6 Replies Latest reply: Oct 31, 2014 2:36 PM by salcar1 RSS

    RoboHelp 9 - link to PDF

    salcar1 Community Member
    salcar1 Oct 30, 2014 3:32 PM

      I'm trying to create a link to a PDF that I have added to a baggage file in RoboHelp 9. I drag and drop the baggage file into my help topic, but when I generate the help file (WebHelp) the link doesn't work. It doesn't seem to be related to security settings on my computer in IE11, since I tried it out on other computers and it doesn't work there either.

       

      I'd really appreciate some help in figuring out what I'm doing wrong, since I'd like to link to several PDFs in my help project and open them in a new window.

       

      Thanks,

      Sally C.

        • 1. Re: RoboHelp 9 - link to PDF
          Captiv8r CommunityMVP
          Captiv8r Oct 30, 2014 3:44 PM (in response to salcar1)

          Hi Sally

           

          Are you testing after uploading to a server? Or are you testing locally?

           

          If it's from a server, you should investigate the naming of the PDF and the link pointing to it.

           

          Cheers... Rick

          • 2. Re: RoboHelp 9 - link to PDF
            salcar1 Community Member
            salcar1 Oct 31, 2014 9:51 AM (in response to Captiv8r)

            Hi Rick,

             

            I have tried both on my local machine and a separate server. I renamed the PDF so that there are only alphanumeric characters and started from scratch to add it to the baggage file and drag and drop it into a topic. After the project is generated, when I click the link it "bounces" and appears like it's being clicked, but nothing happens. I'm using RH 9.0.2.

             

            Thanks,

            Sally

            • 3. Re: RoboHelp 9 - link to PDF
              salcar1 Community Member
              salcar1 Oct 31, 2014 10:02 AM (in response to Captiv8r)

              I should add, too, that I'm able to get .swf files to work in the project, but for some reason both .doc/.docx and PDF files won't open. Thanks for any light you can shed on this issue

              • 4. Re: RoboHelp 9 - link to PDF
                salcar1 Community Member
                salcar1 Oct 31, 2014 10:51 AM (in response to Captiv8r)

                Um, OK. I started hacking around and finally found a reference to "Mark of the Web" which was enabled. I disabled it and stuff seems to work. But now I'm curious - what is it and why is it enabled by default?

                • 5. Re: RoboHelp 9 - link to PDF
                  Captiv8r CommunityMVP
                  Captiv8r Oct 31, 2014 12:51 PM (in response to salcar1)

                  Mark Of The Web (MOTW) is an option that is designed to allow content to display in the browser. It's IE specific.

                   

                  When you generate WebHelp, the "recipe" used (found in your "recipe box" or the Single Source Layouts pod" determines how WebHelp behaves. Depending on the selections made for your WebHelp recipe, there are different bits of JavaScript that are added to each of the HTML pages that end up in the output. MOTW will cause one additional line of code to be added.

                   

                  When the Microsoft IE browser loads a page from the local file system (anything beginning with a drive letter) it will normally balk at things such as JavaScript because they are deemed to be a security risk. MOTW is designed to prevent that from happening.

                   

                  The down side is that links to things such as Word documents or PDF documents will not work.

                   

                  Normally, once you copy the WebHelp to a web server (NOT a network server) these links then work fine.

                   

                  See, when a Web server presents the content, it ends up in the Temporary Internet Files location. And by default, that location is "safe", because the operating system has walls around it that prevent content from accessing your local file system. If the content were allowed to access the local file system, they could do some pretty nasty things to you.

                   

                  Cheers... Rick

                  • 6. Re: RoboHelp 9 - link to PDF
                    salcar1 Community Member
                    salcar1 Oct 31, 2014 2:36 PM (in response to Captiv8r)

                    Thanks for your help!