RoboHelp Office Tutorial

[samcec]

I'm going through the RoboHelp X5 Office Tutorial. i ran into the following problem. The Related Topic button is showing as a little square box (similar in html when a graphic is not present).

These are my steps:
Put the cursor at my insert point within the Topic.
Click Insert Navigation Control
Select Related Topics
On the Display Options, select Popup Menu
On the Font Options, chose a Font and size
Click Finish.

Using WISIWYG , I see the words Related Topic
When I go to View, that when the Related Topic words are not there.

Please advise.
Thank You,
Sam

[RoboColum_n_]

Hi Sam,

Can you tell us what type of output you are generating (e.g. webhelp, chm). Also are you using a button, text or image for the related topics control.

[samcec]

Colum:

I am going to hold off in answering this right now because I believe the problem is deeper than Robohelp.

When I use the HELP menus of other applications (i.e. VB 6), I have the same problem . The related links do not show as words, they show as small boxes.

I have a pesonal problem right now but within the next few days, I am going to do a "Repair" on my OS. I am using Windows XP Professional.

I will report back to this forum as soon as I can.

Thank you and everyone for your help.
Sam

[Pete_Lees]

Hi, Sam,

One possible explanation for this is that the HTML Help ActiveX control on your machine is incorrectly registered. So, it would be a good idea to run MJ's Help Diagnostics and have it check for and refresh the registration of all the HTML Help DLLs.

http://helpware.net/downloads/index.htm#MJs

Alternatively, you can reregister the ActiveX control by typing the following two commands in a Command Prompt window:

regsvr32 /u %windir%\system32\hhctrl.ocx
regsvr32 %windir%\system32\hhctrl.ocx

Pete

[samcec]

Pete:

Thank you.

I contacted a person by the name of Rob Chandler. He had a link on the report. He is a specialist in this area.

I will let you kow the outcome.

Sam

[samcec]

Hi:
Just wanted to give everyone an update on this problem. As of today(Nov 1,2008 @ 6:30 pm EST), the problem has not been resolved.

I have been work with Rob Chandler, a MVP on help files and this is his final diagnosis;
- Its a HTML Help problem
- The hhctrl.ocx does not appear registered because the
<object> statements in the CHM file in VB6 help don't work.
With the Help of a Help MVP we tried to register
C:\WINDOWS\system32\hhctrl.ocx
but it failed to register. even though I did get a "successful" message after entering:C:\WINDOWS\system32\hhctrl.ocx
I will be calling Microsoft. If they fail to help me, my last resort is to reformat my "C" drive and reload everything. (ouch!!!!)

I want to thank everyone for their help. A special "Thank You" to Rob.

Sam

[Captiv8r]

Hi Sam

I figured you may wish to know that the gentleman that accurately interpreted and told you what to do about it is also among the Help MVPs and a "specialist".

Pete Lees is a veritable encyclopedia of help knowledge.

We wish you the best of luck in getting the issue quickly resolved.

Cheers... Rick

[Pete_Lees]

Hi, Sam,

Just double-checking: did you unregister the ActiveX control before you reregistered it? I believe it's essential in this case to unregister first. The first of the two commands in my earlier post does the unregistering; the second does the reregistering.

Thanks for the compliment, Rick!

Pete

[samcec]

Pete:

Using REGSVR21, I did the following:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\hhctrl.ocx /u
C:\WINDOWS\$NtUninstallKB896358$\hhctrl.ocx
C:\WINDOWS\$NtUninstallKB922616$\hhctrl.ocx-This gave me a LoadLibrary error. Module can not be found.
C:\WINDOWS\$NtUninstallKB928843$\hhctrl.ocx
C:\WINDOWS\system32\hhctrl.ocx

After receiving your recent post, I tried it this way:
regsvr32 /u %windir%\system32\hhctrl.ocx
regsvr32 %windir%\system32\hhctrl.ocx

Problem remains.
Rob was a great guy and tried to help. I use to be a teacher in Adult Education before retiring. I always told my class, "If anyone ever says they know everything about a subject matter, they are either a fool or a liar".

With that in mind, if you have any other ideas, please pass them on.

Sam

[Pete_Lees]

I'd suggest that you download the free KeyTools utility and use its "Find HTML Help Components" feature to look for multiple registered copies of hhctrl.ocx. You can obtain KeyTools from here:

http://www.keyworks.net/keytools.htm

If any instance of hhctrl.ocx other than the one in %windir%\system32 is registered, you might try unregistering it from the command line with this command:

regsvr32 /u path_to\hhctrl.ocx

Then, for good measure, try unregistering and reregistering the copy of hhctrl.ocx in %windir%\system32. This is the only instance of the control that needs to be registered.

The following is a fairly standard set of troubleshooting exercises that can help to fix a broken HTML Help installation. I'm not confident that any of these exercises will fix your particular problem, but they may be worth trying.

1) Ensure that you have the latest Windows Updates applied, and so have up-to-date HTML Help viewer components.

