Webhelp created with RoboHelp HTML installed on Linux server hangs when viewed with Firefox

[miracle_worker]

We have just started using the Adobe Technical Communication Suite to single-source our documentation and have worked out most of the kinks, save for one showstopper in the Webhelp generated with RoboHelp. We need our help system to work with both IE and Firefox. When the help is run locally on a Windows machine, both IE and Firefox work fine.

When the help is installed on our Linux-based server, opening the help causes Firefox to hang unless Firefox is configured to use Unicode encoding. Unfortunately, the Firefox default is Western European. We can't control our customers' environments, and we can't just document this problem because FireFox users won't be able to open the help system to read about the fix.

When investigating this problem, we discovered that RoboHelp is inserting a blank line at the beginning of every HTML file. This blank line is innocuous in IE as well as in Firefox when the help is installed locally, but when the help is installed on a Linux server, the blank line causes Firefox to hang unless Unicode encoding is selected. It seems that on Linux, the blank line is being converted to 3 garbage characters, which can be seen if you look at the source code.

This is a showstopper for us, unless a workaround can be found. My questions are:

1) Is this a known problem?
2) Is there a way to get RoboHelp to eliminate the blank lines?
3) Is there a way to force FireFox to use Unicoding encoding for our help system (say, by changing our CSS file)?

Thanks!

[Peter Grainge · Accepted solution]

Welcome to the forum.

A bit beyond me but I wonder if Item 22 on this page of my site helps.

http://www.grainge.org/pages/authoring/rh7/using_rh7.htm

The reference to 3 garbage characters is what prompted me to suggest this.

[miracle_worker]

Thanks, Peter. The information on your site looks like it may be relevant.

I just realized that I should have posted my message on the WebHelp forum, where I noticed that someone has just posted a problem similar to mine. I'll repost it there, along with some new information.