Merge CHM, ToCs and CBT

Hi,
After some sweat I have a working implementation of a merged
CHM project (RoboHelp 7) making use of Conditional Build Tags
(CBTs) where the user can enter via any slave and still have access
to the total ToC, and full search facilities.
We will be using these techniques in our own shop, but I have
the idea that others would appreciate sharing the knowledge, so
what should I do with it? Describing it in gory detail will cost me
days (which I don't have) and really needs screen grabs to be
clear. I have rough notes of what I did, but they are only usable
if you have access to my demo project.
Does anyone have the time and inclination to write it up (and
check my work of course?). The project zips to 3.4 MByte and
contains no confidential information.
It is based on the techniques described
here
and
here
and I have worked out a way to make ToC entries usable for all
configurations. CBTs are only used in the master project.
I still have occasional problems with absolute paths, I wish
someone could solve that! My workaround is to edit the HHP, the XPJ
and the CPD and hope for the best.
--- Derek

Hi Joe
Just to add another twist to things here, perhaps you have CHM A, CHM B and CHM C.
If you want to search CHM A and have it find results that are also found in CHM B and CHM C as if they were a singular larger CHM, you would normally have them in a single folder and have CHM A (or one of them) designated as the Master.
The twist here is that they wouldn't have to exist in the same folder. Sure, it's simpler that way, but if your developers have arranged things in such a fashion that you have CHM files in different folders, the information below may help.
If you look at your RoboHelp Toolbox Pod (View > Pods > Toolbox) you should find a utility there named HTML Help Registration. When you run this tool you are able to add CHM file references to your Windows registry. And that's the key point. When CHM file references exist in the Windows Registry, pathing location is added. Many eons ago I created some instructions that helped with that. In this case, you will likely be interested in the last bit of that topic where I talk about exporting a registry key that may be used to amend other registries.
Click here to view
Cheers... Rick

Similar Messages

Child TOC pane blank in merged CHM set-up

We are experiencing an issue with our TOC pane when viewing a child CHM in a merged set-up. The TOC appears completely blank although the index and search work successfully. If the parent help file is launched all works as expected with the TOC displayed regardless of which topic is selected from it. However if a child project is launched, the TOC does not display.
We are using the method of merging CHMs that involves adding the parent project's .HHC file to the Advanced Window properities of each child project. We have also amended the .HHP file of each child to include the relevant [MERGED FILES] section. All of this is highlighted in Rob Chandlers article on the subject and has worked in the past. Remove the reference to the parent .HHC file from the window properties and it all works but we need to this for context sensitive help calls so that the child CHM is called yet display the parent TOC.
However we were using RHX5 then and now we are using RH8 and it appears this method no longer works. Has anyone else come up against this, and more importantly found a solution?
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Hi Amber.
Thanks very much for the response. Unfortunately using conditional build tags is a must for us so we have to compile inside RH. We are very near code freeze so at this late stage do not wish to change anything drastically. The CHM is only being distributed as a backup in case any of our users don't have an internet connection.
For now I think we'll live with it annoying as it is . If you can find out about what your app is doing that would be useful to know and we'll see if we can change the app post release.
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RoboHelp 9 - problem with merged TOC and index

Using RoboHelp v9.0.0.228 I have a master project which contains several merged TOCs and indexes for other CHMs. This has worked successfully for years, but has now stopped working in our translated CHMs. I have checked all the relevant settings and they appear to be correct. The English version still works correctly. Can you help please? Many thanks.

OK, so my post was just a summary really!
I have a main project with its own TOC, index and topics. I then have several other projects with their own TOCs, indexes and topics, and these are merged into the master TOC. In all these projects, we use the indexes to contain function ids for our software, so that when you press F1 in a software function, it invokes the correct Help topic in the CHM. The software is coded so that it goes to the main project first, and then looks in the merged index to find the link to the Help topic.
In the individual sub projects, the TOCs and indexes are present and work correctly. Also, in the master project, the TOC and index works correctly in the original English version. However, even though the TOCs, indexes and topics are all present and correct in the translated versions (Russian, for example) the index in the master project does not contain the entries for the sub projects. The TOCs for the sub projects do, however, work correctly.