2) Delete or rename the file hh.dat, which you should find in this hidden folder:

C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Application Data\Microsoft\HTML Help

The hh.dat file stores user-specific information on all the HTML Help files on your system (favourite topics, changes that you've made to the size and position of a help window, etc.), and can cause the files to misbehave if it has somehow been corrupted. Windows will create a new version of hh.dat when you next open any HTML Help file.

3) Empty your Temporary Internet Files (TIF) folder. A full TIF folder can cause HTML Help files to misbehave.

4) Watch out for the Windows security restriction that disables HTML Help ActiveX control commands in help files that are stored remotely. This restriction is described here:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=892675

By the way, in case there's any doubt about it, anyone who has ever had any dealings with Rob Chandler is fully aware of the depth of his knowledge and his willingness to help others. Like Rick (Captiv8r), he's an exemplary MVP.

Pete

[samcec]

Pete:

I followed your instructions and I think we may have come across a possible cause of the problem.
When I looked at http://support.microsoft.com/?kid=892675 , it said KB896358 could cause problems.

When I looked in my windows folder, I found this: C:\WINDOWS\$NtUninstallKB896358$ which tells me this is installed, right?

There are links with examples on how to modify the registry but I don't like doing that. Is it okay to delete: C:\WINDOWS\$NtUninstallKB896358$ ?,

Thanks,
Sam

[Pete_Lees]

Sam,

> KB896358 could cause problems

I'd discount this as a possible cause of your problem unless your help files are stored on a non-local drive. The 896358 update is designed to provide additional security in networked environments by disabling functionality in help files that are accessed over the network. In effect, a malign help file that is stored in a central location on a network can't distribute viruses and other malware to any users of that network who may happen to open the file.

In addition, the 896358 update blocks the contents of any HTML Help files that you download from the Internet. So, before you can view the contents of such files, you must first choose to unblock them.

All in all, this update shouldn't have any effect on local help files. But if you really want to, you may be able to uninstall it via Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs (and choose the option to "Show updates"). Of course, this isn't recommended because it removes an important piece of security from your computer.

Can we summarise where we are with your problem? You have:

1) Verified that the only copy of hhtrl.ocx that is registered on your computer is the one stored in %windir%\system32. And in that case you have tried unregistering and reregistering the file.

2) Ensured that the latest Windows Updates are installed.

3) Deleted hh.dat and the contents of your TIF folder.

If all of this is true then I'm afraid that I'm scratching my head for further suggestions, and you probably need to contact Microsoft Support.

Pete

[samcec]

Pete:

I have done everything you requested.

I am currently on the phone with Microsoft Support. They had me, remove KB896358, and reinstall VB and the msdn help files. I keep telling them it's not VB, the problem is at a higher level (i.e Windows).
I finally proved it to them when they took control of my system. I showed them the problem.

As I am typing this reply, I am on hold with them. They are transferring me to a higher level of support.

I will post the results.

Thanks,
Sam

[samcec]

Right now I am dancing on air.

Over the past weekend, I called Microsoft Support. (You know they are located in India). One level of Support passed me to a higher level. I just got a call from a tech support rep that knew what he was doing. They resolved my problem with Help files and with the frezzing of this system.

The culprit was corrupted IE7 files. They took control of my system, reloaded IE7 files and ran a ".bat" routine that registerd all the .dll's and .ocx's.

Again, I want to everyone on this forum for all your help--THANK YOU

Sam

[MergeThis]

Will the MS people be creating a KB for this issue (seems warranted).

If so, could you post its number here (with a brief description of the cause) and mark the post as the answer? Might be helpful in the future.


Good luck,
Leon

[samcec]

The Microsoft Case #: 1083594676.

This morning (approximatelt 8 am EST) I have e-mailed the tech and asked him for a written transcript of what he did. If and when I receive it, I will post it here.

Hopefully, what I went through, no one else will but if they do, we will have a solution.

I have a question: I do have a couple questions on RoboHelp. They are dealing with using them MIcrosoft VB and how to connect a VB application and the Help file so that they "shake-hands" with each other. MY QUESTION IS: Should I ask it here or show I start a new thread?

Thanks,
Sam

[Pete_Lees]

Sam,

For information on attaching HTML Help files to Visual Basic applications, I'd suggest that you look at a few of the following resources...

http://frogleg.mvps.org/helptechnologies/htmlhelp/hhvbsmpl.html
http://www.smountain.com/m_ProgrammingHelp.htm#ConnectHelp
http://www.adobe.com/support/robohelp/htmlhelp.html
http://www.help-info.de/en/Help_Info_HTMLHelp/hh_api.htm
http://helpware.net/FAR/far_faq.htm#VBandHH

...and there are quite a number of other resources listed here:

http://www.mshelpwiki.com/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=HTMLHelpArticles

Pete

[samcec]

Folks:

Here are the routines that MS Technical support used:

Here are the URL's :
xp777.notlong.com (general information)
sh123.notlong.com (remove entries from registry)
ie90.notlong.com (re-register IE routines)

Process these in the order shown.

Sam