This article describes how to install Adobe RoboHelp 6 and upgrade projects from earlier versions. It also covers how to protect your projects if you do not use source control software.

Although RoboHelp is a very simple program to install, you must adhere to its specific requirements. In this article I describe how to install RoboHelp correctly and in accordance with the license agreement.

For existing users who are upgrading, I explain how to upgrade your projects.

Finally, I describe what you need to do to ensure that when things go wrong, such as your hard disk crashing, you can easily get going again.

Requirements

RoboHelp 6

• Try
• Buy

• To protect your projects, you will need either a backup program or a copy of an archiving program such as WinZip.
• No prior knowledge of RoboHelp is required, but this topic does not cover the creation of a RoboHelp project.

After explaining how to install RoboHelp, I assume you have an existing project that you want to use with RoboHelp 6. I also assume that you do not want to protect it using source control software, or that you will be using the new RoboSource Control 3 software, which is covered in Getting started with RoboSource Control 3 in RoboHelp 6 on the Adobe RoboHelp Developer Center.

Installing RoboHelp 6

This section covers some very important points to ensure your copy of RoboHelp works properly.

Before you start

Before you install RoboHelp 6, it is recommended that you uninstall your earlier version or the evaluation version. While RoboHelp 6 can be installed side by side with earlier versions, single installation is recommended. There are some things that you need to be aware of and these are covered in detail in the Getting Started Guide that accompanies boxed versions of RoboHelp. You can download an electronic version of the Getting Started Guide on the Adobe RoboHelp support site. The items to be aware of are summarized here:

• Uninstalling earlier versions removes the program files only; nonetheless, if your projects are saved within the program folder structure (not recommended), create backup copies and save them elsewhere.
• If you have modified any of the supplied templates such as RoboHelp.dot, the installation routine creates a file called Copy of RoboHelp.dot, you may wish to create your own copy somewhere else in case you need styles from it at a later date. You must not use that template in RoboHelp 6, but you can incorporate any styles you have amended or created. I cover how to do in the section called Template Styles.
• If you have a version earlier than Version 9.1 and you have customized Phrase Lists, Stop Lists, "Always Ignore" Words Lists or .LNG files in any of your projects, they will not be used in RoboHelp 6 because of the different file structure. The file extensions are PHR, STP, WLF and LNG and they will be found in the root of each project if you have used them. You need to open them using a text editor and recreate the information using the RoboHelp 6 interface.

What your license agreement permits

Volume Licensing Agreements allow RoboHelp 6 to be installed on the number of PCs specified in the license agreement and activation is not required.

All other license agreements are specific to one user per license but that permits installation on a second PC for the same user provided both PCs are not in concurrent use. Activation is required as described below.

With both types of license, RoboHelp must be installed with the login of the designated user. That user must have local administrative rights on his or her PC at the time of installation. This does not require your systems administrator to breach any company policy about your rights on an ongoing basis. These rights are just required during installation and, in the case of RoboHelp for Word, the first time that you use the program. These are all steps that your systems administrator can oversee while you perform them, and afterwards, your rights can be restored to whichever level meets the policy.

It is vital that your systems administrator does not install RoboHelp using his or her own login credentials, thinking that it already has the required rights and that will be OK for installation purposes. While RoboHelp may appear to install correctly, it will not be long before you realize that you cannot perform certain vital tasks.

Where to install RoboHelp 6

Install RoboHelp on the hard disk of the user's PC. It is important to note that RoboHelp 6 cannot be installed on an application server, even for your own exclusive use. Quite apart from that being a breach of the license, the login requirement referred to in "What your license permits" will mean that it will not run correctly. Performance will be sluggish and data corruption is possible. Some functions simply will not work.

Microsoft Word

You must install the required version of Microsoft Word before installing RoboHelp. RoboHelp 6 will work with Microsoft Word 2000, XP and 2003. RoboHelp 6 can be installed on a PC without any version of Word but you will only be able to use RoboHelp HTML, not RoboHelp for Word. You will not be able to import Word documents or create printed documentation.

Note: RoboHelp 6 is not compatible with Microsoft Word 2007.

Dual (side-by-side) installation

Unlike previous versions of RoboHelp, you can install RoboHelp 6 alongside earlier versions where it is required and provided you have full licenses for both versions. If you upgraded from an earlier version, you are not entitled to continue using the previous version. To run more than one version, you must buy a full license for RoboHelp 6 in addition to your existing license. Do not work on any one project in more than one version, as the later version may make changes not compatible with the earlier version.

Dual installation is only designed to cover situations where different authors have different versions available to them, or where contract authors have to work in different versions for different clients. It is not recommended for most users as once you open a project from an earlier version using RoboHelp 6, it will not be possible to open it again in the earlier version other than through non-recommended and unsupported methods, which may not always work!

Installation

The first time that you insert the installation CD, you will be given the option to choose RoboHelp 6, Adobe Acrobat Elements, RoboSource Control 3, or any combination thereof. Simply choose the combination you require and continue. Each application will be installed in turn.

There will be a separate CD for the web administrator if you are going to install RoboHelp Server 6. This is covered in Adobe RoboHelp Server 6 improves the feedback loop in the Adobe RoboHelp Developer Center.

You do not need to install Adobe Acrobat Elements if you have Adobe Acrobat Version 7 or higher installed, as RoboHelp 6 will work with either version.

Users with an earlier version (Adobe Acrobat Version 6 or lower) will need to consider how they want to work.

