IE crash following intensive index use

Question

I created a small WebHelp project (95 topics) using RH 5.x.
When I launch the project in IE (6.0.x) and try to use the compiled
index, I find that clicking quickly on 6-7 entries in a row causes
the browser to shut down. I can click all day, slow or fast, in the
same index using Netscape or Firefox, without incident. Any
thoughts on a possible cause? This sounds like the same problem
that Bin.Chen reported on 9/27/06. That post generated no
follow-ups so thought I'd risk a repeat.

Answer 1

I just made a copy of a 271-topic project heavy on tables,
with file names like acppd_format_ name_keys and in-topic
references to these files, so they show up as text as well as file
names. The Index Wizard picked up about 8,000 keywords.
I did the index with a project setting for "Add keywords to"
HHK and generated WebHelp.
Then I discarded the HHK file and set "Add keywords to"
Topics, created an index and generated WebHelp to a separate
directory.
The WebHelp output packages were substantially the same. The
wizard picked up a few more keywords in the second pass, but this
affected only a few output files. Their structure was the same,
most counterpart files were the same, and the whxxx directories
were only slightly larger the second time. They totaled just under
4 MB. Are your whxxx directories a lot bigger?
I put both versions up on a Dev sever and tried to make IE
crash with rapid clicks in the Index. No crash.
Overall, the second WebHelp package was only a little bigger,
at about 6.25 MB.
The only important difference was in the project folder. As I
specified, Index terms were in the HHK file, or they were stored as
Metadata in the source code (and only in the source files, not the
output files).
So I'm grasping at straws now.
How big are your whxxx directories?
Do you have any file names or index terms with strange
characters, aside from - hyphen and _ underscore? Spaces, of
course, are OK in the index but not in file names. How many layers
deep are your topics? An unusually long link path, including a
really long file name, can cause trouble elsewhere. I don't know
whether these issues are relevant to index loading.
One more thought.
Try to find a Web site built with RH, with a substantial
Index. See if the browser quits there. If not, I'd look more
closely at your server.
Regards,
Harvey