Context Sensitive Webhelp and Chrome

[Adina Rabinowitz]

I have implemented context sensitive Webhelp with Chrome.
Normally the first time I click on help, it opens the correct help screen and expands the menu in the TOC to the correct place.
If I close the help and go to a different screen in the application and then press help again, the correct help screen opens but the menu in the TOC on the left is not always highlighted and the help TOC is not expanded. It seems random when it happens. Sometimes the TOC item is highlighted, sometimes not and only rarely does the TOC expand to the correct item.
The correct context sensitive help is opening each time.
Thanks,
Adina

[Tim Green]

Hi Adina,

You are probably trying to open WebHelp locally without a web server. That won't work properly on any browser except Firefox, and it won't work at all in Chrome. You need to put your WebHelp on a proper web server, then it will work.

[Adina Rabinowitz]

It is on a web server. The problem only occurs in Chrome. IE works fine.
The developer asks does the help has problems running on Apache?

[Tim Green]

It is on a web server. The problem only occurs in Chrome. IE works fine.
The developer asks does the help has problems running on Apache?

What version of Help & Manual are you using (you can check this with Help > About)?

Also, how have you formatted your WebHelp? Are you using the integrated templates from your project or have you selected a skin?

If you are using a skin from the Premium Pack, which version do you have installed? You can find the installed version at the beginning of the Help & Manual Premium Pack chapter in the main Help & Manual help.

[Adina Rabinowitz]

I am using Version 6.5.5 Build 3020.
I am not using a skin. I customized the look and feel of the help by editing the options in the Configuration. I have made lots of changes including using custom icons, changing the size of the TOC window, changing the fonts etc.
I just noticed one possibility. Under Webhelp > Navigation I have the following selected:
"When a topic is loaded outside the navigation frame, force it to reload the navigation frame"

Could this be causing the problem? Perhaps it should be deselected?

Thanks,
Adina

[Tim Green]

Could this be causing the problem? Perhaps it should be deselected?

This should always be deselected now because if it is on Google may not index your site. This because the Google algorithm has changed and they now (incorrectly) interpret such reloads as "duplicate content".

The current skins included with Help & Manual and the Premium Pack skins all contain a solution for this problem. When a topic page is opened on its own (for example from a link in a Google search) a link is automatically displayed above the topic title with which the user can reload the topic with the full table of contents interface. For your own links you should use the full syntax index.html?topic.htm, then the full user interface will open correctly.

However, it's unlikely that this is the problem in your case. My guess is that the problem was caused by your edits of the templates. I suggest you try one of the skins included with Help & Manual with the Select Skin bar in the Publish page. Choose one of the skins with the word "integrated" in its name. The old classic skins use deprecated framesets and are meant for legacy applications supporting very old versions of Internet Explorer.

You can make the same changes you made to your own templates to a skin, then you can use it for multiple projects. All the components are in the same place as in a normal project. Just copy the .hmskin file to your project folder so that you can edit it, then open it in Help & Manual like a project (select *.hmskin as the file type to open in the Open dialog to be able to open it).

If you continue to have problems please mail a demo project to support AT ec-software.com (replace the AT with @) and we will check it for you. Please include a brief description of the issue in the mail -- don't just write something like "as discussed on the forum"!!

[Adina Rabinowitz]

So I used one of the integrated skins as you suggested and then edited it. That solved the problem.
Thanks.