Word build error after upgrade to Flare 7

[siggimus]

Since I installed Flare 7 I get an error when I try to build Word output:

Internal error: Access to the path ‘..\Resources\Stylesheets’ is denied.

I‘ve tried all sorts of things – I can build webhelp, html help and pdf, seems everything works except Word. Which doesn't make sense, as they of course all use the path ‘..\Resources\Stylesheets’.

I‘ve tried creating new targets, I‘ve tried to switch output type in a target between pdf and Word, and I only get the error when I select Word output...

And it‘s the same for all the projects I‘ve tried.

Any ideas?

[Nita Beck]

No ideas yet, but I can confirm that I'm getting the same error. I've got Word 2003 installed. If I open the Flare project with Flare 6.1 and try to build from there, I can build the Word target just fine. I'll log a bug report--DONE.

Only workaround I can think of is to build my Word output in Flare 6.1 That's no help, of course, to users who are starting with Flare 7.

[LTinker68]

I just tried this with a test project created in v7 and it built a Word output without errors. It must be something about a v6 project being opened and built from within v7 that's the problem, not with Word generation in general.

As a further test, I copied-and-pasted my stylesheet code from a v6 project into my v7 test project and it still worked. Perhaps you could try that with your project. Create a v7 test project. Copy-and-paste your stylesheet code from your v6 project into the stylesheet file of the v7 test project. Build the test project and see if it works. If it does, then copy the stylesheet file from the v7 test project into your v7 production project and build the production project and see if that works.

[Nita Beck]

Interesting idea, Lisa. But, alas, doesn't work.

I created a new project in Flare 7, basing it on the Sample Book template, which is set up as a PDF target. The only thing I changed was to change the target type to Word. I then attempted to build the target, but got the same Access Denied error.

I have Flare 6.1 and Flare 7 installed on the same machine. How about your setup? Have you ditched Flare 6.1 already?

Interestingly, I closed Flare 7, launched Flare 6.1, and opened the test project there. I was able to build the Word target.

FWIW, I'm getting another Access Denied error in Flare 7 with table stylesheets. I've already logged a bug a few days ago. At this point, MadCap is unable to reproduce, but I have the same error consistently. Something's fishy, I fear...

[RamonS]

Did you restart the system? Maybe some process got hung up and still claims ownership of the file.

[Nita Beck]

Did you restart the system? Maybe some process got hung up and still claims ownership of the file.

Another interesting idea, but still no fix. Restarting my computer did nothing to remedy the problem.

This flaw will be a problem for me when it comes to reviews. Although I produce PDF for my finished print documentation, I produce Word documents to send to my reviewers. At least "generate from Flare 6.1" is an option, though I worry if something will not generate correctly 'cause it depends on Flare 7 functionality.

[rkirkhart]

For what it's worth - i have the same problem and haven't found a solution yet either. I wish the error was a little ( a lot ) more descriptive.

[LTinker68]

When I first created the test project in v7 I used the Empty template. I just created a new test project using the Sample Book I got some error about an URL. I closed the error before making note of the exact text, so I built the project again to get the error, but it didn't happen -- it built without error.

So it's possible that there's a problem with that particular template when used with Word outputs. Try creating a test project using the Empty template and see if you run into the same problem.

[Ryan Cerniglia]

We're taking a look at this issue now and would like to make sure everyone who has come across this issue submits a bug so we can help out everyone individually. You can submit a bug here: https://www.madcapsoftware.com/bugs/submit.aspx

[wclass]

For what it's worth, I have no trouble generating Word documents in Flare 7, either from existing projects or new test ones.

I have Windows XP and Word 2007.

[Nita Beck]

We're taking a look at this issue now and would like to make sure everyone who has come across this issue submits a bug so we can help out everyone individually. You can submit a bug here: https://www.madcapsoftware.com/bugs/submit.aspx

Ryan, you know you're my hero today, right?! He and his colleagues figured this out pretty quickly and got the problem fixed for me.

[siggimus]

I tried creating a new project in Flare 7, and managed to build Word output from it.

Copied that target file to the project with the problem, but got the error.
Copied target from problem project to the new project and managed to build.
So the problem seems to be with the project itself, created in Flare 4 or 5.

I have Windows 7 and Word 2007.

Uninstalled Flare 6.1, so I can't try that, but am tempted do reinstall until this gets fixed.

Submitted a bug report.

[siggimus]

In a reply to my bug report, Ryan suggested I create a blank file named MadCapBlaze.css in this location:

C:\Program Files\MadCap Software\MadCap Flare V7\Resources\Stylesheets\MadCapBlaze.css

After which I still got the error, but my IT guy suggested I run Flare as administrator, which worked. Yay!

