RoboHelp project management strategy

Morning
I have some general questions, for which I doubt there are any "correct" answers, but I'm sure people will have useful to say all the same. First, some background information.
I have used RoboHelp before (version 8) to manage a handful of small, disparate projects, but I have not used the software for a couple of years (which is probably the last time I used these forums, but under a different ID).
In my current role I manage around 400 hundred Word documents, from which I generate user guides as PDFs, spread across three or four software releases. There is not a lot of cross over between these guides, but there are a number of core pieces of functionality, which sometimes bleed into the other areas. I also manage some very basic online help pages, most of which are duplicates of what is in the Word docs. As it stands I have no single-sourcing and often changes in one version of a guide also need to be made to the other versions and the online help.
I am looking to streamline this system, by moving away from Word docs and using RoboHelp 10 instead. While my company has not decided precisely how they want to distribute documentation for future products, I am pretty confident I will need to continue to generate online help (for which customers will only get updates once a quarter) and stand alone PDFs.
Based on the quantity and content of the guides I have, I think each version of the software will need around 10,000 topics (and well over a 1,000,000 words), with maybe 5,000 image files. From this I will need to output selected text and images for the online help (which will be context sensitive) and around 100 PDFs. For now I will be managing this on my own, but I may need to work collaboratively with another tech author in the near future.
So that's the background, here are my questions:
Is it practical to put all of that into a single project?
Will future collaborative working require the documentation to be broken down into separate projects?
How easy is it to manage context sensitive help across multiple projects
We use Serena Dimensions for version control. Does RoboHelp 10 integrate with Dimensions effectively or will I need to also use RoboSource?
Our PDFs are heavily formatted and include the following:
- a cover page
- standard declaration and revision history page
- contents page
- mirrored headers/footers which include the document title, chapter heading, page number and copyright statement.
- auto-numbered paragraphs, which swap to letters for the appendices.
- a readers' comments section at the back
- a rear cover.
Is it possible to include all that in PDFs generated from RoboHelp content, in the same way you might from Word?
Am I assuming I will need to create a separate SSLfor each PDF I need to generate, each with its own TOC. Is that right?
Any general tips on managing different versions of the same documentation, several of which will be live at the same time?
Thanks in advance
DocBot (formerly Euromatt)

@Jeff I would be more inclined to agree if DocBot already had the files in Fm. Not all Word output is bad and most of what I have seen is perfectly usable. It is going to come down to content so given s/he has them in Word I think I would try using those files first to see how well the Rh to Word/PDF goes. Then if DocBot is not getting the required result Fm could be considered.
Is it practical to put all of that into a single project?
You could but then if you want one PDF per Word document you will need to create separate print layouts and you will have many.
Will future collaborative working require the documentation to be broken down into separate projects?
One author per project or use Source Control are your options.
How easy is it to manage context sensitive help across multiple projects
I wouldn't like to answer that. It's really down to your developers how easy they find it.
We use Serena Dimensions for version control. Does RoboHelp 10 integrate with Dimensions effectively or will I need to also use RoboSource?
Ask in the Source Control forum or a wider forum. I haven't seen Serena mentioned.
Our PDFs are heavily formatted and include the following:
- a cover page
- standard declaration and revision history page
- contents page
- mirrored headers/footers which include the document title, chapter heading, page number and copyright statement.
- auto-numbered paragraphs, which swap to letters for the appendices.
- a readers' comments section at the back
- a rear cover.
Is it possible to include all that in PDFs generated from RoboHelp content, in the same way you might from Word?
No to most. See Printed Documentation on my site. The same would be true of the Fm to Rh workflow if you generate from Rh. However, as Jeff points out, you could generate the PDF from Fm so I'll leave Jeff to comment on what that would support.
Am I assuming I will need to create a separate SSLfor each PDF I need to generate, each with its own TOC. Is that right?
Any general tips on managing different versions of the same documentation, several of which will be live at the same time?
Rh would see each version as a separate document.
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
@petergrainge

Similar Messages

Project manager in Robohelp 9

Is there a maximum number of folders I can create under the Project Manager. I have added numerous files but the program seems to trucate the last ones and I can find them to add topics to. Can anyone help?

Hello again
Thanks for the image. The first thing I notice here is no plus symbol next to many folder names. This tells me that there is no content actually inside these folders. And THAT observation leads me to ask this question.
If you click the View menu, is the option "Empty Folders" enabled?
Cheers... Rick
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RH 9 - .CHM file RoboHelp 9 crashes when clicking on a .htm file in Project Manager

Dear all,
RoboHelp 9 crashes when I click on a .htm file in Project Manager. I think there should be redundant codes in this file but I cannot find out the reason why actually.
Anyone knows that, please help me.
Thanks a lot.

