No content displaying in .CHM output content pane

[vancouver-tech-writer]

I have just published to .CHM, my TOC displays fine but there is no content for any topic in the content pane.
Could you help you understand how to fix?

I published to .CHM with no skin.

Thanks.

[Tim Green]

Hi Steve,

You are probably trying to open the CHM on a network drive. This is normal, unfortunately, and applies to all CHMs when they are opened from network drives, not just those generated by Help & Manual. It is caused by a Microsoft security update introduced several years ago that prevents HTML Help files from being opened on network drives or the Internet. If you store and open your HTML Help file on your local computer it will run normally.

Generally, this means that CHM files should be used for help installed locally on the user's computer together with the software. For help accessed on networks or the Internet you need to use WebHelp accessed in a browser.

Programmers can solve the problem by adding code to their applications to make a local copy of the CHM file on the user's computer and then making their help calls to this copy. See this posting for instructions and example code:

http://helpman.it-authoring.com/viewtop ... =5&t=10874

However, since H&M makes it very easy to publish the same project to both CHM and WebHelp (it's just a question of selecting a different output format when you compile) it's no problem to produce different version for each scenario: HTML Help for help that must be installed on local computers and Webhelp for help on networks.

There is also one other case where you can experience this: If you mail or otherwise send a CHM file via the Internet (without packing it in a zip or other compressed archive for mailing) Windows will notice this and will automatically block the CHM as a security measure. When this happens you can unblock it by right-clicking on it in Windows Explorer, selecting Properties and then "Unblock" at the bottom of the Properties dialog displayed.

[vancouver-tech-writer]

Silly me, Tim. Was quite sure I had outputed to my C: drive. But you're right; on checking was outputting to the network folder where the project resides. I knew about the network limitation so the yolk's on me. Sorry for that.

Still working on a way to get help to display in my CMS-managed website. Will let you know what I come up with.

[marcf]

Tim, Steve,

I've solveld this problem.
Applying the "reg-fix" KB896358_FIX.reg (found on this site), the content is shown after "publishing". Even when the output is put directly on a network-share.
On a Windows 7 64-bits laptop, I had to apply the fix 2 times (32 bits & 64 bits). After doing so, everything works fine!


Marc

[Tim Green]

Hi Marc,

Don't celebrate too soon: On 64-bit Windows it may sometimes seem to work but mostly it won't. Microsoft is now absolutely determined to prevent access to CHM files on network drives, so don't expect the situation to get better. Anyway, our new eBook compiler is going to be coming soon and that is going to solve the problem much more elegantly, with a single-file WebHelp-based eBook that you can make context calls to in the same way as to a CHM file. It turns your WebHelp output into a help file, with the full WebHelp interface. See this thread in the forum if you are interested in trying out the beta and providing feedback:

http://helpman.it-authoring.com/viewtop ... =5&t=12930