Link / Merge chm files on Clients PC

Hi,
We have a main project and add in modules that we can distribute separately as required.
We would like to have 1 searchable CHM file, but do not want to include all of our add-in modules into the 1 CHM file.
My idea was that we have 1 main CHM, then it searches for other CHM files on the customers PC (in selected directories) and includes them.
Is this possible. I am willing to move to WebHelp if it is possible using that.
I am using Robohelp HTML 10.
May Thanks,
Joe

Hi Joe
Just to add another twist to things here, perhaps you have CHM A, CHM B and CHM C.
If you want to search CHM A and have it find results that are also found in CHM B and CHM C as if they were a singular larger CHM, you would normally have them in a single folder and have CHM A (or one of them) designated as the Master.
The twist here is that they wouldn't have to exist in the same folder. Sure, it's simpler that way, but if your developers have arranged things in such a fashion that you have CHM files in different folders, the information below may help.
If you look at your RoboHelp Toolbox Pod (View > Pods > Toolbox) you should find a utility there named HTML Help Registration. When you run this tool you are able to add CHM file references to your Windows registry. And that's the key point. When CHM file references exist in the Windows Registry, pathing location is added. Many eons ago I created some instructions that helped with that. In this case, you will likely be interested in the last bit of that topic where I talk about exporting a registry key that may be used to amend other registries.
Click here to view
Cheers... Rick

Similar Messages

How do I assign mapids to reference a merged chm file?

Hello,
I am using RoboHelp 9.0.2.271 on a Windows 7 64 bit machine to create chm files. I have 2 chm files I would like to merge and be able to create mapids for context-sensitive help.
I created each chm in its own project directory with each having its own mapids setup. I would like to merge them for a special project and still be able to use the mapids. I merged them using the toc | new | merged project. I also have the merged chm as a baggage file in the first chm.
As far as viewing and searching after recreating the first chm, all appears to work with the toc also showing the toc of the merged chm.
However I can’t seem to get the mapids of the merged chm to work in the first (master) chm. I have seen other posts about similar problems but I didn’t see anything I can use.
Is there a way to create mapids to reference the topics in the merged chm when using the master chm? The mapid editor doesn’t seem to know anything about the merged chm file.
Thanks
John

Okay, yea I knew that you can create a static list, and I have tried this. Thanks for the input Frank!!
Currently I have a database attribute, Priority, which is a Number (1,2,3), but I want to display these values as Low, Medium, High respectively. I use this list in 2 places, first place is to filter a table based on priority, and secondly when I create a new row or edit a row, I need to be able to change the priority. If I use the approach you mentioned, and which I also tried using, I get stuck because on the new/edit row page this list is not bound to any source and when I try to edit the page, the selected value is ' ' rather then the correct value that was selected previously (I hope that makes sense). If I use the code that I had in my original post, it works fine, but the display values are 1,2,3.
What are my options on how to display the values correctly? And I wonder why the List Binding Editor doesn't allow you to display labels other than the labels you assign in the set of values (so in my case, my set of values is 1,2,3, because those are the valid values in the database)

Linking a chm file

hello,
i have a little help file. i like to link the chm file from inside the programm.
usually i use Runtime.. to launch an appropriate prog..
what is a common way for a chm file ?
marco

can be get the os directory with System.getProperty ?
btn.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
try {
String dir = System.getProperty("user.dir");
String destination = dir + "/help.chm";
String prog = "c:/winnt" + "/hh.exe";
Process p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec( prog + " " + destination );
catch (Exception x) {}
});

Link to .chm file in JSF application

Hello,
I'm working on JSF , i have to link .chm (help file-user manual) to application using commandLink.
Location of help file i.e .chm file will be in application.
Requirements are , click on link , .chm file has to be opened in popup.
If any one knows how to do this, pls do reply.
Thank you,

Hello,
Thanks for reply, i working on '*jboss-4.0.5.GA* ', and i've placed .chm file where i've place jsp pages.
This is code used to open word file in application .
<h:commandLink onclick="javascript:openPopupWindow('help/Test.doc','650','300','yes');return false;" styleClass="label" style="color:white" value="#{str['label.help']}" tabindex="5" />
And its working fine for word .doc. This code is not working for rest of the different file formats ..
For .chm file
<h:commandLink onclick="javascript:openPopupWindow('help/Test.chm','650','300','yes');return false;" styleClass="label" style="color:white" value="#{str['label.help']}" tabindex="5" />
The popup will be shown but the contents of file are not same as original , look and feel and rest .
Please check this code .
Thank you,

Opening links to .ai files on client sites returns error "cannot open file, unknown file type" but only of illustrator isn't already open

It seem like illustrator won't allow us to link to files from a network drive without having it already open. This is a real pain for the team which is building a template library on an internal site. Any suggestions?