Just to be sure it is the topic that is causing the issue, create a new project and import the HTM file. If it is the file it may crash when you import or it may import but crash when you click on it in the Project Manager pod. If this happens, try opening the file in Windows Explorer. Does this display anything. You can also try opening the file in Notepad which should display your XHTML code. Come back if you find anything.

RoboHelp 8 hangs, locks up, when rearranging / adding folder in Project Manager

'Afternoon everyone,
I'm working on a client's project that has 329 topics; I have imported it from RH5 into RH8 HTML.
In Project Manager, the project files are arranged into about 20 folders. I wanted to rearranging the order of these by drag and drop.
This worked OK for the first two moves; but the third move made RH hang; it locked up. After waiting 15 minutes, I used Ctrl+Alt+Del to shut it down.
Opened it again. I tried to add a new folder into the Project Files folder, but it hangs / locks up again. Can't do anything except crash out of it and try again. Then I get the same problem again - it hangs when I try to add a new folder.
The project files only take 26Mb on disk, but in Task Manager, RoboHelp is running at 45% CPU, 114 Mb Mem Usage, on a fairly high-spec PC. And there it hangs.
Any ideas, anyone?

Now what?!! Cannot edit topics!
When I created the new Help Project in a new folder, I used Create New Blank Project. It creates a new topic. But I couldn't open it to edit it.
OK, try importing files from the 'old' project. It tooka while; BUT - in the new imported rebuild, when I try to open any topic file, I get the same message,
"The file {path}{filename}.htm is associated with a 3rd party editor and may be open in the editor. If so, please close the file in the other application before continuing." (It wasn't open in anything).
When I click OK, it then opens RoboHelp Explorer, and then displays a RoboHelp for Word dialogue telling me:
"This file is not an HPJ file. Please select an HPJ file to open."
I clicked OK and got a RoboHelp for Word message telling me "The file cannot be edited. Make sure the file exists and it is accessible."
Looking in Windows Explorer at the new folder, there is indeed no HPJ file.
Also: when importing the 329 topics, I got a few "cannot copy file" errors for whmsg.js, whver.js, whproxy.js, whutils.js, whtopic.js. I found these in an original backup copy of the project and copied these across. Closed the project, reopened it; But I still cannot edit topics.
(I have also imported Index, Glossary and ToC files.)
Never seen this problem before. I've spent hours trying to sort this out.
Now what? HELP!!

Adding a New Folder in Project Manager Crashes RH

For the past few days, I have been having problems creating
new folders in RH 7, Project Manager. Sometimes, it works just
fine, and I can add folders, drag topics into them, import into
them, create new topics, whatever.
But then sometimes, the project manager just goes to white
and flashes at me for a while, then RH crashes. The only things I
can see in the PM pane are the triangular colored icons that
overlay folders / topic icons when they include conditional build
tags. No topic names, no folder names, just a column of these
triangles.
When I come back into RH after the crash, most times there
are topics to reimport and / or relocate. I have rebuilt the cpd
file several times. Each time it seems to resolve the issue, but
eventually another crash comes along as I try to add a folder.
For the record, just updated to the new 7.02.001 a few
minutes ago, but RH just crashed again. 3GB RAM, more than 40GB
space available on hard drive. Nothing new on my PC that I can
think of.
Anyone else seeing this?

I'm just wondering if anyone has found a cause or solution of this issue?
I'm experiencing it too with one of my projects (currently, I'm on RH8.02.202 on Win7/64, but I've also experienced it in RH7 on WinXP/32, FWIW).
Some other details:
My project is on my C:\ drive.
The folder names are all comprised solely of alphanumerics and underscores.
I've deleted both the PSS and CPD files without any noticeable positive effect.
Since I've been on RH8, the project is set to rebuild the .cpd cache upon opening, but I've also tried deleting it (this might be redundant, but I figured the RH "rebuild" might be different from generating a brand new one).
After I force RH to close, the folder is there when I reopen the project, and the folder behaves normally.
The project resides in the standard "My RoboHelp Projects" folder.
The problem seems to be isolated to this project, which is my largest (~2065 topics in ~85 folders)
I'm at the point where I just automatically force RH to close after I create a folder rather than waiting to for the application to become "officially" non-responsive.
Are there any other files I might try deleting or examining? I've poked around in the .xpj, .fpj, and .hhp files, but I don't see anything odd. I compared my old .pss with the new one RH created, and they were identical.
Thanks!
Dave

RH7: Project Manager Tab keeps refreshing continuously

I have upgraded my project from RH5 to RH7. There were in all 65 projects (.xpj) files that I upgraded. However, i have this issue with some of the files. When I open the xpj file, the Project Manager tab keeps refreshing. I cant scroll and select the files that are towards the end because the moment I click the scroll bar, the the tab refreshes and I cant click on the file.
Most of the files that I upgraded work fine.
Please suggest a solution. Thanks.