Merged CHM appears in Index but not accessible in TOC

Hello,
I am trying to merge a single chm child topic to the parent using RH8.
In the TOC, I have created a link to the location of the child CHM (no spaces in the name). I generate the master chm the TOC entry for the child chm appears but I when I click on it, nothing happens. In the index,I can see the index entries from the child chm, however the index entries appear in quadruplicate.
I have followed the instructions - in the master created a TOC and clicked Merged project and then pointed to the generated .chm file for the child chm. I have tried having RH copy the file over to the master, and pointing directly to a copy of the child .chm in the master folder.
Can any one help? Am I doing something wrong?
Thank you,
Tannis

How much RAM do you have in your Mac and how much free space is ther eon your hard drive? A combination of both may make that very large slideshow impossible to open. How long did you wait before force quitting?
One way to get rid of that slideshow (and all other slideshows) along with books, cards and calendars but keeping your photos with their keywords, titles, comments, faces and places is to do the following:
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
Download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
Click on the Add Library button, navigate to your Home/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.
Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the File ➙ Rebuild Library menu option
In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.
Click on the Create button.
Note: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments. However, books, calendars, cards and slideshows will be lost. The original library will be left untouched for further attempts at fixing the problem or in case the rebuilt library is not satisfactory.
OT

Not new; merged projects with separate TOC and indices

As it turns out, I have three projects that will need to be
created:
Folder (1) for Admin users:
Administration
User Management
Users (General Contents)
Folder (2) for Approver/PM users:
User Management
Users (General Contents)
Folder (3) for Regular users:
Users (General Contents)
I'm unsure whether, in RH6, I will be able to generate
separate TOC and indices. Can someone tell me whether there's a
best approach in order to enable this functionality?
Regards,
Sharon

OK. Of course, nothing could be that easy, now can it? lol. I
have managed to create the structure as Peter has defined it, and
for the most part, things are looking good. I do, of course, still
have a few questions I'd like to ask before I proceed:
1. When Peter suggests I put the [Parent (No Content)] into
each of the three folders for the administrators to use on the
server, what exactly does the Parent content entail?
2. I'd like to understand better the difference between the
default topic and the start page, and how it works structurally. I
started by generating each of the child folders with the start page
(example: Intro.htm), but realized that using index.htm was
important not only for the parent, but for each of the child
projects that I set up. I just don't understand WHY it works that
way.
3. I set up Books in the TOC and used the Merged Help under
each book which, of course, when generated, display books within
books. Can I just move the projects and delete the Books
altogether? This may be obvious, but I want to make sure I'm not
undoing something I'm unaware of undoing (if that makes any sense
at all).
4. The server will be a Linux box; I have checked off the Use
Lowercase checkbox when generating all. Is there anything else I
should be doing to keep problems to a minimum?
5. Last but not least (if you've made it this far), I'd like
to know if it is any easier for the administrator, or myself, in
the long run, to be using RoboHelp 8. Because this looks like it
will be an ongoing project for at least five years, I want to make
sure I am working in the smartest way I can.
Thank you, to those who respond. I know I am asking for a lot
of information, because this is my first merged project. Any
assistance you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Sharon

How do I assign mapids to reference a merged chm file?

Hello,
I am using RoboHelp 9.0.2.271 on a Windows 7 64 bit machine to create chm files. I have 2 chm files I would like to merge and be able to create mapids for context-sensitive help.
I created each chm in its own project directory with each having its own mapids setup. I would like to merge them for a special project and still be able to use the mapids. I merged them using the toc | new | merged project. I also have the merged chm as a baggage file in the first chm.
As far as viewing and searching after recreating the first chm, all appears to work with the toc also showing the toc of the merged chm.
However I can’t seem to get the mapids of the merged chm to work in the first (master) chm. I have seen other posts about similar problems but I didn’t see anything I can use.
Is there a way to create mapids to reference the topics in the merged chm when using the master chm? The mapid editor doesn’t seem to know anything about the merged chm file.
Thanks
John

