Issues with Upgraded H&M 5 Project

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David Michael
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Joined: Mon Feb 05, 2018 9:53 pm

Issues with Upgraded H&M 5 Project

Unread post by David Michael »

I have a project I upgraded from my (very) old H&M 5.

H&M7 is publishing it to CHM, but with issues. When I open the resulting CHM, I get:
1. The stylesheets aren't being loaded.
2. Images aren't being loaded.

I checked out the temporary files, and the stylesheet and images are there. If you open the exported .html files in the temp folder, they look exactly right.

I've toggled a lot of project options and I'm not seeing anything to fix this.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

-David
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Tim Green
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Re: Issues with Upgraded H&M 5 Project

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi David,

We've seen this a couple of times and it is a problem in your general system configuration, outside of the control of Help+Manual. What is happening is that the Internet settings in your environment are locked down so extremely that all file access in HTML files (including those inside a CHM) is being blocked locally. This is most likely to be a group policy applied by your company, because Windows never comes with settings like this.
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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David Michael
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Joined: Mon Feb 05, 2018 9:53 pm

Re: Issues with Upgraded H&M 5 Project

Unread post by David Michael »

It was just how my Windows 10 arrived, I guess. (This is a new laptop.)

I went digging and found the "SmartScreen" option in Internet Edge. I turned that off, and voila.

Thanks!

-David
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Tim Green
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Re: Issues with Upgraded H&M 5 Project

Unread post by Tim Green »

David Michael wrote:It was just how my Windows 10 arrived, I guess. (This is a new laptop.)
I went digging and found the "SmartScreen" option in Internet Edge. I turned that off, and voila.
That's strange. You definitely shouldn't need to disable SmartScreen in Edge to view WebHelp. Were you viewing the file on a web server? That is the case when you are either viewing the WebHelp on your own server or when opened automatically after publishing, when Help+Manual uses its own integrated mini server.

If you just open the file directly from the disk by double-clicking on an HTML file in Windows File Explorer you will have restrictions that you won't have when the WebHelp is installed normally on a server. In particular, Edge recently went through a period where it was completely blocking the contents of scripted pages when opened locally without a server. That appears to have changed again, but generally Edge is still not a good recommendation as your primary browser. Chrome is generally a better choice, or even Internet Explorer, which has got quite good in version 11 and has fewer strange quirks than Edge.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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David Michael
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Joined: Mon Feb 05, 2018 9:53 pm

Re: Issues with Upgraded H&M 5 Project

Unread post by David Michael »

I don't recall turning SmartScreen on when I first got the laptop, so I'm assuming it was on already.

I was just double-clicking the CHM from Windows Explorer to open it. No web server involved. I saw the same issue when launching online help inside other software, not just H&M output.

My primary browser is Chrome, which I installed immediately on receipt of the laptop.

The only setting I changed was SmartScreen, and it fixed the issue. If there is some sub-option I could have flipped, I didn't see any offered.

When I first used H&M after purchasing the upgrade, I was getting a script error on *all* CHMs. That went away after reinstalling the HTML Help Workshop. Also, that problem never occurred during the trial period of H&M, only after entering activation codes.

-David
David Michael
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Re: Issues with Upgraded H&M 5 Project

Unread post by David Michael »

OK. I have no idea what's going on, but now the CHMs are screwed up again. No style sheet loading, no images.

So, no, I guess I don't know what made it work the other day.

-David
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Tim Green
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Re: Issues with Upgraded H&M 5 Project

Unread post by Tim Green »

David Michael wrote:OK. I have no idea what's going on, but now the CHMs are screwed up again. No style sheet loading, no images. So, no, I guess I don't know what made it work the other day.
We need to find out whether this is an isolated or general issue. To do that you need to open a CHM not created by sou. In Windows File Explorer, locate the Help+Manual program folder, which will normally be in C:\Program Files (x86)\EC Software\HelpAndManual7\. Double-click on the helpman.chm file there. Does that open normally?
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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David Michael
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Re: Issues with Upgraded H&M 5 Project

Unread post by David Michael »

It seems to apply to all CHM files. It's not specific to H&M or H&M-created CHMs.

Just something odd on my Windows, I guess. Intermittently odd.

-David
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Tim Green
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Re: Issues with Upgraded H&M 5 Project

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi David,

It's strange that it should be happening on a PC that is both new and not security-configured by a company. Is that Windows 10 Pro, Home or some other version? What antivirus software are you using? (Third-party AV programs frequently cause strange incompatibilities, errors and other problems.)
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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