Topic displays in ToC pane in IE (long)

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Stan
Jr. Propeller Head
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Joined: Wed Apr 23, 2008 12:52 pm

Topic displays in ToC pane in IE (long)

Post by Stan »

This info may be of limited value, but I offer it in case anyone else runs into a similar mysterious IE-Flare output behavior where this "fix" might work - especially when you find a project's WebHelp working in IE on one system but not on another.

I had a problem with the ToC pane functionality in a published WebHelp project when it was opened in Internet Explorer (IE7). (I published the WebHelp to a portable drive, just so I could do some testing and QA away from the development system, but that publishing destination appears not to have had anything to do with the problem I encountered.)

On the development system's IE7, the WebHelp opened and the ToC worked without any problems. On a separate system's IE7, the WebHelp opened just fine with the ToC displayed and initial topic displayed in the contents pane. However, as soon as I clicked a ToC link, the target topic opened in both the ToC pane and in the content pane instead of opening only in the content pane. (In other words, ToC pane remained, but no ToC appeared.) After that happened, I could not get the ToC to redisplay (without closing and reopening the output), even after using the Index and Search features (where the links worked as they should and the Index and Search panes retained the appropriate functionality). When I clicked the ToC accordion tab again, the last - and only - topic I had selected from the ToC pane displayed instead of the ToC itself.

The problem occured in two versions of the output, one with Mark of the Web selected and one without.

The problem occured on two systems with IE7, but not on a third. On one system with the problem, I tried changing all of the IE7 security settings to the defaults, but the problem still occured. On the problem systems, the same issue occurred in IE7 for the Flare WebHelp displayed from the MadCap site, so I at least became confident the issue wasn't in the project itself.

Project WebHelp (and Flare WebHelp at MadCap site) worked just fine in Firefox and Safari.

After experimenting with reducing security and changing various IE settings (in an attempt to match those on the one working system) for a few hours, I remembered a somewhat similar display problem I'd had at the Windows Update site and a "solution" that had been suggested by MS support. I reluctantly resorted to the option to "Reset Internet Explorer settings" (Reset button on the Advanced tab of the Internet Options dialog displayed from the Tools menu). Doing so blew away the IE history (among other things), but I found the ToC finally worked as it should.

However, the next time I used Acrobat Reader, I received a message that some of the Adobe add-ons had been disabled (because of the reset). When I re-enabled the Adobe add-ons (through Manage add-ons button on the Programs tab of the Internet Options dialog), I also re-enabled the add-on for a tool called "Ript" that I had installed and played with to create "torn" borders around graphics.

Wondering if the ToC problem might have been related to an add-on, I opened the WebHelp again and ran into the same ToC display issue. I then experimented with enabling and disabling both the Adobe and Ript add-ons and found that the problem seemed to be tied only to the Ript add-on. I also found that simply disabling the Ript add-on "fixed" the ToC display problem on the second system where it had occurred.

I don't know what the underlying cause was and my experience may not be applicable to IE-Flare WebHelp issues in general, but if you've come to the end of all other troubleshooting paths, you might try the "Reset IE settings" option or (less drastically) try selectively disabling and re-enabling any IE add-ons to determine if any of those are contributing to the problem.

And perhaps my experience will help someone in MadCap Support (or elsewhere) draw some more general conclusions about the types of add-ons that could create this kind of a problem for IE and Flare WebHelp.

Happy developing,

Stan
SteveS
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Re: Topic displays in ToC pane in IE (long)

Post by SteveS »

Hi Stan,

Welcome to the forums and thanks for sharing that. Hopefully you've saved someone a lot of frustration!
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Steve
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