Strange Index and Search behavior

[Guest]

Hello,

When the WebHelp I've created is viewed in Firefox 2.0 and Safari on a Mac, the Search button does not reveal a search box, but instead looks like an index, with some of the words followed by numbers, and some words in bold text. This does not occur on Windows machines. Is there any way to correct this problem in WebHelp?

Thanks!

Jennifer Bennett

[GAE5656]

I am seeing the same thing, but in Windows XP using either IE7 or Firefox 2.0.

[HKabaker]

I use XP and Firefox 2.0.0.3. The Index performs the same as in IE.

Possible issues related to the Index defaulting to the more primitive form:

Did you generate WebHelp DHTML > Applet > Html?

Do you have browser security settings to allow ActiveX? Popups?

Are files present in whdata, whgdata and whxdata ouput directories?


Oops, I forgot you said Mac OS. I'm not sure whether the RH Index function works there. I defer to our colleagues.


Harvey

[GAE5656]

I generated previously with only HTML. I generated it again, this time using DHTML, and there are now and index and search box to type in.

[MarkAJohnson]

I'm missing the Search text box on Mac after generating DHTML or pure HTML - in Safari, Firefox, and IE. Up until now we have been generating FlashHelp and never had this problem.

-Mark

[HKabaker]

Check browser security, privacy and advanced settings to be sure they allow ActiveX controls, Javascript, etc., and do not block popups.

What happens when you generate with Applet enabled?

Harvey

[Peter Grainge]

Interesting. Would this be merged webhelp by any chance? I found today that on a Mac a single webhelp project ran OK but not merged webhelp. The latter has exactly the problem you describe.

[MarkAJohnson]

This is not merged webhelp and I have double checked to be sure the browsers allow ActiveX controls, JavaScript, and I disabled the popup blockers.

I get the same problem with or without the Java Applet and with or without DHTML (I've tried all four options under "Navigation Pane Preferred Format."

Looks perfectly fine in Windows.

I imported an old WinHelp rtf when I started this project, and also imported some FrameMaker MIF files - not sure if this would have anything to do with it.

-Mark

[StephieO]

I've had the same experience: different options come up for Search on Mac browsers(Safari, Firefox) than on PC browsers (IE, Firefox). I am using RoboHelp 5 (actually, RoboHelp HTML) and generating a non-merged project using the DHTML option. I am wondering if others experiencing this issue are using version 5 or 6, since I am trying to figure out if this issue has been fixed in 6.

Thanks!

Stephanie

[HKabaker]

Stephanie,

Welcome to the forum.

The quick answer is, no.

RH discriminates among browsers, but needs to be updated. I have a bug report / feature request pending with Adobe.

Mac OS doesn't handle DTHML. Because they are not routed through DTHML code, Mac browsers show the list with each term linked by topic numbers it assigns to the database. It doesn't much matter how you generate (maybe applet works; I'm not sure). You can see a bit of the different approaches by opening files in the whdata, whgdata and whxdata output folders with a text editor (or xml editor, in whxdata).

Some PC browsers also get this default treatment.

Harvey