"...key not present in dictionary" error

[NigelBennett]

Hi
I have the same problem as Pat.Riv reported on Monday October 15 2007 - before updating to 4.0 I had no problems compiling Word output from my project. Now however I get the error message "Internal error: The given key was not present in the dictionary", and the compilation stops. This error always appears at the same topic in the "Messages" list, near the beginning of the compilation process. Pat's report did not describe a solution, so I must now ask if anyone can help me. I have 8 other projects that all compile no problems.

[RamonS]

What you could try is make a backup of the project and then copy and paste the contents of the troublesome topic into a new topic, which then is used to replace the old one. Maybe there is something goofy in the source code of the topic that sends the dictionary into a tail spin.

[NigelBennett]

Hi Ramon
I have now tried your suggestion but unfortunately it didn't make any difference. I then deleted the topic from the TOC and attempted to compile. This time the compilation passed the point where it previously failed, thereby identifying the problem file conclusively, but it failed with the same error a bit further on. So I deleted that topic and tried again, and again it passed the point of failure and stopped at another topic a bit later. It appears that I have several (more than 3) topics in the project that have some code that Flare 4.0 doesn't like. The project compiles fine in 3.1.

[RamonS]

Sad to read this, but it was worth a try and it seems to fix it, but you potential face replacing quite a number of topics. I can see time spent more productively. I recommend that you get in touch with MadCap support and have them take a look at it. Maybe they know what is going on and can give better advice.

[vrouse]

I'm having the same problem as well. Projects that compile fine in Word output in 3.1 do not compile for Word in 4.0. Other outputs for the same project compile in 4.0 just find -- webhelp, html help, etc. It's just the Word output that seems to be giving me fits. Any help will be much appreciated. Thank you.

[kdt]

I have also just upgraded to Flare 4.0 and all of the previsous version. 3.1 targets that I use (HTMLHelp, FrameMaker, WebHelp and DotNetHelp) are working fine. It happens on my last topic just prior to the Index. I removed the both the Index book and the topic before it from the TOC and it finally compiled, but now I get an error that there is an Unresolved link to file (name of topic file where it stopped). This error did not stop processing and I finally got output in Word. If I add that topic back into the TOC, I get the hard error "key not present in dictionary"

[NigelBennett]

This is obviously bad news for all who are effected, but on the other hand, it is comforting to know that this is clearly a Flare 4.0 bug, not just me with finger-trouble... I'll register a bug and see what the folks at Madcap can tell me, and I'll put any solutions here.

[KevinDAmery]

I would recommend for everyone who's seeing the problem to report it rather than letting someone else do it. The more detail Madcap gets, the better, plus the more people report it the more urgent it will become. You can report bugs here:

http://www.madcapsoftware.com/bugs/submit.aspx

[Patt]

I am also seeing this error. The only new twist from what everyone else has posted is that the topic causing the problem is used by multiple targets but only one target gets the error. The other targets complete the build and output to Word just fine.