Object reference not set to an instance of an object

[Sue]

I've been able to successfully build my mobile output for a few weeks now (it's even integrated into the mobile app), and suddenly this morning I'm getting an error and can't compile.

I keep getting this compile error:

Object reference not set to an instance of an object

This error occurs right after I get the error message "Can't find system stylesheet C:\Program Files (x86)\MadCap Flare V6.1\Flare app\Resources\Schemas\htm\htm.css"

Unfortunately, the htm folder doesn't exist within my schemas folder so I can't take a look at it.

The only change I made this morning was to try to change the color of the toolbar in my skin. I backed that change out. I noticed some other posting about encountering this error in webhelp when empty or hidden properties existed in the stylesheet, but when I took a look at my stylesheet in a text editor I couldn't find anything. Any ideas?

Thanks.

[nickatwork]

Have you made any cahnges to your stylesheet recently? I had that exact error on mine and it was caused by styles being used in my output that I was hiding in the styles toolbar, this put a "mc-disabled: true;" tag around the style and that caused the error. Flare usually throws these in at the end of the stylesheet so I'd have a look there first.

[Sue]

Thanks for the suggestion. I opened my stylesheet in a text editor and couldn't see anything unusual. I hadn't made many changes to my stylesheet so I deleted it and created a new one and I still get this error. I'm opening a support case. Thanks!

[rob hollinger]

Sue,
This should have been answered.
There were <span> tags outside the Body tags in a topic. Removing those tags should have fixed the issue.

Generally to locate the problem topic, when the compiler quits and produces an error, click OK on the error message.
Then in the compiler window, click on the Messages tab.
The last topic listed is generally the topic that contains the issues.

[techwriter31]

I received the same error, but in my case it seemed to be tied to a specific conditional tag. If I set the tag to include = no error. If I set the tag to exclude = error. I needed to exclude these topics and I was only using this as a test project to provide a mobile webhelp example, so I simply deleted the unneeded tags and topics and no more error.