Problems with Youtube videos.

[mbgg]

I want to add Youtube videos to my projects.

I created a new test project, add a link to a video, and 'published' the project (CHM). When I tried to play the video, i received an error message similar to this:

hm-error1.jpg

After searching through the forum, I found the recommendation to add/modify the following lines in Configuration - HTML Page Templates - Default:

<IF_CHM><meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge" /></IF_CHM>
<IF_HTML><meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge" /></IF_HTML>

This solved the problem !!!

I then added a video link in a real project. Same error so I added the same two lines to the Configuration and the problem was solved again.

I then proceeded to add a Youtube video link to a third project (in a different folder). This time I remembered to add the two lines before publishing but when I tried to run the video, the error message shown above was displayed !

[Tim Green]

Hi Michael,

If you are publishing with a skin the changes you are making in the project will have no effect at all, because the project HTML page template is replaced by the one in the skin. However, if you are publishing with a skin and are still getting this error then your skin is completely out of date and you need to use the new version. I suspect actually that your whole Help+Manual installation is out of date.

1) Update Help+Manual

Download the current installer here and install on top of your current version to update (this won't change any settings etc):

http://www.helpandmanual.com/downloads.html?upd

2) Choose a current CHM skin

When publishing, choose a skin with the word "CHM" in its name from the \Templates\HTML Skins\ folder in the Help+Manual program directory. To do this, click on the Select Skin bar in the Publish screen, then select the small "Open Skin" menu option to navigate to the skin folder and select it.

[mbgg]

Thanks for the prompt reply.

I used a preliminary version of 7.3 (remember the Wingdings fix?). I have now upgraded to the latest version of 7.3 but the problem persists.

I checked the skins for both projects:
- the one that doesn't work uses the skin: "CHM skin, dark blue header, Feature Images.hmskin"
- the one that works has no defined skin ! It is a sub-project of a much larger one so normally I don't publish it independently, hence no skin defined. I now published the 'master project' that contains this sub-project; it uses the same "CHM skin, dark... " . The error message is displayed when I try to run the video from the same topic.

[Tim Green]

Hi Michael,

I've just checked this and something does appear to be wrong. Possibly something has changed at YouTube. We will check this right away. No need to send us any demo files at the moment, the problem is reproducible.

[Tim Green]

Update:

The problem here is simply that by default, skins and templates have the IE rendering mode set to IE=8 by default, for maximum compatibility. You only need to locate this line in your HTML Page Template in the project (if you are not using a skin) or in the .hmskin file you are using (if you are using a skin)


<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=8" />

and change it to:

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=9" />

You can also use the word "edge" instead of "9". If the skin or template is dual-mode (for both WebHelp and CHM) you may find the following lines of code instead:

<IF_CHM><meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=8" />
</IF_CHM><IF_HTML><meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge" /></IF_HTML>

If you do, you just need to replace both lines AND the IF conditions with this single line:

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge" />

[mbgg]

Hi -

Thanks for the solution to the problem.
I edited the skin file as recommended and I am now able to run the video. (Suggestion: add a short explanation on how to edit a skin file)

One comment: if the file is edited to "IE-9" the video frame cannot be expanded to 'full-screen' ("Your browser does not support full screen" is displayed when I click on the icon). However, if the file is edited to "IE-edge" there is no problem displaying the full screen.

[Tim Green]

Hi Michael,

This is actually caused by changes at YouTube. Until recently, everything worked fine with the IE=8 setting that is the default for CHM in all our skins and the standard templates in Help+Manual projects without skins. We're changing this to "edge" everywhere for the next maintenance update, also in the Premium Pack CHM skins.

The elevated 9 or edge setting does have one small drawback: If you look at the topic window in the CHM viewer, you will see that the topic content now overlaps the border very slightly, so that you don't have the normal beveled surround around it. Most users won't notice this, however, and it's generally a small price to pay for having the best possible HTML rendering mode in CHM (even if it is still crippled compared to a full browser).