Problems editing a Help&Manual Project (.hmxz)

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Rob Davis
Posts: 146
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 9:45 am

Problems editing a Help&Manual Project (.hmxz)

Unread post by Rob Davis »

For a while, I have a symptom that, when going to a topic and selecting anything (text, picture, table etc) using the mouse, the screen of the H&M window goes grey (other windows are unaffected.)
I can move the mouse around, click to position it in a new place, etc fine. The symptom only happens when I select something.

If I double click on the H&M icon in the taskbar, to close and re-open the window, it comes up fine. Also if I navigate to another window and return.
Ever seen behavior like this?

(Possible hint - the H&M application is running on a workstation, all files are on a network server).

I expect you might want me to email the project to you?

Thanks
Rob
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Tim Green
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Re: Problems editing a Help&Manual Project (.hmxz)

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Rob,

In this case it's unlikely that looking at the project would help. This is almost certainly a local configuration issue. The first thing to do is to make a copy of everything on your network location on your local drive and try editing it there. My guess would be that you won't see the effect there, because the issue will most likely be network lag or intermittent network problems.

After that, select Save As... in the File menu and save the project in an empty folder on the network location, but this time in uncompressed HMXP. That is much better suited to working over a network because you're not sending the entire project back and forth, but just the individual component files, which are much much smaller. In addition to that you don't have the risk of damage to a single compressed binary file precluding access to your entire project: If a single file in an HMXP gets damaged it is no big deal. Even the remaining part of the file can be recovered, because it's plain text XML, and all the other files will be unaffected. Generally speaking I would recommend HMXP for all ongoing work.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Rob Davis
Posts: 146
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 9:45 am

Re: Problems editing a Help&Manual Project (.hmxz)

Unread post by Rob Davis »

Hi Tim
Thanks for the quick response - that sounds like a clear summary.
I'm guessing that the 'network lag' may be the culprit - especially because our system is pretty loaded at the moment as we prepare to move offices, and there is a lot of copying going on as people do backups.
I will try moving to an .hmxp project type and see how it goes. (your comments about the security of the files and the danger of losing something are a wake-up call.)
Thanks
Rob
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