links not displaying in .chm file

[maxine_dye]

Hi,
I have been working on a new help file project. I am getting a problem on some of the generated pages (which contain hyperlinks) in the .chm files. I create the help page & the hyperlinks. These work fine in test mode.
When I generate the help, the pages open fine, but the hyperlinks no longer display (or work!).
Specifically they have lost their underline indicating they are a hyperlink & text colour has gone back to being the normal 'black' for general text.
This problem occured in some help files in this project a few days ago. I fixed it by re-creating these pages & the associated links. However, since doing more work, it has appeared in another page.
I read here that someone else had a similar problem & someone suggested it may be the length of text in the link name, but that doesn't seem to be the problem in my files....
I would prefer to not have to re-create pages everytime to resolve this & not have to scroll the whole project each time I generate to make sure the links haven't dropped off pages - so if anyone has any ideas why this is occuring, I'd really appreciate hearing from you!!
I am using RoboHelp x5 on a machine running XP.

I hope someone has some ideas....!

thankyou
Maxine

[Captiv8r]

Hi Maxine

Are you using any Build Tags? If you exclude topics using build tags and a build expression, the links are also no longer links.

Cheers... Rick

[maxine_dye]

Hi Rick,

Thankyou for your quick response.
Yes, I am, but this is a topic that is being included in this particular build, not excluded. Other topics with the same conditional tag which also use links do not seem to be affected....
That's why I'm abit confused & can't work out why it works ok if I re-create the topic.....
Do you have any more ideas what might be going on?

regards
Maxine

[Captiv8r]

Hi Maxine

Not to doubt you, but are you absolutely certain that this topic otherwise exists? Can you post the file name here? I know you mentioned the length of the file name not being something you feel would be a factor, but I'm wondering if perhaps the whole project location could be a factor. For example, I've seen projects where the main Project name and location are something like this:

C:\Program Files\RoboHelp Office\RoboHTML\Projects\Callahan

And if you close RoboHelp, take that Callahan folder and rearrange it so it perhaps is like this:

C:\Projects\Callahan

Things improve.

Might be worth a shot... Rick

[maxine_dye · Accepted solution]

Hi Rick,
That's ok - there is probably every reason to doubt me - I am quite rusty with RoboHelp, so chances are it is me!!
Yes, the topic definitely exists... but if full path name can effect, then that could defnitely be a problem....

the path to the link is:
../../General_functionality/Printing_and_Exporting/Print_and_Export.htm

& the full project location (going down to the folder where the link won't work from is:
My Documents\test APRE HELP FILES\APRE_Front_End_User_Guide_Files\APRE_screen_overview\APRE_screen_overview_menus

But why is it only occurring in this help page & not with links on any other pages?

I think u have solved it - I just tried adding a link to the topic to another topic in the same sub-folder & it works fine. So I'll rename these folders & see how I get on.

thankyou very much for your help!!

regards
Maxine

[Peter Grainge]

I wonder if it could just be the sheer length of that path. Try shortening it.

F_E_Guide, oview etc would help.

[maxine_dye]

Peter,
Thankyou for reponding - as per my previous post (marked as being the answer) yes, Rick's suggestion re: file lengths did solve the problem!

regards
Maxine

[Peter Grainge]

Sorry, bad reading day.