Okay, yea I knew that you can create a static list, and I have tried this. Thanks for the input Frank!!
Currently I have a database attribute, Priority, which is a Number (1,2,3), but I want to display these values as Low, Medium, High respectively. I use this list in 2 places, first place is to filter a table based on priority, and secondly when I create a new row or edit a row, I need to be able to change the priority. If I use the approach you mentioned, and which I also tried using, I get stuck because on the new/edit row page this list is not bound to any source and when I try to edit the page, the selected value is ' ' rather then the correct value that was selected previously (I hope that makes sense). If I use the code that I had in my original post, it works fine, but the display values are 1,2,3.
What are my options on how to display the values correctly? And I wonder why the List Binding Editor doesn't allow you to display labels other than the labels you assign in the set of values (so in my case, my set of values is 1,2,3, because those are the valid values in the database)

How do you get a merged CHM to open in the same window as the master? (RH8)

We have a problem where everytime you click on a topic from a merged CHM in the master TOC, it opens a new window exlusive to the chm where the topic resides. We have more than one master chm and this is the only one that does it, it is also the only one that was created from RH8, although the others have been updated with RH8. We've compared the Window and SS Layout properties with a parent chm that doesn't behave this way and haven't been able to find any differences. Is there something we can do to have all the topics whether merged or from the parent, open in the same window?

I think somehow the last time I had this problem I stumbled on a solution and wasn't sure what fixed it, but the problem reared its head again, and it was back to the drawing board. Now I think we have a solution, but we don't know for sure what created the problem. Although we're pretty sure the problem has something to do with creating a new window when there is already and existing window.
What we found. This problem couldn't be fixed in the SSLayout. We found that the Properties | Advanced | Window setting for individual topics in the TOC had been erased. This Window drop-down selection lets you choose a window other than <Default> if more than one window exists. If not changed by the user, it should stay at <Default>, but somehow the setting was blank on several topics, probably due to the creation of a new window, and maybe some other values being changed. This is probably a bug in RH8, but I don't know about other versions.
How to fix it.
First you have to isolate which merged .chm file (child) has the problem, I believe I did this by removing one child .chm at a time from the Parent project and then seeing if the parent .chm worked correctly after generation.
Once you've found the offending .chm (there may be more than one), open the project and the TOC for the .chm that is a problem.
Go to the TOC pod > Topic Page Properties (right-click on a Topic in the TOC and select Properties) > Advanced > Options panel and ensure that a value exists in the Window: field. If the field is empty, you have a problem. Click the drop-down and select <Default>, even if your .chm window displays in drop-down.
I don't believe there's an option to set a window as the default when you create it, so if there's more than one window, who knows what the <Default> option is drawing from, unless <Default> points to the window you have selected in the SSLayout, which I think is the case.
Find all Topics that have this problem and fix them. Note: you cannot fix this by going to topic Properties in the Topic List (or from r-click Properties in a topic), you have to do it in the TOC.
Save all changes, generate the child .chm, and then replace the old child .chm with the new one.
Open the parent .chm and check to see if all topics open in the parent window. Your Done

Merged CHMs in RH9 not appearing as merged

I upgraded RoboHelp 8 projects to RoboHelp 9. I have 6 different projects that I compile as CHMs and they are all merged to appear as one CHM to the end user. In the RoboHelp 8 generated CHMs, when I would click on one of the child projects, it would appear as part of the merged help. In RoboHelp 9 generated CHMs, when I click on one of the child projects (any one of the child projects), it opens up the child CHM in a separate pop-up.
All of the names of the 6 CHMs are one word (no spaces and no underscores).
Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks.

Hi there
I'm not sure I follow here. Do EACH of the CHMs involved have references to all the others? Normally you only have the master or parent with the TOC configured to look at and include child links. But each of the child CHM files has a basic TOC and really knows nothing about the others unless the parent is opened and it finds the children.
Sorry, but the behavior you are describing seems perfectly normal to me and the behavior you cite with version 8 seems abnormal.
Cheers... Rick
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Merging CHM projects