Have you tried renaming the CPD and reopening RH to make it create a new one?
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
@petergrainge

Can't open project after rebuilding Folders in Project Manager

I had a corrupted project so I renamed the cpd file. A lot of Folders in Project Manager were lost, so I recreated the folders and imported all the topics back in. I added one last Folder back in and RH was having a problem with it (I didn't write down the error message). It booted me out. Subsequent attempts to reopen this Project are unfruitful. The message I get is that a certain folder (not the same one I was adding) will be added back in and needs to be properly deleted from Project Manager. (I had renamed that Folder, but I did it inside of Project Manager.)
Thoughts?
Thanks.

Please see the announcement at http://forums.adobe.com/community/robohelp/robohelp_html
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Follow me @petergrainge

Unable to load the 'C:\InetPub\robohelp\' project. The project is invalid.

We're having troubles opening/viewing our 'prepsmart' project
on our production server. (It works fine in our test environment).
I have tried re-installing RoboEngine 4.0, and successfully
re-generated and re-published the project to the server. However,
when I try to access the project using a url like:
http://<servername>:<port>/RoboAPI.asp?project=prepsmart&context=700,
it displays the message: "Contragulations The RoboEngine has been
successfully created. To get started using RoboEngine, you need to
publish a project. Please see the getting started guide or
deployment manual that corresponds to your authoring tool for more
information. "
I see the same screen if I click on "View Project" within the
RogoEngine Configuration Manager.
When I click the Troubleshoot icon in the Configuration
manager, it lists the following errors:
Unable to load the 'C:\InetPub\robohelp\' project. The
project is invalid.
Project prepsmart cannot be found.
Unable to locate the ' ' window.
Cannot find the list of projects.
If I specify a specific page (i.e.
http://denpiis01:8000/Robo/BIN/Robo.dll?tpc=/robo/projects/prepsmart/Getting_Started.htm),
it displays the help page. So, I
think the web site is configured and working OK.
Any ideas why I can successfully publish the project, but
RoboEngine can't find the project?
Thanks,
Greg

Hello Vipul Kumawat,
I saw a related thread from here:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15246449/visual-studio-xaml-designer-not-getting-loaded
Their solution is related to fix corrupt Visual Studio.
So may I clarify the following:
1. What's your Visual Studio version?
2. Have you ever tried to repair Visual Studio from control panel first?
3. Can you reproduce this issue when access any other new projects? For example, Store App, WPF App, or even new simple Windows Phone app? What's the result if you use them?
Best regards,
Barry
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Images are missing in Project Manager

I’m replacing old images with new ones in RoboHelp HTML 10.
I’ve deleted the old pictures in Design view and pasted the new pictures in. (I know this is not the recommended way but with lake of time I found it to be the fastest way and we don’t feel the need to give the files described names at the moment.)
It has worked fine until now when I noticed that some images are not showing in Project Manager. I see the “folder” Images and I see a lot off images there but some are missing. The “missing” images are shown in Design view and in the browser after publishing. But in the report Unused files the “missing” images are listed as unused.
I have tried to
close and reopen the project,
generate and publish the project,
delete an “missing” image from Design view and insert it by using Insert / Image. After saving this image, and some other “missing” images, are shown in Project Manager. But not all “missing” images.
Does anyone know why this is, or more important how to get Project Manager to show all images that are used in the project (without having to go through all 154 images trying to figure out which are used but “missing”)?
Some more facts:
They are all gif-images.
They are all stored at the top-level in the project folder. (Are there a limit how many images there can be in the top-level folder? Should I create a separate folder and move the pictures there?)
HTML-code for one “missing” image:
<img src="image7.gif" alt="" style="border: none;"
border="0" />
Grateful for any input!

