Shortcuts to a specific topic in a CHM

I was referred to the RoboWizard page and downloaded the Tips
n Tricks chm where I found how to open a CHM in its own window, and
in the tips, it provides a way to open a specific topic.
We are using the "hidden" shortcut option. We create a topic
just for the shortcut. In our app all of the CHMs are in one
subfolder, at the same level as the EXE's which are in their own
folder.
The Tips n Trix help says to use "hh.exe" as the program to
run. If I use that from the app to open the CHM I get an error that
says it "Cannot open the file"
For the "Program Parameters" I am using
"ms-its:circ.chm::/how_to_setup.htm"
If I use the chm file name instead of hh.exe, it works from
CHM to CHM, but only opens the main page from the application.
If I double click the CHM, and then click the link that goes
to a topic in another CHM, it works fine. The specific topic is
displayed.
If I open the application, click Help | Contents to open the
CHM and then click the link it opens to the "main" chm page, not
the topic.
How can I get it open to the topic from the application?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Joe

Joe,
What you are trying to do is known as "context sensitive
help." You can do this via shortcuts to hh.exe, but HTML Help was
designed to use map numbers from the application. When you write:
"If I open the application, click Help | Contents to open the
CHM and then click the link it opens to the "main" chm page, not
the topic."
I wonder what the application links are trying to do. Are
they also trying to call hh.exe? The protocol would be different
than from inside the CHM. The application should be using the
HTMLHelp API calls. One way to investigate the application's links
is to open RoboHelp's BugHunter. When you click on the links it
should intercept any calls to HTMLHelp and post them.
Hope this helps,
John

Similar Messages

Link to a specific topic in a chm file from Word

Hi,
How do I link to a specific topic in a chm file from Word? I can link to the chm but can't work out how to get it to open to a specific page. I have tried #filename and \filename at the end of the path but neither works.
Thanks for any assistance.
Emily

Hi Emily
Whether it works correctly on your C drive depends on how it arrived there.
Click here to see what you may need to do
Cheers... Rick
Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7 within the day - $24.95!
Click here for Adobe Authorized Captivate and RoboHelp HTML Training
Click here for the SorcerStone Blog
Click here for RoboHelp and Captivate eBooks

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).

How to search a specific topic in a forum?

How to search a specific topic in a forum? who can offer me a solution. I'm really appreciate it.

Enter something in the box next to the words Advanced Search at the upper right and click on the button to display a list of search hits. Then, in the box to the right of the list, click on the word help to bring this Search Help and Tips page up:
http://search.java.sun.com/search/java/help.jsp

Linking to a specific topic in the project - RH7

Hi, I've been playing with this problem for a few days, and can't find an answer.
I have a project that consists of a number of topics. I publish in WebPro. I want to be able to link, from the outside, to a specific topic, and display the TOC open to that particular topic.
I have all the pieces in place except the TOC. The topic always opens with the TOC hidden, and I have to click the 'Show' link to open it. Is there a setting I'm missing?
Thanks for any help...
Marion

Hi,
If you call the file from your application, your developers will have to change their call. See http://www.grainge.org/pages/authoring/calling_webhelp/calling_webhelp.htm
If you call the page from another webpage, you can use ID-numbers, Topic-id's or filenames. You can find some more information on the page referenced above. You can however also use the following links:
For a filename: http://wnd=NewWindow - Note that this kind of URL will only work for Internet Explorer!
Greet,
Willam

Opening help directly to a specific Topic/Header

Is there a way in any of the RoboHelp output options that
will allow me to open the help file directly to a specific Topic /
Header? If someone is on my website and is on the ordering page and
has a question, when they click on the Help button on that page,
can the help system open directly to the Topic on ordering?
Thank you.

G'nite dude.
Thanks a ton for all of the responses. I know now how to get
the right URL to jump to the topic.
I'm still sleuthing the other half of this, though. Once I
get the right URL, I can copy and paste it into the broswer address
bar and it will go to the correct topic. Now I need to be able to
email this link and have someone else open it to a specific topic.
(Sure I could tell em to copy and paste the link from the email
into the browser... now that's just too easy).
Putting it as a link in Outlook, though, is still giving me a
headache and it's only bringing up the start page when the broswer
window comes up. The #Topic22.htm section of my link gets chopped
off.
Must be something to do with the email settings, because
Outlook is checking mail attachments, and it's telling me:
You should only open attachments from a trustworthy source.
Attachment: StartPage.htm from X:\Stuff Folder\Help Project
Would you like to open the file or save it blabbity blah...
This is how our area is set up for security, and it appears
that Outlook's only seeing the stuff
before the # sign.

Jumping to a specific topic externally

Is there a way to open up a specific help topic from outside
of the help file within an email? Say I click the link in the email
and it opens the help project, and then automatically jumps to a
specific topic in the help project. Does this involve bookmarks in
the project?