Introduction: You want a help system distributed over
several CHM files. The topic map means that you may enter via any
one of the CHMs but, once in the help system, you want access to
the complete ToC. RoboHelp does not provide this by default; here
is how to arrange it.
The underlying concepts: You have one "master" CHM which
contains the complete ToC but no topics; and any number of "slave"
CHMs containing the topics. Use baggage trick #1 to include the
master ToC in each slave. Each slave ToC must be contained in a
book in the master ToC (RH hhc bug), but you can have several ToCs
per slave (baggage trick #2). All CHMs must use the same window and
it must be a global window (prefix $global_). All CHMs must be in
the same directory at runtime (Common location).
RH hhc bug: The ToC you define in RoboHelp is stored in a
file ProjectName.hhc; when you generate the project a file called
ProjectName.hhc will be included in the CHM file.
These two files are not the same. This means that (1) if
your merged projects are not contained in books in the master ToC
you will get errors (invalid HTML tag) because the hhc file inside
the master CHM <ul> and </ul> tags are unbalanced. Also
(2) the ToC to be included in the slave CHMs must be the one
extracted from the master CHM, not the one from the master project
directory.
How baggage files work: When user runs the CHM file, its
contents are unpacked to a temporary location (MSIT-whatever).
These contents include the topics, images and also the baggage
files. The baggage file included will be whatever is in the project
directory at generate time. Not all the files in RoboHelp's baggage
list will be included (see elsewhere for quirks of the baggage
system).
Decompiling CHM files: All (?) Windows systems include the
program hh.exe which is run to display CHM files. You can also use
this program in a DOS window to decompile CHMs; the syntax is:
hh -decompile DirectoryToReceiveDecompiledFiles
FileToBeDecompiled.CHM
The directory will be created if necessary; old files will be
silently overwritten. The same functionality is available with a
pretty GUI in the HTML Help Workshop, which you can download free
from microsoft.com.
Baggage trick #1: Create all slave ToCs and generate the
CHMs; include the slave ToCs in the master ToC (File > New >
MergedProject). Generate and then decompile the master CHM (hh
-decompile master master.chm) and include the decompiled master.hhc
as a baggage file in each slave. In each slave, ProjectSetUp >
Windows > $global_window > Properties > Advanced >
Destinations > TableofContents and specify master.hhc (this file
will be available because you included it as a baggage file). Now
regenerate all slaves (see Caveat #2).
Baggage trick #2: The slave ToC will be included in a book
in the global ToC; this means one book per slave CHM. You may not
have partitioned your project in this way. If necessary, create
several ToCs in the slave; each ToC will result in a file xxx.hhc
in the project directory. Include all these as baggage files in the
slave, and generate it. When you include the CHM as a MergedProject
you can select the ToC you want.
Common location for CHMs: you can save copying by generating
all CHMs in one location (SSLs > HTMLhelp > Properties >
OutputFolder). I have a project directory containing subdirectory
Output along with Master, Slave1, Slave2 etc.
Caveats: (1) Browse sequences and Search are not globalized,
if you open a slave CHM you will only have access to the Browse and
Search of that CHM. (2) If you change the master ToC you will have
to regenerate the master, decompile it, copy the hhc to each slave,
and regenerate each slave (this can be automated). (3) There are
apparently restrictions on using names containing underscores; I
have not tested this. (4) The whole process is sufficiently complex
that I recommend creating a test database to try it out.
Conditional Build Tags: I have not tested this, but it
should be possible to define several ToCs in the master and use
them as appropriate.

I appreciate this post, as getting our merged chm projects to
work together seamlessly has proven to be very difficult. The
approach we're using now is similar to what you describe here, but
results in multiple windows opening on top of each other, rather
than the TOC clicks keeping the user within the same window. I am
trying to make a few changes based on what I'm reading here in
hopes of fixing this issue; however I am having difficulty applying
the global window. Currently all of our help projects use a window
called Main. I have updated those to $global_Main, but now when I
try to click a topic in the TOC of a chm file I get this error
message: "The window name "main" passed to HH_GET_WIN_TYPE has not
been specified." Do you know what might be causing that? Is there a
specific procedure I need to follow in order to update to using a
global window?

TOC and footers not generating correctly in printed output

I'm using RH8. Up until yesterday, was able to generate .doc output just fine. We usually run a macro to clean up the TOC and footers. Yesterday I had to update an older help file created in RH4W. I made my changes, closed RH4W and resumed working in RH8. My .chms generate fine. It's my hardcopy .doc file that results in no TOC or footer creation.
Here's what the TOC and one of the footers looks like. If anyone can offer any suggestions (I'm at a loss - even deleted the ssl and started from scratch), I'd appreciate it.