I would have said "Try renaming the folder containing the images in Rh's Project Manager. That sometimes fixes the problem. You can revert to the old name afterwards."
Keeping all the images, and / or topics, in the root is never a good idea. It can slow things down and it's messy.
You can move the images you can see but obviously you cannot move the others. Try moving a topic that has one of the images to a different folder and see if that refreshes. Also try deleting the CPD file and reopening Rh.
Backup first.
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
@petergrainge

Images no longer showing in Project Manager panel, but in project RH8

In a project with 2400 topics and 3400 images we decided to move the images to a project_images folder so we could just remove the html folders in Production when we update. Drag & drop images from previous location to new folder...forever! All was good...Then we shut the project and opened it back up again and only 6 images now display in the Images/project_images folder. In Windows Explorer all 3400 are there. If you go to a topic in RH the images display - with the right paths. They are picked up appropriately when you compile.
They just don't display in the Project Manager panel...making it very difficult to drag them into topics!
We have tried:
1. Deleting the .fpj file in the project_images folder and adding a new image hoping it would rebuild itself
2. Tried renaming the project_images folder to something else - RH HATES that and just hangs. I gave it overnight to figure it out...it never unhung.
3. Tried creating a new folder - again RH hangs and must be manually ended
4. Moved a topic with images to another location - topic moves fine. Images move...but do not show up under Images
5. Imported a topic with images - the new images show fine...the old ones still are invisible.
This is two days of work moving the images...we hate to start over and have no idea if it will do it again. We did this on another project - same problem - but moving a folder resolved it. That is not working here.
Any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated!!!!! RH 8.02.208

Wow, what a hassle. I never saw this issue until we upgraded to RH9 and tried to use the resource manager to link images. I've never been as frustrated with RoboHelp as I am now after fifteen years of using it.
We've always had an "images" folder within the root of our projects. We never saw this "image disappearing" problem until now. After pulling my hair out for a couple of days, I think I have nailed down why this is happening (aside from the .cpd clearing).
Envision a project structured like so:
Root Folder
   |---Folder A
   |---Folder B
   |---Images Folder
          |---Folder C
          |---Folder D
If I drag/drop a new image from the resource manager into a topic that resides in Folder C or Folder D, the image is placed in the root of the project. Okay, not ideal. Why don't images dragged/dropped out of the resource manager retain the resource manager's folder structure? Another post for another day...
Regardless, I want to move the image to my images folder. If I then drag/drop the image from the root of the project folder into the Images Folder, the rhsharedresource.apj is updated, and the link is retained no problem. All right! This is what I want to see, as I already have too many snippet files doomed to be in the root of the project because they can't be moved and are already causing lag when opening and working in projects. Another post for another day...
As long as the new image is only referenced in topics residing in or beneath the Images Folder in the project's structure, the image will never disappear from
the project manager, even when the.cpd is cleared. This is because the topics referencing the image in the Images Folder are within the Images Folder's folder structure.
If the image added is then added to any folder above the Images Folder in the project's structure -- Folder A or Folder B -- the next time RoboHelp is closed and reopened (if you have clear the .cpd checked in RH Options) the image is gone. BAH! GAH! UGH!
Remove the reference to the image from the topics in Folder A or Folder B and the image reappears in the Images Folder the next time RH is opened. Wow, magical!
So, if you never move an image from the Root Folder of the project, you will never see the image disappear from the project manager because it is at the highest level possible and every folder within the project will be beneath the image in the folder structure.
Sure, if the image disappears, you can rename the folder, add a topic, etc. the project manager refreshes and all of the images magically reappear. But, as soon as you close RoboHelp and clear that .cpd, they're gone again.
That's what I've found. Too bad we personally can't restructure the projects we're working on because of a dim-wit Dev call forced on us to use static URLs instead of map IDs to call the topics.
Anyway, I am thinking a project structured like this is now the way to go:
Root Folder
     |---Images (aka Resources) Folder
              |---Topics Folder A
              |---Topics Folder B

One of the folders of Robo Help Project Manager is listed twice in Windows Explorer.

Hello Everybody,
One of the folders of Robo Help Project Manager is listed twice in Windows Explorer. One has all the subfolders and topics of it and the other has all the subfolders but not the topics. How did I get into this kind of situation? Why do I have two folders? Can somebody please answer on this?
Since my RH project is attached to Visual Source Safe (VSS), the same structure is mirroring in VSS.

Hi there
After reviewing the image I see that what you might think are two of the same folder are two different folders similar in name.
One is named Advanced_Functionality. The other is named Advanced_Funtionality (note the missing C).
I'm assuming this is the folder you are referring to?
Cheers... Rick
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Selecting all items in Project manager

Using Robohelp HTML 9.
My main problem is getting the TOC to alphabetize. I have searched and read the two topics on this but the solution doesn't work for me.
The solution was to alpha the PM list, then delete the current TOC topics and drag and drop the newly alphabetized PM topics over to the TOC, but I can only drag one topic at a time from PM and move it over to the TOC pane and drop it? Surely there must be a way to grab them all and drag and drop?
Then I thought maybe I need to do it from the TOC folder in Project Manager? But when I open the TOC folder under PM it just shows me the name of my help file rather then a list of TOC topics.
So I'm stumped, this is a new product for me and my self learning is not very far along but I'm trying!
Thank you! Below I have posted a screen shot of what I am trying to do. Ahd below that the TOC folder under PM just shows me the filename?

