Hi there
Not uncommon and many confuse the two. Here's the deal. The
start page is where you point the users. The purpose of the start
page is to divide the browser window into different areas for the
Main Toolbar, Navigation Pane, Navigation Toolbar and Topic Pane.
(Topic content displays in the topic pane). The last action to
occur after the start page loads up is to present the Default Topic
to the user. So think of the Default Topic as simply the first page
of content the user will see in the Topic Pane.
If you just open a topic directly, the show link often
appears (if you have that option configured when you gen the files)
because the topic senses it isn't in the WebHelp frameset. Click
the show link and the WebHelp frameset presents with the topic.
Fellow Adobe Community Expert Peter's excellent site will show you
how to create links that will open specific topics with the
frameset loaded up.
Note that if you are curious as to how to get the URL to
accomplish that, look at your address bar after you click the show
link.
Cheers... Rick