• If your version of Word and your version of Adobe Acrobat are compatible, you can install RoboHelp 6 without Adobe Acrobat Elements, create your printed documentation in Microsoft Word, and then generate your PDF file from Microsoft Word.
• If you want to generate directly to a PDF file, or your versions are not compatible, then you will need to uninstall the earlier version of Adobe Acrobat and install Adobe Acrobat Elements. This will, of course, remove some of your existing Adobe Acrobat functionality.

When installing earlier versions of RoboHelp, any installed options were grayed out. In RoboHelp 6, all options will be enabled; but if you choose to install an existing option, that will be detected and the installed options will then be grayed out.

After installation, you will find new icons on your desktop. Instead of the Startup icon that was in earlier versions and which is still available from the Windows Start Menu, you will find separate icons for RoboHelp 6 HTML, RoboHelp 6 for Word and, if installed, RoboSource Control 3 Explorer.

Activation

After installing your selections, when you first run RoboHelp, you will be prompted to activate it. The easiest way to do this is online and it only takes a few moments. If for any reason you cannot activate your installation online, contact Adobe Customer Service using the contact details for your location. You must activate RoboHelp within thirty days of installing it or it will no longer run.

If RoboHelp 6 is installed on a second PC, you will also need to activate that installation. You will be able to install RoboHelp 6 on further PCs but it is only possible to have two activated copies at any one time so you will need to deactivate one installation as described in the next section.

Transferring activation

Note that under Volume Licensing Agreements, activation is not required so this part of the procedure is not necessary. For all other installations, this procedure is new to RoboHelp 6 and it is very important that it is followed. All earlier versions simply required that if you wanted to transfer the license on to another person when, for example, you moved to another role, then you simply uninstalled it from your PC and installed it on the new user's PC, making sure the new user used their login and had the correct rights at the time of installation.

Prior to uninstalling RoboHelp 6 from your PC, you must now select the Help menu and select Transfer Activation. Unless you follow this procedure, you will not be able to activate RoboHelp 6 on more than two PCs. If for some reason activation is not transferred, for example someone leaves the company and their PC is reformatted without transferring activation, you will need to contact your local Adobe office.

You can find further information about activation on the Adobe website.

Template styles

It is important that you do not use RoboHelp.dot from earlier versions as none of these files are compatible with RoboHelp 6. If you have amended the supplied styles or created your own, you can add them to the new template using the Organizer within Microsoft Word. The process for adding a new template using the Organizer within Microsoft word will vary according to your version of Microsoft Word; look within the Microsoft Word online help.

Following those procedures, RoboHelp is a very simple program to install.

Upgrading an existing RoboHelp project to RoboHelp 6

When you buy a new car, you do not take it straight out onto a ten-lane highway during the busiest period of the day with your family on board (I hope!). I hope that you first familiarize yourself with the new controls and features. Do the same with any software before opening up something with hours, weeks, or months of work invested.

It is also a lot easier to understand the new features without the weight of material in your existing project. Take a look at What's New in the online help and give the features a test drive. Once you are happy that you understand the new features, there is just one more step before you open your existing project: make a backup copy. While many projects were used during the testing of this version, it is always possible that you or one of your predecessors customized your project in a way that cannot be anticipated and a problem arises. By creating a backup copy, you protect yourself against that scenario. When I upgrade any software that works on important files, I archive the old source files and name it something like "final_copy_pre_rh_version_nn".

With that precaution, point RoboHelp 6 to any existing project and open it, no matter which version of RoboHelp you used to create it. Each version of RoboHelp is designed to handle projects created in any earlier version.

• You can open RoboHelp for Word projects by browsing to the HPJ file for the project. You can also use the HHP file, but some features will be lost.
• From Version X5 onward, you can open RoboHelp HTML projects by browsing to the XPJ file. You can open earlier versions using the MPJ file.

Take a look at the various folders in Project Manager to see that all the old familiar features are there. Check any build tags you may have used are still present. In short, satisfy yourself that so far, everything is as you expect.

Next, generate new outputs and test those to ensure that everything is as it was before. It is unlikely to be otherwise, but this is about you being reassured that it is the case. Are you happy that the output is doing what it did before? Okay, so that is like knowing that the new car does what the old one did. Now it is time to enjoy the new features in RoboHelp 6. Enjoy!

Protecting your source material without using source control software

If your company requires you to use source control to protect your work, skip this section. Otherwise it is important that you take sensible precautions.

RoboHelp is designed to work with projects stored on the hard disk of your PC. It is important you do not work on projects across a network. Those who frequent the Adobe RoboHelp Forums know that this is a common source of problems. Users of source control are, in fact, transferring the files to their hard disk while they work by checking files in and out from a database stored on a network drive. At the end of the day, those files are checked back in and the company's backup procedures protect them.

Where source control is not used, your company's backup procedures are not likely to cover what is on your hard disk. For that reason, the source material is at risk. If your systems administrator advises you that holding your content on your hard disk is a breach of company policy, then you must explain that there is no option on this, especially if you are to avoid the risk of corrupting your work. What you need to agree upon is a method of ensuring your work is backed up to the satisfaction of the systems administrator. My own procedure is to simply ZIP archive any folder containing a project that I have worked on, add the date to the ZIP file name, and transfer it to an archive folder on the network. By using this system, I have a backup of many versions to which I can roll back. Show this article to your systems administrator so that they understand the issue and work with you.

Summary

Follow these procedures and RoboHelp will enable you to create online help and printed documents to be proud of.

If remembering to back up your projects concerns you, there are many inexpensive utilities available to automate the process.

Where to go from here

• If you have any questions that are not covered in this article, contact your vendor or Adobe.
• Direct licensing questions to Adobe Customer Service.
• Direct activation questions to your local activation center.
• Read the article: Getting started with RoboSource Control 3 in RoboHelp 6

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