RH8 Captivate demos do not work in .chm

[sangeetaaugustine]

Hi,

I had created some Captivate demos independently (out of Robohelp) and had inserted them into my topics. I am very sure I was able to view them at least two months ago ( that was when I was working on those specific topics). However I have encountered a problem now, wherein I can see the demos with the Preview topic option and not when I compile and generate a .chm.

I have not moved the files around so there is no change in their location. What am I missing here?

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Sangeeta

[Captiv8r]

Hi Sangeeta

There could be multiple gremlins at play here.

To start with the obvious, what is your operating system? I ask because if you say Windows 7 64 bit, that's likely the reason.

The CHM file depends on elements of Microsoft Internet Explorer to present parts of the CHM. There is not yet a Flash Player for IE 64 bit.

Cheers... Rick

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[sangeetaaugustine]

Hi Rick,

Yes, I am wokring on Windows 7, 64 bit OS. Just wondering how the demos had worked earlier (two months ago) and could have stopped working now.

Thanks,

Sangeeta

[Captiv8r · Accepted solution]

Hello again

When a CHM is opened in Windows 7, it uses the HTML Help engine. (HH.EXE). Windows 7 64 bit has two different HH.EXE versions. If you double-click a CHM, it executes the 64 bit CHM viewer. It's possible that when you looked before where things were working, you were seeing the 32 bit version (which presents Captivate demos and other Flash content nicely).

Take RoboHelp HTML for example. If you compile a CHM, then use Windows Explorer to find and open the CHM, it executes the 64 bit viewer and no Flash content works. But if you open the CHM from RoboHelp HTML by either clicking View Result or by right-clicking the SSL and choosing to view the CHM, you get the 32 bit version and the Captivate and Flash demos work.

Hopefully this helps... Rick

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[sangeetaaugustine]

Thanks Rick.  Your asnwer perfectly suited my case.

Is there any way that for a 64 bit machine running on Windows 7, I can open the HH.EXE with a 32 bit viewer (and also set this as default)?

Regards,

Sangeeta

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

Funny you should ask. I'm doubful that you would be able to control this on an end user's PC, but I asked Adobe about it and here is the response that was provided to me.

The 32bit version of HH.exe is kept in "C:\Windows\SysWOW64". When you double click a CHM file on a 64 bit machine, it launches the 64 bit version of hh.exe kept in C:\Windows or C:\Windows\System32 directory. To launch a CHM with 32 bit version hh.exe, run the following command in a 64 bit machine C:\Windows\SysWOW64\hh.exe <CHM file Path>

Hope this helps... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links RoboHelp Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7, 8 or 9 within the day! Adobe Certified RoboHelp HTML Training SorcerStone Blog RoboHelp eBooks

[sangeetaaugustine]

Have to admit, not one of my brightest moments....

I think I should go home now!

Thanks again Rick.

[sangeetaaugustine]

Dear all,

Thanks for the response on running Captivate videos on 64 bit machines.

Rick, I am not sure what I could be doing wrong here. Despite following the instructions on changing the filepath in SysWOW64 for the hh.exe, I am not able to run the video. When compiled, the page containing the video comes up without any content. However when I run it in a 64-bit viewer, the page at least has an X indicating that the video path could not be traced.

Any tips would really be appreciated.

Thanks

Sangeeta

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

You should be able to go into Windows Explorer and set the file associations for .chm files to open with the 32 bit version of HH.EXE as long as you know where it's located. I forget if Rick mentioned that in his post.