The Logical Blog by IconLogic

Want to Reverse Engineer a CHM into a RoboHelp Project?

The following is from Mocha Tosses:

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Subject: Robohelp...

I have a .chm file, but no .mpj. How do I copy what's in chm file into RoboHelp?

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If you intend to copy legacy projects from older versions of RoboHelp for Word or RoboHelp HTML versions older than X5, the ideal situation is to have the HPJ file if you have a RoboHelp for Word project, or the MPJ if you have a legacy RoboHelp HTML project.

However, our friend Ms. Tosses doesn't have either. She has an output file (CHM). The good news is that she can use the CHM file to create a RoboHelp HTML X5 project, but the process won't yield perfect results like an HPJ or MPJ would.

If you would like to learn how to "reverse engineer" your CHM file so it can be used in a RoboHelp HTML project, read this enlightening information: http://www.grainge.org/pages/authoring/reverse_engineering/reverse_engineering.htm

Captivate Playback Limitations

I recently received the following email from A. Charles Zoffuto:

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Subject: Captivate Limitations

Kevin,

You mentioned that Captivate has a max frame limit. What was that again?

Also is that count affected by the size?

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Great questions Charles!

The maximum number of frames that the Flash player can render is 16,000 frames. If your Captivate movies exceeds that number, your movie will stop playing. Ouch!

The frame count is affected most by the amount of interactivity and number of objects you have in your movie. To keep the frame count reasonable, I'd recommend keeping your slide count between 70-80 slides, max. If you need to show more of a lesson than will fit in 80 slides, consider breaking the movie into two different movies. You can always link them together!

For more information on the frame limitation of the Flash player, visit http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=tn_14437.