So, the solution for me was: create that file + run Flare as administrator, at least when I want to build Word output.

Thanks to Ryan (and Gummi, my IT guy

[JenShumate]

I think this is a problem with some of the templates in Flare 7. I have been generating Word documents all week, and I haven't had any problems. The first one was created using the Book template, and the other was created using the Empty template. Then I created a new project using the Policies/Procedures template and added a Word target. PDF generated fine, but I got the stylesheet error when I tried to generate the Word output. So I went exploring ....

Error message said I didn't have access to C:\Program Files (x86)\MadCap Software\MadCap Flare V7\Resources\MadCapBlaze.css. So I went over to look at the security permissions. Administrator group had full control, users group had "Read & Execute" and "Read" access. I happen to be an administrator on my machine, so I went ahead and gave the Users group Write and Modify access. Interestingly enough, Flare didn't recognize that I'm a member of the Administrators group AND the Users group. If I recall correctly, if a user has two different security levels assigned to them (like me), Windows is supposed to use the higher set of permissions. However, I have heard of problems where Windows uses the lower set of permissions. That appears to be going on here, but I don't know if that's the root issue. Tried generating Word output again, no problems this time.

And then I noticed something that tells me this definitely a problem with one or more templates (at least the Policies/Procedure template, apparently). The screenshot below is the folder structure for C:\Program Files (x86)\MadCap Software\MadCap Flare V7. I installed the application last week (I'm guessing March 3, judging from the folder creation dates, though I don't recall for sure). Around noon today, I created my project from the Policies/Procedure template.


For comparison, here's the folder structure for Flare 6:



In both Flare 6.1 and Flare 7, the MadCapBlaze.css stylesheet exists under MadCap Flare V<version>\Flare.app\Resources\BlazeTargetCompiler. I imagine this is the stylesheet that the project should point to (and, apparently, does for PDF or other targets), but it's creating a duplicate file in the main Flare directory instead. I'm guessing this is the root of the problem that we're all experiencing, but that still doesn't explain the permissions issue. Flare/Windows should have used my administrator privileges, not my user privileges. So there may be another issue there that you need to investigate.

[gmel999]

This is weird! I just did a Word build in Flare 7 for the first time, and it failed with "Internal error: URL not a local file." That's really helpful!! Never saw that one with Flare 6. (....or Flare 5 for that matter...)

It isn't critical for me to do this Word build. The reviewer can mark up a hard-copy PDF, but he preferred to do Word tracking online. Oh well.... We use Word Targets only for some reviews and translation input.

I'd still like to know what's going on, though....

Thanks for any ideas.

Regards,
Mel

[Nita Beck]

Mel (Hi, Mel!), when you try to build and it fails, look on the Messages tab to see at what point the build process is failing. Hopefully that can point you in a direction of which file contains the faulty code. Without more details, it's hard to say what your problem is.

[LTinker68]

Take a look at this post and see if it applies to your situation --> http://forums.madcapsoftware.com/viewto ... t=0#p71506. Specifically, the post by rhollinger or the one above it (that post was put in the wrong thread, so I linked to Rob's post so you wouldn't be confused by the subject line).

[ncmiller]

I am having the same issue with Word 2007 and Flare 7 - can't build MyMSWord - and I unfortunately need to do this today. My guess is the issue has something to do with Win7 permissions. The ability to change the option for Flare so I can "run as administrator" is grayed out, although I am supposed to have administrator rights to my own machine.
I have tried copying the .css file from a help file which I AM able to build successfully, but it doesn't make a difference.
Here's what comes up on the Message tab:
Checking Word version...
Removing previously generated content...
Checking if auto-sync of any import file is needed...
Gathering Glossary information...
Gathering Auto-index information...
Loading Master TOC...
Processing Master TOC...
Generating Glossary...
Processing Page Layouts...
Collecting source files...
Processing source files...
Processing topic: Table of Contents.htm
Compiler (Internal Error): Access to the path '..\Resources\Stylesheets' is denied.
Aborted.
I have done a bug submission.

[ncmiller]

(see my earlier post from today)
I just kept playing around with this and copying .css files and entire help files back and forth. At one point a new Resources folder appeared at the root of my "Documents\My Madcap Flare Projects" folder, and in it was a Stylesheets folder containing MadCapBlaze.css. I copied that file to the Stylesheets folder in my project, and then I was finally able to build MyMSWord.