Strange Index and Search tabs, revisited

[hurdl1]

Hi, I know this topic has been raised before in various flavors on this forum. I've reviewed the relevant postings and suggested solutions, but have not yet found a fix for my particular flavor of the problem.

I'm running RH HTML 7 on Windows XP, outputting WebHelp for viewing in IE (6 and 7) and Firefox on Windows systems only. The Help looks & behaves great in IE. In Firefox, it looks as it does in IE *if viewed locally*. If viewed in Firefox over a server connection (as it will be by customers), the Help's Index and Search tabs display their content in the problematic format reported by earlier posters -- in Search, an alphanumeric list of terms instead of the desired Search input box; in Index, a pseudo-index with all terms at all levels expanded, and with terms that actually link to topics displayed in bold font weight ("heading only" terms display in regular font weight). Both the Index and Search 'work' in Firefox -- you click a linked term and the correct topic displays in the right-hand Help pane -- but in a less user-friendly way than in IE.

My output does contain the appropriate whdata, whgdata, and whxdata folders. I generate WebHelp using the DHTML > JavaApplet > Pure HTML format. I've tried the other formats, with the same results described above. I've checked browser settings, and everything that should be enabled (pop-ups, ActiveX) is. I should note that other internal users viewing the same Help over the same server connection report the same results in FF, so the problem is not confined to my machine.

Any thoughts as to a possible fix?

Thanks in advance for any/all help.

[sspen]

I'm having the same results with my RH HTML 7 WebHelp output, except my problem seems to be even more widespread: I'm getting the same thing in FF, IE, and Apple's Help Viewer. I hope someone has a suggestion soon...it's kickin my butt!

I'm using Pure HTML

[Captiv8r]

Hi sspenx and welcome to our community

That's the way it's expected to look if you are using the "Pure HTML" option. If you want the other look, try configuring the output so that it's perhaps DHTML > Pure HTML. This way would attempt to display in DHTML first, then if that failed, it would automagicakally switch to Pure HTML.

Cheers... Rick

[sspen]

Hey Rick...thanks for the reply.

It's funny that you're who replied. This is Spencer from Portland...you were kind enough to spend a day with me and a colleague teaching us the basics about a month ago. You did a good job :)

Hmmmm...that's too bad. As I understand it, DHTML doesn't play nicely with Macs.

If we have any output selected other than Pure HTML we get NO content :(

Since our need for the WebHelp output is strictly to run inside of our Mac app, DHTML isn't really an option.

I did find a 3rd party conversion program that will take my CHM file and spits out a webhelp output that behaves the way I want and works with Mac's Help Viewer.

I think I'll just go with that, even though it's an extra step.

Thanks again.

[hurdl1]

sspen, what 3rd-party program do you use to convert the .chm to WebHelp? Sounds like that may be the route I need to go as well. (I don't support Mac/Safari yet, but that's on the horizon.)

[sspen]

It's called CHM2Web (chm2web.com). Best of luck.

[HKabaker]

sspen opened a new thread on Mac/Leopard, raising these issues in the context of Mac OS X Leopard. In case you haven't read it,

You can use RH to decompile the chm and generate WebHelp.

I'm planning to test WebHelp in MAC OS Leopard. Probably Firefox will get better results than Safari.

Harvey

[hurdl1]

Hi Harvey, thanks for copying your suggestion over from the other thread. Like sspen, I see those Search results in Firefox and Safari, on both Windows and Mac -- but only when I access the Webhelp files over a server connection. The same files, viewed from my local drive, look fine in those browsers.

I was able to decompile the .chm using RH. But now I'm stuck. How do I generate from those results a full set of WebHelp files (w/ TOC, index, full search, browse sequence). What am I missing?

Thanks much for all your help.

[HKabaker]

You can start a new WebHelp project and import those files into it. Also import the old TOC, Index and Glossary source files without building them anew ---.HHK, .HHC and .GLO.

In RH online help, look up Import_a_TOC.

(Create new TOC and use the "Copy existing TOC" dialog to navigate to the old one.)

I don't know if you'll need to do a lot more work than that, aside from the WebHelp chores that don't exist in CHM projects.

Harvey