Installing and Activating RoboHelp

Installing RoboHelp

The problems usually arise through RoboHelp being installed without the necessary rights.

RoboHelp's licence is to the user so when RoboHelp is installed, the logged on user MUST be whoever is to use that copy of RoboHelp and they MUST have full administrative rights on the PC.

Many IT departments do not give users that level of rights. What you need to do is get them to temporarily assign those rights to you whilst RoboHelp is being installed. Also it is recommended that you run RoboHelp for the first time whilst you have those rights. After that your IT department can restore your rights to the normal level. If they want to see this confirmed by Adobe, point them to this topic on the Macromedia site. Notwithstanding the topic heading, the content confirms it applies to Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

It has been reported that the installation can be done by an IT person using their logon. Whilst that may be true in the sense that the program will install and run, it will ultimately fail. If not immediately later you may be trying to resolve some RoboHelp problem with no clue as to the cause. The cause may well be that it was installed in this way!

Do make sure you use the correct key for each user. You may have multiple authors validly using RoboHelp in the sense that you have paid for a licence for each of them. However with versions up to and including RoboHelp Office X3, when RoboHelp is launched it checks for other users on the network using the same copy and locks out both the new user and the existing user. From RoboHelp Office X4 onwards, product activation ensures that the correct key is used when installing.

RoboHelp Office X3 shipped with RoboHelp for HTML Version 3.

RoboHelp Office X4 shipped with RoboHelp for HTML Version 3.1.

RoboHelp Office X4.1 shipped with RoboHelp for HTML Version 4.1.

Finally, if you have problems with the installation crashing, try disabling any anti-spyware and anti-virus programs. I know that often these programs are blamed for everything but a number of posters on the forums have reported not being able to install with one or other such program running, McAffee and WebRoot SpySweeper have both been mentioned. Obviously disconnect from the internet while these programs are disabled!

Activating RoboHelp

One licence entitles the user to activate RoboHelp on two PCs such as an office desktop or laptop and a home desktop or laptop. RoboHelp will run for seven days without being activated.

If you have any problems with activation, then click this link and it will take you to Adobe's page which covers the whole subject very clearly.

The activation process changed in RoboHelp 6. See the section on RoboHelp 6 below.

Uninstalling RoboHelp

If you have problems and need to uninstall RoboHelp completely including any registry settings, see this topic on Adobe's site. The topic relates to version X5 and I have been advised that Adobe RoboHelp 7 does clean up the registry so that no such procedure should be necessary.

In the topic Adobe warn not to delete the any licence keys. However, one user who could not install the licenced version after running the trial version was told by Adobe that they should delete the licence key for the trial version. If your problem is related to installing RoboHelp following use of the trial version, I suggest you contact Technical Support.

Deactivating RoboHelp

As above, the licence permits RoboHelp to be used on two PCs. From RoboHelp 6 onwards, it is important that you note that if you attempt to activate a third installation, it will not be permitted. If you want to install RoboHelp 6 after it has already been installed and activated on two PCs, such as installing on a replacement PC, it is important that you deactivate it on the old PC first. If for any reason that cannot be done, then contact Adobe's activation team. See the section below on RoboHelp 6 and follow the link there.

Do not confuse Installing with Activation or Uninstalling with Deactivation. You can install without activating and you can deactivate without uninstalling.

RoboHelp X5 and Word 2003

If you are a Word 2003 user you will find that when you install RoboHelp X5 it may not offer Word 2003 on the list of compatible versions that you can use. This is because Word 2003 came out after X5 and the early CDs did not cover it. Here's the procedure.

1. Install Word 2003 and any MS service packs that are going to be deployed.
2. Install RoboHelp X5. It will offer Word XP as the highest. Accept that and click continue when it whinges it cannot be found.
3. Install RoboHelp Service Pack 2. You can skip Service Pack 1 as it is contained in Service Pack 2. To do that go to RoboHelp's Help menu and select Check for Updates OR close RoboHelp and it will prompt you that an update is available.

After you have installed the update, RoboHelp will work quite happily with Word 2003.

RoboHelp 6

See my separate topic on installing RoboHelp 6.

RoboHelp 7

I will be adding another topic covering RoboHelp 7.

Troubleshooting

Although written for RoboHelp 7, Adobe have produced a troubleshooting guide that contains information relevant to earlier versions.