Issue:
Clients logging into File Services over SMB with OS X 10.9 experience hanging connection upon login attempt.
Root Cause:
OS X 10.9 now utilizes a new SMB2 stack written by Apple. Apple's SMB2 implementation is not compatible with many other SMB2 NAS products on the market today while Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 works just fine. In short, its an Apple bug.
Workaround Option 1:
To force your connection to be SMB1, simply type cifs://servername instead of smb://servername when connecting to a Windows or NAS share. This is by far easier and requires no real configuration changes.
Workaround Option 2:
To force all connections to be SMB1:
Open A terminal window
paste in the following line followed by the return key(should be all on one line):
echo "[default]" >> ~/Library/Preferences/nsmb.conf; echo "smb_neg=smb1_only" >> ~/Library/Preferences/nsmb.conf
What the command does:
Creates a file called nsmb.conf in your home directory at the path ~/Library/Preferences/nsmb.conf.
Adds directives to force SMB connections to use the SMB1 protocol. This is slower but stable.
How to remove the workaround:
Open a terminal window
paste in the following at the prompt and then hit the return button:
rm ~/Library/Preferences/nsmb.conf
Notes:
Its a good idea to restart your mac before trying to connect to your storage again. This will clear any hung SMB processes from previous attempts to connect to your storage before implementing this workaround.

Opening specific topics in merged Help file

I have a modular Help file problem that I'm hoping someone
can help with.
We are developing a window for our software product that will
allow users looking for help on a specific task, to enter a string
into a text box. As the user string is typed into the box, the
software returns a list of possibilities, from which the user is
then expected to choose a task. When the task is chosen, a string
associated with that task is passed back to the software. In
theory, the software opens the Help file and the topic associated
with the task is simultaneously displayed.
The complicating factor is that the target topic is in a
merged CHM file under the master CHM. Ideally, when we pass a
string to locate a specific topic in this merged file, we would
want to open the master CHM and have (1) the topic located in the
TOC pane to the left and (2) the topic display in the Topic pane to
the right. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to make it work
quite right. The correct topic is located in the TOC pane, but the
right-hand pane displays a "this program cannot display the
webpage" message. What's funny is that if I simply click on the
topic in the TOC pane, the right pane will display the correct
topic. In other words, we are finding the topic in the TOC, but we
just aren't displaying it.
Obviously, we are not passing the correct string to the
software but I don’t seem to be able to hit upon the right
syntax. So, to summarize what I want to do is to have the Master
file open to a specific topic in the Merged file called, for
instance, "My_Topic.htm." Thus, I have tried…
Master.CHM::/My_Topic.htm
Master.CHM::/Merged.CHM/My_Topic.htm
…but neither has worked.
I should mention that we have not renamed any CHM files using
Win Explorer, and we have not specified a binary TOC. Also, both
CHM files are local.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Mike,
Based on what I can work out (and I could be wrong) the
completed project, merged files and all, is in the !SSL!/HTML Help
output folder of the master project. When you compile the master
project takes the links, subsiduary merged files, etc, that it
knows about relative to the files in the Master Help files main
directory, (i.e. the baggage files that the project knows about
after you have imported the subsiduary files into the project) and
exports a compiled .chm master file into the !SSL!/HTML Help output
folder of the master project that contains details of the links and
subsiduary files.
What it doesn't do is export any subsiduary files from the
Master Help files subdirectory if there are any there in the first
place. This means you can get outdated subsiduary .chm files there.
This means RoboHelp puts in the correct links in your master
project (cos the right filres are in your baggage files) and writes
a master project .chm file to the output ditrectory. If however,
your subsiduary project .chm file is already in your output
directory then this will not be updated and your master .chm file
will contain links to topics that might not be in the version of
the subsiduary .chm file in the output directory - hence the
message saying 'can't display the web page'.
What I've (recently) learned to do is:
(1) Produce and generate master project and sub projects into
the default !SSL!/HTML Help sub directories for each project. When
I know each stand alone section of the project is working OK I:
(2) Import the subsiduary projects into the master so there
is a file of the correct name in the master. (In the bagge files
section).
[I re-import only if i've changed the structure of the
subsiduary projects such the master project references topics that
no longer exist or needs to reference newly created topics].
(3) Set up another single source layout in the subsiduary
projects that writes the latest version of the .chm file directly
into the required output directory of the the master project.
(Because Robohelp doesn't refresh the files in the output
drectory of the master project if they're already present this
means each time I recompile the subsiduary projects the lastest
version goes into the output directory of the master project - this
saves reimporting them into the master and deleting the contents of
the master's output directory).
(If I batch generate I can write an updated copy into the sub
project's default !SSL!/HTML Help at the same time - so if I want
to look at just the output of the sub project I can always do that
as well).
(4) Everytime I generate the master project it sends a
compiled master.chm file to the specified output directory, but
doesn't overwrite the subsiduary .chm files in that output
directory. However, as I've set up the subsiduary projects to write
their latest versions of their files to that directory every time I
compile it always has the latest versions of those files for when
you despatch the project.
This means everytime you recompile the master it knows the
right file names, links, etc, for the subsiduary projects and each
time you recompile the subsiduary projects the latest version goes
into the master projects output directory.
If you don't do this (or sometning like) your master and sub
projects will get out of sync and you'll end up with problems
referencing topics in the subsiduary projects.
(If you've already understood this, sorry for going over old
ground).

