See also links disappear in topics accessed from the table of contents

[Allen_53]

We're using RoboHelp 8.0.2 to generate compiled HTML help (CHM).

There is some strange behaviour on how see-also links are displayed in the topics depending on where they are accessed from.

If I use the Search tab to find topic(s) that contain(s) the see-also links in question, they appear and work as they should (that is, when you click them, you get a list of associated topics in a popup list):

If the same topics are located in and opened from the table of contents tab, the links may or may not be displayed initially, but they do not work in any case (that is, you click them but nothing happens). If displayed initially and you press F5 to refresh the page, the links disappear (or they are not visible from the start):

Is there a way to fix this, or is it just a bug that we'll have to learn to live with/work around?

Thanks for any input,

Allen

[Captiv8r]

Hi Allen

Personally, I'd be skeptical of the topics.

I'd begin my troubleshooting by first opening the topic where you actually see all the links. Right-click the topic and scrutinize the properties. Particularly, note the path and file name.

Now display a different topic and re-display the suspect topic via the TOC. Again, right-click the topic and scrutinize the properties. And again, note the path and file name.

I'm hoping you will discover that these are two topics that appear to be identical, but are slightly different. I say "I'm hoping" because there really shouldn't be any difference in how a topic is presented. Whether it's from the TOC or from Search or from the Index.

Cheers... Rick

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[Allen_53]

Hi Rick,

Well, it's interesting to note that the path in the properties to the same topic is slightly different depending on where you access it from. When accessed through the TOC, the path is the same as when you search for it except for the fact that #<bc=1is added to the end, and it appears to be this topic only for which that happens. It would explain why the see-also links don't work, but the question is why the text is added to the string when accessed from the TOC. It's not included in the HHC file itself, for example.

Other topics further up in the TOC with the same kind of see-also links don't have the same problem (that is, the links work).

Allen

[Captiv8r]

Hello again

I think I'd next try re-creating the link to the topic. Create the link from a totally different area of the TOC. Compile and test to see if the behavior persists. If so, it would seem to suggest something about the topic that warrants looking at deeper.

By the way, I noticed earlier that the screen capture of the popup seemed to present the "missing" links using different formatting. The font looks a bit larger. So you may also wish to examine the code for the control more closely.

Cheers... Rick

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[Allen_53]

Hi again,

I don't know if it's a limitation of the compiled HTML help TOC, but it appears that see-also links will not work if the topic is accessed from the second or more instance in the TOC. I tested different topics multiple times in different places in the TOC, and in every case, the first instance displays correctly, whereas the see-also links from the second or third instance did not.

The difference in formatting of the link text that you noticed was simply that. I was able to fix those so thanks for pointing that out.

So to fix the problem, I simply reorganized the TOC so that topics that included see-also links are only used once. It seems to work for me this time, but it's unfortunate if it's not possible to use a topic like this multiple times in the TOC, because of this.

Thanks for your input!

Best regards,

Allen

[Captiv8r]

Hi Allen

Likely you may continue with using multiple instances of the same topic if you use a different approach. Just create redirect pages that point to the topic. Then insert only the redirect pages into the TOC. This will also resolve the issue with properly synchronizing the TOC with the topic.

Cheers... Rick

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