Hi there
You would likely have better luck selecting topics in the Topic List pod. In that pod you can sort topics alphabetically and even filter the view to specific folders.
Just select the topics in the pod, then click the column of icons and drag to the TOC to insert.
Cheers... Rick
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RSC Files Not Appearing in RH Project Manager

My three-writer group has experienced a number of RoboHelp/RoboSource Control problems in the last week.
First this is our setup:
1. Two writers with 64-bit Windows 7, and one with 32-bit Win 7. We all have the latest patches and updates.
2. Our RSC database is on a remote machine that has 32-bit Win XP.
After a time where our group successfully updated our project, I was given a new laptop with Win 7 (I had previously had a 32-bit Win XP desktop), we have now encountered the following problems:
1. No one can open a RH project from version control. We go through all steps and when we open the XPJ icon it finally crashes after taskbar status messages of something like "Querying version control." It thus crashes at one of the final steps in opening a project from the database.
2. Even on our remote machine, I cannot open a RH project from version control.
3. For some unknown period of time, it appears that the three of us have not had our changes uploading to the database because nobody's desktop RH project looks the same. Out of the three of us, I have many--but not all--of my changes up at RSC. I have no idea where my colleagues' changes went.
4. An unspecified number of files are listed in RSC as well in the File Status pod in RH but they are NOT appearing in the Project Manager pod. If I try to move one image file with the same name into a folder where the original should be, RH displays an error message saying that it already exists there--even though I cannot see it in Project Manager nor interface with it.
I have used RH for 11 years but RSC for just 1-2. I have never seen behavior like this before and it's really brought our entire OLH efforts to a halt. Can anyone tell me what I might do to restore, if not the database, a version of the XPJ that has as many of our changes that DID make it to RSC?
Thank You,
Chris
Varian Medical Systems

I have amended the title of the thread for the simple reason that I don't do source control. I guess you've just added another reason why.
Sorry but I cannot help you on this one.
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
@petergrainge

Baggage files in folder, in rhbag, NOT shown in Project Manager

We use RH7 and have significant numbers of baggage files per project. We import the baggage files, they show up, life is good. We drag/drop to them all over the place. Then you rebuild the .cpd file and more than 50% of them disappear. They are still in the folder, they are STILL in the rhbag file. They just don't show in the project manager, which makes drag/drop pretty darn tough. Also leads to duplicates with slightly different names as authors try to 'fix' the problem.
I painstakenly add them back in...only to have them all disappear the first time I rebuild the .cpd. The same ones stay...the same ones disappear.
What is the issue? This is so frustrating and there is no good answer to provide to people.
Does anyone have a solution that works? Does RH8 fix this? Thank you!!!!

Hi Teri
How's the supply of Dissident going? Any left in the cellar?
Last time you had a problem project, it was the number of images behind the problem. That didn't stop the images appearing but it affected the project in other ways. You say this project has 7,000 images. Isn't that the sort of level that gave you problems before? What is the number of images in the biggest project in the merge you finally created?
Maybe the symptom is the baggage files not appearing in Project Manager but that doesn't mean they are the cause.
What is the file size of this project zipped up? No I don't want you to send it, I want to compare it with the last one that gave grief and was over 100mb as I recall.
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

RoboEngine is not publishing RoboHelp Projects

Hi All,
We are currently using RoboHelp 2.0 that is installed on Windows NT box. We wanted to migrate our RoboHelp Projects from NT box to Windows 2003 Server.
I have installed RoboEngine Configuration Manager 2.00.082 on Windows 2003 server but not able to publish the existing projects.
Do you have any idea what are the steps need to be followed to configure the existing projects?
Is there any settings we need to change for Windows 2003 server? Is Windows 2003 server supports RoboHelp 2.0?
Kindly help me to fix that issue.
Thanks for your help.
M.P.

Hi Mahesh and welcome to the RH community.
That sure is an old copy of RH. Adobe is currently up to version 8 of both the RH Client and RH Server applications so I'm not surprised if things don't work as you'd expect on Windows Server 2003.
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RoboHelp project management strategy

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