Unable to view help when press F1. CHM File too large?

We have a chm file who contained many PDF files (its size is
13MB) and some people cannot view help when press F1. This file is
a part of merged chm files structure (the total size of these files
is 17MB)
Do you think that the size of the file contained PDF may be
the problem?.
Thanks!
TTW_MaryseC

Maryse,
I don't think the size of the file should be an issue, even
when it's 13 MB. I'm sure that other people have been distributing
much larger files than this without problem for many years.
You say "
some people cannot view help", which suggests that other
users are not encountering the problem. In other words, the methods
that your software developers have used to connect the help file to
the application do work properly, if not for all users.
When users who cannot view the help press F1, does nothing
happen, or does the help viewer open but with an error message in
the right-hand topic pane? Is the large file the only one that is
affected by this issue, or are all the other help files in the
collection also affected?
If it's of any interest to you, you don't need to compile a
PDF file into a help file in order to display the contents of the
PDF in the help file. Microsoft has published the following script
for linking to an external file from a help topic:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms644690.aspx
Pete

Robohelp HTML X5.0.2 Search tool doesn't consider all chm files in project

Hello,
My company has been using RoboHelp for the product's online help for several years now. We are currently having issues with the search tool only considering the master project, rather than considering all merged projects, i.e. multiple chm files. This has only recently become an issue. For previous releases of our product it has searched all merged projects. Has anyone dealt with this issue before? Does anyone know what to do?
Thanks,
Spencer

Hi,
I fixed the problem by deleting the links to all merged CHM files from the master project's TOC. Then deleting the CHM file for each of those merged projects from the master project's folder. Finally, I merged the projects back into the master project from the TOC of the master project (which is the typical procedure for X5.0.2; I'm not sure if this is the same for other versions), which copies the CHM files back into the master project's folder. Now global searching works again. I just wanted to share that with everyone, and I hope it works for others who may be dealing with this issue.
Spencer

Searching with the Search tab only looks in 3 of 19 merged chms, no matter what is searched for

I'm using RoboHelp 8. I'm using the Search tab in the HTML Help window to search. Although it finds what I’m searching for, it only looks in 3 of my 19 merged chm files, no matter what I search for. I can tell by the Location column in the search results.
Is there a known bug in HTML Help search capabilities?

