk, and only linked to the Word document)
do not look very nice in the RoboHelp 7 HTML project topics.
When we browse to the iamge folder, and view the actual image
files, these images do not look too bad. But in the Design View,
the images have display issues (solid color bars on the
sides/top/bottom of the images). When we compile to a Single Source
Layout (except PDF), the images look fine again. When we create
Printed Documentation, even for the best PDF-settings, the images
look terrible -- smudgy, like low resolution quality).
1) Except for storing the images outside of the Word document
before importing, and then manually linking them back into the
imported RoboHelp HTML files, is there a way to maximize the
quality of the imported Word images in RoboHelp HTML?
2) Why doe the images look worse in Printed Documenation
(PDF), even for the highest PDF settings, than for the other Single
Source Layouts?
While I am typing, I realized that we should try to include
the images in Word via a link to the image files on disk. Perhaps
then RoboHelp will not actually modify the image files during
import. I will report back about this one.
Your help will be greatly appreciated!

Looks perfect, works terribly...
Things to consider:
Chances are, the different treatments of the space are due to whether the space was included in the bolding of the word in MS Word.
Additionally, since Word files contain much underlying binary code (macros and such), your security settings might or might not be playing well with the Word stuff.
Are you importing the Word file from a network location, or from your local machine? Network traffic might be partially impacting the import, too.
Bottom line? You'll probably need to clear all formatting in the Word file and redo the formatting properly. To test this, cut a couple of pages into a new Word file, clear and redo the formatting in Word, import the Word file into another RH project, and see what results you get.
To clear the formatting:
Select text.
On the Home tab, in the Font group, click Clear Formatting.
Redo the formatting, being careful to not format the spaces.
Good luck,
Leon

Importing FrameMaker Projects in RoboHelp

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for