Links to External Websites Appearing in my Project

[Quiet_in_the_Corner]

Hi,

Got a strange one here . . . it may be network related I guess, but I'm not sure.

I recently finished work on a large WebHelp project. When I outputed it to HTML I noticed that certain words have been 'hikacked' and used as links to external websites - webopedia.com being the most common:

<p class="DocsNormal" align="justify">Federated Instant Messaging (IM) 
 <a href="http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/F/network.html"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">networks</span></a> 
 allow communications across a variety of different IM <a href="http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/F/client.html"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">clients</span></a> 
 and <a href="http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/F/platform.html"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">platforms</span></a>. 
 A Federated IM network, has an open <a href="http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/F/directory.html"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">directory</span></a> 
 allowing other IM networks to message their users. Federated IM networks 
 often communicate using open standards, such as <a href="http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/F/XMPP.html"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">XMPP</span></a>.</p>

It's almost as if Google Adwords or some other site has taken over my document. These are certainly not links that I have put in; I generally only link to other pages within the same document and hardly ever go out to other sites. The only external links I have added to the project are for legitimate sites (Adobe and Avaya).

Has anybody else experienced this, and does anybody know how to stop it happening?

Any help or advice would be appreciated,

Thanks,

Alex

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

Are you noticing this in your source documents? Or is it only appearing in the output? And if it's only in the output, is it happening only on your PC or is it only happening after you upload to the Web Server?

Cheers... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links RoboHelp Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7 or 8 within the day - $24.95! Adobe Certified RoboHelp HTML Training SorcererStone Blog RoboHelp eBooks

[Quiet_in_the_Corner]

Hi Rick,

It's in the source too. Here's the bizarre bit: in the links are not visible in the WYSIWYG view, only in the HTML view.

The workstation I've been using is on the company network and does have access to the outside world, so I'm wondering if there's some external force in action here.

Alex

[Captiv8r]

Hello again Alex

Okay, question here. The document you say is exhibiting the issue, did you create that document yourself? If not, then perhaps whomever created the document to begin with added these links.

I suppose that you could troubleshoot this by creating a fresh document. If the fresh document doesn't have the mysterious links, you can rule out any automated and nefarious forces at play. But if creating the document DOES seem to contain the links, you have other issues at play here that warrant further and deeper investigation.

By the way, is this content originating from a Microsoft Word document or is it just basic HTML pages?

Cheers... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links RoboHelp Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7 or 8 within the day - $24.95! Adobe Certified RoboHelp HTML Training SorcererStone Blog RoboHelp eBooks

[Quiet_in_the_Corner]

Hi Rick,

I created the project using imports from Word docs that I wrote. The links definately were not put in by me.

I'll try creating a new blank project and see what happens.

Alex

[perttime]

Your HTML contains style definitions for the links, that explain why they don't look like links:

<span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">

Do you still have those Word documents? If so, check if the links are there too (not looking like links but still there).

As far as I can tell Webopedia is a real online glossary of computer terms. Someone may have put the links in the Word document on purpose.

[Guest]

Hi,

Yeah, I've noticed the link styling. But the fact remains that these link were not included in the Word files and as far as I know, nobody involved in the project (one other person and me) put them in. The mystery continues.

Alex