It would be worth checking that the window and single source layout properties of all 19 projects are setup exactly the same. Also make sure that there are no child CHM files in the project directory before you compile. RoboHelp insists that they are copied in when you add links but they can cause issues like this when you compile. When you compile there should be no other CHMs in the project directory.

How do you get a merged CHM to open in the same window as the master? (RH8)

We have a problem where everytime you click on a topic from a merged CHM in the master TOC, it opens a new window exlusive to the chm where the topic resides. We have more than one master chm and this is the only one that does it, it is also the only one that was created from RH8, although the others have been updated with RH8. We've compared the Window and SS Layout properties with a parent chm that doesn't behave this way and haven't been able to find any differences. Is there something we can do to have all the topics whether merged or from the parent, open in the same window?

I think somehow the last time I had this problem I stumbled on a solution and wasn't sure what fixed it, but the problem reared its head again, and it was back to the drawing board. Now I think we have a solution, but we don't know for sure what created the problem. Although we're pretty sure the problem has something to do with creating a new window when there is already and existing window.
What we found. This problem couldn't be fixed in the SSLayout. We found that the Properties | Advanced | Window setting for individual topics in the TOC had been erased. This Window drop-down selection lets you choose a window other than <Default> if more than one window exists. If not changed by the user, it should stay at <Default>, but somehow the setting was blank on several topics, probably due to the creation of a new window, and maybe some other values being changed. This is probably a bug in RH8, but I don't know about other versions.
How to fix it.
First you have to isolate which merged .chm file (child) has the problem, I believe I did this by removing one child .chm at a time from the Parent project and then seeing if the parent .chm worked correctly after generation.
Once you've found the offending .chm (there may be more than one), open the project and the TOC for the .chm that is a problem.
Go to the TOC pod > Topic Page Properties (right-click on a Topic in the TOC and select Properties) > Advanced > Options panel and ensure that a value exists in the Window: field. If the field is empty, you have a problem. Click the drop-down and select <Default>, even if your .chm window displays in drop-down.
I don't believe there's an option to set a window as the default when you create it, so if there's more than one window, who knows what the <Default> option is drawing from, unless <Default> points to the window you have selected in the SSLayout, which I think is the case.
Find all Topics that have this problem and fix them. Note: you cannot fix this by going to topic Properties in the Topic List (or from r-click Properties in a topic), you have to do it in the TOC.
Save all changes, generate the child .chm, and then replace the old child .chm with the new one.
Open the parent .chm and check to see if all topics open in the parent window. Your Done

Compiling one .chm file creates another one

I'm working with a merged help system with approximately 30 sub-projects, and I have to make a change and regenerate the .chm file for all of them. We always generate the .chm file to the !SSL!\Microsoft_HTML_Help folder within the root project folder. I got tired of having to go into each output folder to move all of the .chms to the eventual destination folder, so I though I'd just change the output path to a common folder for all of them.
After generating a couple, I noticed that when I compile some projects, a .chm file from a different project somehow ended up in the output folder. I don't know how it got there because I'd just created the folder and I hadn't generated a .chm for that project yet. Of course I've ended up with some old .chm files overwriting the updated ones that I generated today.
This seems very odd. Has anyone run across this issue?
I'm on RH 9.0.2 with Windows XP SP3.

Are your merged CHM files located in the project folder? When you merge a CHM file, RoboHelp requires that the CHM file be copied to the project folder. If you do not delete the CHM file, it is copied to the output location for the master CHM. This will overwrite any existing CHM files in the output folder location with the copy in the project folder for the project being compiled.
Delete the CHM files from the folder, and you shouldn't have this problem. I wrote a batch file for my projects to clean out CHM files from the folders prior to batch compiling all the projects. The merge will still occur as the merged files are included in the XPJ and the HHP file.

