screen very slow to update

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William_
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screen very slow to update

Unread post by William_ »

Hi,

Using the Project Files | Topic Files | Topics tree menu item I see all the topics displayed in the righthand panel:
Image

Unfortunately the panel seems to update very slowly, mainly just the modified date and build option and topic staus. When another window obscures the panel then removed (or a minimise and restore of the program is done on the toolbar) , then the screen once again updates very slowly. Pretty certain the problem lies with H&M as I do not see this on any other program on this machine.

Thanks

William.
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Tim Green
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Re: screen very slow to update

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi William,

Where is your project located? My guess is that it is on a network drive and that you have network problems.
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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William_
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Re: screen very slow to update

Unread post by William_ »

Hi Tim,

Yes the project is on a network. No network problems to speak of. It is Samba.
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Tim Green
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Re: screen very slow to update

Unread post by Tim Green »

Try moving a copy of the project to a local drive. Does this solve your update speed issues?
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William_
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Re: screen very slow to update

Unread post by William_ »

Hi Tim,

I have tried it locally and it has not improved the situation seemingly at all.

Perhaps you could say if it works fine locally where you are and also what network it works fine on?
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Tim Green
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Re: screen very slow to update

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi William,

This isn't generally a known issue. Just to check, what is your Help & Manual version number (check with Help > About)? It should be 5.5 Build 1296.

One thing that can seriously slow down updating is if you have orphaned network references that no longer exist in your Help & Manual configuration or your project. Check for them in these places:
  • The Recent Projects list on the right when you select the Welcome node in the Project Explorer. Click on the trash can icons to delete any of those that are no longer valid (displayed in red).
  • In your project, select Configuration > Common Properties > Project Search Path in the Project Explorer and delete any paths that are no longer valid. Orphaned network paths here can cause huge delays because Windows still does such a poor job of resolving non-existent paths.
  • Also check Common Properties > Help Windows:HTML Help Options and make sure there are no orphaned network references in the jump targets there.
  • Similarly, if you have inserted any linked snippets or OLE objects in your project from network references that no longer exist these can also cause updating delays.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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William_
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Re: screen very slow to update

Unread post by William_ »

We use it on a network.
You have not been forthcoming regarding whether it is a known issue which is very tiresome.
Version 5.5.1 Build 1296.

Recent Projects list - just active existing projects.
No orphaned network paths in Project Search Path
No jump targets used at all in HTML Help Option
No linked snippets nor OLE object in any project
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Tim Green
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Re: screen very slow to update

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi William,

Sorry if that wasn't clear -- this is definitely not a generally known issue. That is why I am trying to get as much information as possible to see if there are any factors here that could be relevant. I'm going to ask our software engineers to have a look at the thread and see if they notice anything that might be relevant.
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Re: screen very slow to update

Unread post by Tim Green »

Update: I've now discussed this with our software engineers. Basically, they say that either there is a problem with your specific computer and/or your network, or there are orphaned files being referenced somewhere. Please check the following:

First try accessing the project from another computer. Is it the same or better? This will show us whether it's a general problem or something specific to your configuration.

Next create a small new project with just a couple of topics in it -- for example the automatic topics generated by the new project function -- and save it on your network. Do you get the same slow updating issues there? If so, is it the same on another computer?

If the small project works fine then there is something in your project that is causing the problem. What you can then do is create a copy of it and then successively delete topics and chapters until the problem disappears. The topic or chapter that you deleted just before the problem went away is then the one causing the problem. We can then start to have a closer look at that.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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William_
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Re: screen very slow to update

Unread post by William_ »

I'll send you the entire folder that contains the help project.

it is 20meg - I think there are a significant amount of redundant images in there, is there a feature of the program to show which ones are not referenced by the project?

EDIT I found a non bouncing email address @ec-software.com via trail and error which I have sent the file to.
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