Launching one.chnm from another .chm

[Guest]

Can we launch one .chm from within another .chm? I tried but it displayed "The page cannot be displayed."

I need to have links between different .chm files. Is it impossible?

[RoboColum_n_]

Hi Meenakshmi.
It certainly is. How are you linking to the CHM file? I'd go for the "Link to - Remote Topic" from the hyperlink dialog. Point to the CHM and this allows you to choose a topic in it that the link opens. The key to this working is that both CHMs must be in the same directory level. You get a dialog asking if you want to copy the linked CHM anyway so it should be there but it is worth checking.

[Guest]

Sorry, I missed the actual point in my question. Actually, I converted one .hpj to .xpj. In that case, the Remote Topic option is not coming. As a result, I am unable to link one .chm to another one. Is there any solution for this?

[RoboColum_n_]

Hi meenakshmi. Just because you have converted from an HPJ file should not prevent you from linking to an another CHM. What are you linking from? Text? Topic? Graphic? or something else? Can you access the hyperlink dialog at all or is the problem just with the "Link to Remote Topic" part?

[Guest]

Hi,

I am linking from a text. The "Remote" option is not coming.

[RoboColum_n_]

OK. Can you tell me what IS appearing when you attempt to hyperlink using the method described above? Are you able to link to another topic in the same CHM? Can you link to an email address, multimedia file, etc.? If not, can you zip your project up and send it to me so I can take a look.

[Blondie_Luke]

Hello!

This is the exact problem we are having trying to link one .chm to another. I have the "Link to - Remote Topic" option, I have made sure both .chms are in the same directory, and I still get "The page cannot be displayed." error.

Is there another step I'm missing?

Thanks!

[CraigCC]

Hi Blondie,

Can you post the true code of the link from the topic?

Do you have any strange characters in the filename? Or are there any spaces in the file name, just seem to recall some issues with filenames causing problems with cross linking .chms?

thanks
Craig

Updated 29th June 2006
------------------------
Blondie/Colum,

Just FYI - I've looked through some old notes and found that I did indeed have this problem myself many moons ago. Basically, it was spaces in file names that caused problem for me. I've also seen others reporting issues with special character causing problems. Blondie, if changing the filename does not work for you, please report back with a snippet of code. I'm sure we can sort this one out.

Kind Regards
Craig

[RoboColum_n_]

Spot on Criag. You are right about the special characters and spaces in the CHM file name. I hit this problem many moons ago. I removed all the special characters (e.g. underscores) and spaces and all was fine.

[Blondie_Luke]

Thanks for being patient with me, gentlemen!

Is this the code you would like to see?

<p><a href="Reports.chm::/!SSL!/Microsoft_HTML_Help/ddarpts/TBdda.htm">Trial
Balance Example</a> </p>

I did have underscores in the file name, but removed them (and shortened the name) at your suggestions. It's still not working. I don't normally work with html, so I apologize if the error something very obvious.

Thanks for any help you can offer!

[CraigCC]

It is indeed thanks.

Try removing the full path, that seems to be the problem. You need to link to the same file in the same directory rather than the file in the SSL output folder. That should fix it.

<p><a href="Reports.chm::/TBdda.htm">Trial
Balance Example</a> </p>

When you insert new cross .chm links make sure that you modify the path to the remote topic (check the LinkTo field in the Hyperline window). This full path has been inserted when you browsed to the remote .chm. Easy mistake to make. What I tend to do is keep copies of the .chm that I need to link to in each project folder, that way when you browse the the file (in the project folder) you won't have problems with the path.

Kind Regards
Craig

[Captiv8r]

Hi Blondie

In addition to what fellow Adobe Community Expert Craig offered up, this should go without saying, but may be an issue if you don't think about it. When you link, you do need to typically make sure both files are inside the same folder. Your posted code seems to imply you are linking from one location in one folder to a .CHM inside another folder.

Cheers... Rick

[Blondie_Luke]

Thanks for all your help, gentelmen! I think this is working now. The issue I'm having how is our chms don't work on our network, but I know I can get those answers somewhere else in these forums. I appreciate your help!

[RoboColum_n_]

Actually CHM don't work when run on networks. There are a couple of workarounds. Click here for a further explanation and details of how to get around the issue.

[Guest]

Hi,

my problem is still there. I can find the Remote Link option, if I am creating a neew project. And its working alright. But when the project is converted from the HPJ to XPJ, the option is not there.

[RoboColum_n_ · Accepted solution]

Hi meenakshmi. I think I may have got to the bottom of this one. I've just created a winhelp project and converted it to XPJ. I noticed that the default single source layout is set to Webhelp which does not support linking to remote topics. Take a look at your Single Source Layouts in the Project tab. If Webhelp has "Primary Layout" in brackets after it, that's your problem. To make the CHM file the primary layout, right click on the Microsoft HTML Help layout and select the "Set as Primary Layout" option. Then generate your output and let us know if that solves the problem.

[Blondie_Luke]

Webhelp doesn't support links to remote topics and .chms cannot be run on a network with the security patch loaded. Is there anything available that will support links to remote topics AND can run on a network with the security patch AND is still going to be supported once Vista is released?

[Peter Grainge]

Webhelp can link to any topic you like. If it is outside the project, then you need the correct path from the server where the help is installed to where the target topic is located. I am assuming here you mean a topic that is a .htm file rather than one in a chm.

As to what will happen under Vista, sorry but my crystal ball is awaiting the Vista patch.

[Blondie_Luke]

Sorry for being so ignorant, Peter, but as I've said before we've been using .hlp, therefore we are not familiar at all with other formats. When you say "you need the correct path from the server where the help is installed to where the target topic is located." do you mean I have to hard code the end location of the htm or does the htm just have to be in the same directory, similar to what needs to be done when linking .hlp files? If we just need everything in the same final directory, WebHelp will work fine. If we need to hard code the path, we will need a different solution as we have no control over where our end users install their documentation. I've read the information about .chm files that Colum referred to me, and forwarded that information to our programmers. We would rather use WebHelp if possible.

Am I asking you to say "Blondie, you should use XXX instead of XXX."? Well, no I'm not. I just need these questions answered before we do mass conversions to one platform and find out we should have gone a different way.

Thanks for any and all help/opinions you give! They really are helping us make our final decision.

Blondie

[Peter Grainge]

When you create a link to a topic that is also part of your project, if you look at the underlying html there will be a relative path to that topic. I am assuming here you understand the difference between a relative and an absolute path, if not your developers will help you on that.

In that situation, you tell RH which topic the link is to and RH works out the path.

In the situation where you want to point to an html file that is not part of the project, RH cannot work it out for you. So you have to write that path into the html of the topic with the link. To do that you can either write the path as a relative path or as an absolute path. Either will work.

Is that a bit clearer?

The difficulty you have introduced in your last post is that you are talking about targets over which you say you have no control. So how can you even name the target file, much less write the path? Clarify that and perhaps we can suggest something.

[Blondie_Luke]

Hello all,

I apologize for not responding the last post directed at me. I'm off on other projects and won't be able to do much with the conversion for a couple months now. I do appreciate your help and will probably be back with more questions later. Thanks again, gents!

Blondie

[Guest]

Hey Colum,

You are amazing. Your solution is just what I was looking for. Thanks.

Meenakshmi