Unable to open .chm file from a link in Weblogic 7.0

Unable to open .chm file from a link in weblogic server. But the same
jsp code works in Websphere
Sample Code :

The above link, works well in websphere. help is a folder that
resides in the server. But when i tried to execute the same in
Weblogic, some junk characters appeared . so i tried to direct the
link to Display.jsp and passed the path of the chm file as the
parameter. I cleared teh out buffer using out.clearBuffer() . i set
the content type to application/x-msdownload and also set the header
to content disposition.
Nothing worked .
I also tried another way.. That is the following
I even tried including the mime type
<mime-mapping>
<extension>chm</extension>
<mime-type>application/x-msdownload</mime-type>
</mime-mapping>
in the web.xml file. and still it doesnt work
Nothing Worked . What should i do ? I need immediate help to sort out
this issue. Can anybody help me
- Angel

This could be a Launch Services issue. The following article describes how to manually reset Launch Services — the notes at the bottom of the article also provide information about the side effects of deleting each of the files involved:
Resetting Launch Services
If you prefer using a cache cleaning utility instead of following the manual procedure described in the previous article, take a look at this other article for general troubleshooting and cache-cleaning procedures. Actually, you should also verify/repair the startup disk (not just permissions), as described there:
Resolving Disk, Permission, and Cache Corruption
The most appropriate utility for this particular problem probably is Tiger Cache Cleaner, but you may also want to consider other utilities, such as OnyX, or Cache Out X, which are free. Whatever utility you choose, be sure to read this first:
Side effects of System cache cleaning
As an example, this is how you should proceed with OnyX:
1. Quit all applications.
2. Launch OnyX and enter your administrator password.
3. Go to Maintenance > Reset and check LaunchServices database.
4. Un-check any other pre-checked options.
5. Click the Execute button.
6. Restart the computer.
BTW, if you’re running Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger), as your profile indicates, it would have been more appropriate to discuss this in the Mail & Address Book - Tiger forum. If the discussion applies to both Mail 1.x and Mail 2.x, it doesn’t really matter, but it’s difficult to know that in advance.

Link to a pdf page on web from a chm file

Hello,
I'm using RoboHelp 9.0.2. I'm trying to create a link in a chm file to a specific pdf page using a URL. The link I am using is http://www.actuarialstandardsboard.org/pdf/exposure/ASOP_No27_second%20exposure_2011.pdf#p age=41
I put the above line in my chm file. It appears correctly in the URL project list and shows correctly when I choose Show. It also apeears to be correct in the HTML code of the page.
However when I create the chm clicking on the link just brings me the start of the pdf file. After clicking on the link in the chm file and explorer opens, the URL in explorer does not show #page=41. It ends at.pdf.
Am I missing something or does anyone kno whys this is not working?
Thanks
John

Hi there
That link doesn't even work for me when I paste it into the address bar of my Firefox browser. It does work in IE, but not in Firefox. In Firefox it opens the PDF generically.
I tested in a CHM and it did try and link, but it presents a black page. Looks like the correct page, but it's blacked out.
CHM files rely upon elements of Internet Explorer to display their content. So perhaps it's something specific to a certain version of Internet Explorer as well as a certain version of the Acrobat Reader.
Cheers... Rick
Helpful and Handy Links
RoboHelp Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form
Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7, 8 or 9 within the day!
Adobe Certified RoboHelp HTML Training
SorcerStone Blog
RoboHelp eBooks

How can I create a link from a CHM file to a webhelp file?

How can I create a link from a CHM file to a webhelp file?
The CHM output (accreditation.chm) is stored in a parent directory, and the webhelp output (index.htm) is stored in a child directory.

Open the usual Link dialog and enter the relative path from where the CHM will be installed to where the webhelp will be installed.
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
@petergrainge

Link in program won't open .htm page in .chm file

Previously we were able to link to an individual topic in a RoboHelp .chm (this old copy may have been generated in RHx5 or earlier) by clicking a link in the program interface.
This is how the link was written in MS Help Server Program HH -
m_strHelpPath[0] = "mk:@MSITStore:%sSystem\\FabriTALK.chm::/Connecting_a_Control.htm";
The .chm file compliled in RH8 will not open the topic level doc. It opens the .chm file, but for some reason won't dig down to the .htm to open it the way it used to.
Is this a question of compile settings?
Any suggestions?
Thank you

From the Safari menu bar, select
Safari ▹ Preferences... ▹ Extensions
Turn all extensions OFF and test. If the problem is resolved, turn extensions back ON and then disable them one or a few at a time until you find the culprit.

Link / Merge chm files on Clients PC

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for