G'nite dude.
Thanks a ton for all of the responses. I know now how to get
the right URL to jump to the topic.
I'm still sleuthing the other half of this, though. Once I
get the right URL, I can copy and paste it into the broswer address
bar and it will go to the correct topic. Now I need to be able to
email this link and have someone else open it to a specific topic.
(Sure I could tell em to copy and paste the link from the email
into the browser... now that's just too easy).
Putting it as a link in Outlook, though, is still giving me a
headache and it's only bringing up the start page when the broswer
window comes up. The #Topic22.htm section of my link gets chopped
off.
Must be something to do with the email settings, because
Outlook is checking mail attachments, and it's telling me:
You should only open attachments from a trustworthy source.
Attachment: StartPage.htm from X:\Stuff Folder\Help Project
Would you like to open the file or save it blabbity blah...
This is how our area is set up for security, and it appears
that Outlook's only seeing the stuff
before the # sign.

Linking to specific topics

Another question (I've been saving them up).
If I want to link to a specific topic within an application,
what is the link I use. At the moment if I link to a page within
the help file none of the robohelp search functionality appears. Is
there a way around this so that the page opens with full
functionality?
Help appreciated!
Nick.

Hi Nick. Me again
It sounds like you are creating webhelp right? Check out
this
link on webhelp guru Peter Griange's site. It outlines the
options and how to implement them.

Drill down to specific topic on TOC?

Is it possible to have the Navigator display a specific topic when that topic is displayed via showTopic? In other words, I have default to docking set to true, and I call up a specific topic via showTopic. I don't want just my generic TOC displayed; I want the tree drilled down to the specific topic on the TOC.
Can I do this?
Chris

Hi Chris,
The table of contents is automatically kept in sync with the active topic window. In docked mode, if you call showTopic(), in theory the table of contents should automatically expand to the displayed topic (assuming there is a table of contents item that maps to the same topic-id or URL). Is this not what you are seeing?
Jeffrey Stephenson
Oracle Help Technologies

Specific Topic is not opening by using MAP ID in MAC Safari

I am using ROBO Help - Flash. I am openning a specific TOpic
using MAP ID (using RH_ShowHelp JS file). It works fine with
Windows OS, But the same is not working when we browse in MAC >
Safari. Could u please let us know is there
any thing we should to make that work in Mac, It is
displaying "Page cannot be displayed". TOC is opening but not synch
with a Topic and for Topic it is displaying as "Page Cannot be
displayed" , The above problem only in MAC OS, not in Windows.
The code i am using for opening specific topic is as follows
javascript:RH_ShowHelp('PEGASUS','" +
InstructorhelpLaunchFile + "',HH_HELP_CONTEXT," & intMapId
The above is working fine in window, when we click on the
link it will open robo Help with TOC and specific topic which
matches the Map ID. But when we try the same in MAC > Safari,
TOC display but it will not display the specific topic and even TOC
is not synch. with the topic, In the right frame it will display as
"Page cannot be displayed". It seems that it is not able to search
the TOpic file name w.r.t the Map ID.
Hoping to see some reply asap. I got info from macromedia
support that there are some workaround for acheiving the same,
suggested to post the message in the forum.

Back up all data to at least two different storage devices, if you haven't already done so. The backups can be made with Time Machine or with a cloning tool such as Disk Utility. Preferably both. You must be certain that you can restore everything to the state it's in now.
Boot into Recovery, launch Disk Utility, and erase the startup volume. This operation will destroy all data on the volume, so you had be better be sure of your backups. Install OS X. If your Mac was upgraded from an older version of OS X, you’ll need the Apple ID and password you used to upgrade, so make a note of those before you begin.
When you reboot, you'll be prompted to go through the initial setup process. That’s when you import the data from one of your backups. For a walkthrough, see here:
Using Setup Assistant
Don't import the Guest account, if it was enabled on the old system.
Note: You need an always-on Ethernet or Wi-Fi connection to the Internet to use Recovery. It won’t work with USB or PPPoE modems, or with networks that require any kind of authentication other than a WPA or WPA2 Personal password.

How to list total number of message in specific Topic/queue using wlst comm

Hi All,
Message queue
How to list total number of message in specific Topic/queue using wlst command

aaaah sorry, I didn't notice you were looking for a SPECIFIC topic, bad me
then do something like
<pre>
connect('weblogic','weblogic','t3://localhost:8001')
servers = domainRuntimeService.getServerRuntimes();
if (len(servers) > 0):
for server in servers:
jmsRuntime = server.getJMSRuntime();
jmsServers = jmsRuntime.getJMSServers();
for jmsServer in jmsServers:
destinations = jmsServer.getDestinations();
for destination in destinations:
if destination.getName() == 'YOURQUEUE':
print "Destination ", destination.getName(), " MessageCount ", destination.getMessagesCurrentCount()
</pre>
of course performance-wise this is a terrible script because you loop on all destinations, I am sure there is a way to lookup a specific destination, but I am too lazy to investigate....