The problem is in your Word settings, not RoboHelp. Looks like you have Word set to show field codes.
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
@petergrainge

How can we align TOC and Navigation bar for Captivate 4 Aggregator Project?

Hi,
Is there any way we can align the bottom of TOC and Navigation bar of Captivate 4 Aggregator project. Or can we give a background color so that they don't look like different entities.
Thanks,
Janhavi

I had this issue too. What I discovered was that some of the slides in one of my presentations were off the screen. Some because I had dropped pictures onto a blank slide, and others because I switched background images on recorded slides and didn't merge the images into the existing background. After fixing those issues and republishing, I put the revised .swf into the aggregator and it worked.

Searching with the Search tab only looks in 3 of 19 merged chms, no matter what is searched for

I'm using RoboHelp 8. I'm using the Search tab in the HTML Help window to search. Although it finds what I’m searching for, it only looks in 3 of my 19 merged chm files, no matter what I search for. I can tell by the Location column in the search results.
Is there a known bug in HTML Help search capabilities?

It would be worth checking that the window and single source layout properties of all 19 projects are setup exactly the same. Also make sure that there are no child CHM files in the project directory before you compile. RoboHelp insists that they are copied in when you add links but they can cause issues like this when you compile. When you compile there should be no other CHMs in the project directory.

Merging Sales Analysis and Purchase Analysis

Hi Guys
is it possible to merge the Sales and Purchase Analysis into one report? maybe if i had the SQL statements and then using a union all would work? i would like to see all /AR invoices and credit notes on one report, with gross profit margin etc, is this possible? i will always run the report by Item Group (Monthly)
Thanks
Edited by: Euston Ferreira on Oct 29, 2008 12:02 PM
Edited by: Euston Ferreira on Oct 29, 2008 12:56 PM

Hi Euston
This will be achieved by using the OINM table which contains the item codes, document numbers, BP, IN/Out Qty, G/L Accounts, etc.
Let me know if you need help with the query.
Kind regards
Peter Juby

OK, I need to be able to have a linked TOC, and also have destinations created in FM10 that will not be lost when I 1. Save the book as a PDF. then 2. need the PDF to be as small as possible, but without losing my destinations. Anyone know how to do that

OK, I need to be able to have a linked TOC, and also have destinations created in FM10 that will not be lost when I 1. Save the book as a PDF; then 2. I need the PDF to be as small as possible, but without losing my destinations. Anyone know how to do that??
I had been saving as a PDF and then reducing the size of the PDF by printing it as a PDF with a degree of image compression. I write manuals with a LOT of screen captures and line art that needs to be clear. So it is a balancing act between image clarity and PDF size. The PDFs on the web need to be smaller - sure you can undertsand.
Anyway, when I print the PDF again, I lose both my destinations and bookmarks.
Anyone know of any way to avoid that?

Control the images by creating a custom PDF Job Options and then selecting it in the PDF Job Options drop-down of the PDF setup dialog box (File > Save as PDF...)
Create the custom PDF Job Options file with Distiller. If you do not have Distiller, open the Printing Preferences of the Adobe PDF printer. Start with the Smallest File Size Job Options settings and Edit.

What does "you have data to Sync, go to TOC and press Sync" mean when I open the Bible 1 App. I don't know what "TOC" is

When I open my Bible +1 App the following appears - extremely too brief to read once - "you have data to Sync, go to TOC and press Sync.." on my iPad. I don't know what TOC is, or where to go to Sync my data. I also don't know WHAT data I have TO Sync. Also, is there an Instruction "manual" so-to-speak that explains more about the latest update from November 27? I'm working off an iPad 2 which is my ONLY piece of computer "anything" so all I'm woking on is my iPad. I also do not have access to any person's lap top or computer. Can you help me?

Went to Google, tonefox, and found the information. As I told Meg, I am still "way over my head" with computers and still have to remember that you can 'Google" pretty much ANYTHING.

Merge CHM, ToCs and CBT

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