Topic link to chm in new window

I would like to have a resulting HTML Help that will let me
click on a topic (for a subsystem help) which will open a new .chm
in a new HTML Help window (with its own TOC/index/etc). Not sure
how to configure this or make it work. Any ideas. I have tried a
veriety of things so far, but nothing works yet...
Thanks

I got the new window to open up with the new CHM now...
As a follow up, it seems I need to define the new window with
the specific TOC and Index of the new CHM. I there a way to define
a window that picks up the related TOC and Index of the chm that it
opens(in this way, a single window type gets created, so that when
I get a new subsytem, I do not have to keep adding/creating new
windows, which makes me have to redistribute the main system
help...which is what I am trying to avoid)

Newbie - Linking to a specific topic

Hello,
I just got RoboHelp 7 today and a bit lost. Here is my
issue. I'm an App Dev Project manager. I came onto a project that
has an application that links to a RoboHelp project. All links
within the application send the user to the default.htm. Which is
nice because you have the search tool and the left side navigation
pane. However, inside of our application we have help links that
appear to be very specific to a topic, yet when you click on the
link you get the default page. We can create links right to a
specific htm page from our application, but when we do that we only
get the topic and none of the nice features that Robo help adds,
like the navigation pane. What I'd like to do, is create a link
that takes a user to the help files with the appearance that you
get when you go to the default page, but instead of sending them to
the default page, send them to a specific help file.
Can anyone get me pointed in the right direction? Should we
use bookmarks in Robohelp? If so, how do we link to them.
Thank you so much (in advance)!

This isn't working for me. The URL of the base help page is:
file:///C:/makana/kahuna/help/Motivator/!SSL!/WebHelp/Motivator.htm
and in trying to follow the instructions in the web article,
I changed it to:
file:///C:/makana/kahuna/help/Motivator/!SSL!/WebHelp/Motivator.htm?#path/Alignment_Best_ Practices.htm
where Alignment_Best_Practices.htm is one of the other pages
in the !SSL!/WebHelp folder. This makes a File Not Found error. Am
I doing something wrong? Thanks.

"No Topics Found" RoboHelp8 (CHM File)

Using the "Search" feature in my .CHM file has begun to return a "No Topics Found" error.
For a little history, we have been using this same project for several years, long before I took over. Until this latest build, searching worked fine. Beginning last week, searching returns a "No Topics Found" result. I can find and access topics using the index, so I know that they are there but no luck using general search. I've tried manually adding keywords to several topics (under the general tab) with no luck. I've also restored backups of the project (from compressed .RAR files) and generated a .CHM with the same results.
The cause of this seems like it would have to do with some kind of setting that's been changed but I have no idea what. The only changes that I have made have been to the .CSS files we use (font type, size, and color changes), the addition of a few new topics/pages, and the use of J-Query witin those new topics.
Does anyone have any ideas?

I found this thread where Rick Stone has suggested a possible cause.
http://forums.adobe.com/message/3812837#3812837
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
@petergrainge

Is it possible to make a keyboard shortcut for a specific color for fonts?

I'm a novice InDesign user and these forums have been a great resource, so thank you for your time.
I'm doing a very complicated "text art" project and I'd like to be able to change text colors right from the keyboard.
In Word, one is able to make a keyboard shortcut (to an unused key combination) that would allow you to change text to white, for example and another combination to change it to black, etc.
I'd love to be able to do that in InDesign without having to mouse over to the color swatch or over to a paragraph style with the text color set.
Again, thank you in advance!

For anyone else who has this problem - I actually found out an easy workaround.
There's another forum that addresses the NumPad issue for MacBooks (http://forums.adobe.com/thread/324960) and I did a modified version for character styles v. paragraph styles per the final comment by Kaj-Ettore.
==
(1) Open text edit and copy the below script (for me it was changing the text to white):
try{app.selection[0].applyCharacterStyle
(app.documents[0].characterStyles.item(1),true)}catch(e){}
Watch the number '(1)' in brackets on the last line: This is the Style number according to the Styles listed in the 'Character Styles' Panel of InDesign (following "[None]").
Per my setup, "White" is 1 and "Black" is 2.
SEE SCREENSHOT:
Decrement the style you'd like to be applied via this script from the styles listed in the InDesign-applet 'paragraph styles'.
*Note - This Workaround only works for specific Documents – since InDesign links Styles with document templates.
(2) Save the Script to:
%InDesign_Install_Folder%\Scripts\Scripts Panel\Samples\JavaScript\Style(%nmb%).jsx
or name the file as you like. You'll have to assign a keyboard-shortcut to this and other files later, so it is wise to choose a common and memorable syntax for naming, e. g. numbers or style-names. (I used Style(White).jsx)
(3) Repeat this step for every style you'd like to be applicable via a keyboard shortcut...
This is my "Black" script:
try{app.selection[0].applyCharacterStyle
(app.documents[0].characterStyles.item(2),true)}catch(e){}
Saved as: Style(Black).jsx
Assign a Shortcut to the Script
(1) Open InDesign > Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts > %YourSetOfShortcuts%
(2) Select 'Scripts'
(3) Choose the first script you've written, e. g. 'style(body).jsx'
(4) Create Shortcuts for Standard- and Text-Environment
(5) Repeat for any script you've written
(6) Done.
This worked perfectly for me and I can now use ONE keyboard shortcut (albeit 3 simultaneous keys) to change from black text to white text.

Shortcuts to a specific topic in a CHM

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for