HTML Help - blank output

[adrianaharper]

Hi everyone,

I'm creating a great little Flare project, and the primary output is HTML Help (I need a .chm file). It builds no problem, no errors or warnings, but when I say 'view output' the page is blank. It says:

This page can’t be displayed
Make sure the web address //ieframe.dll/dnserrordiagoff.htm# is correct.
Look for the page with your search engine.
Refresh the page in a few minutes.



Can anyone help me?

[Nita Beck]

If the .chm is on a network drive, you won't be able to view it. It has to be on your local hard drive. This is a constraint dictated by Microsoft, not by Flare.

[adrianaharper]

I am just creating it and building it to my desktop. So the whole project, including the .chm file, is being saved to my desktop.

[Nita Beck]

I'm not sure what to suggest, then. The error points to a .dll. Maybe it's become corrupted (and if so, I have no clue what you would do to fix that).

[dtmenges]

Our training department has reported similar issues twice in the last six months which is two times more than I have seen in the last ten years. If you Google this problem there are lots of reasons and lots of solutions most of which deal with the Registry. Also, there seems to be some anecdotal evidence that this may be linked to changing default browsers. I know that doesn't offer help but I believe it is a topic that the UA community will have to help resolve. Maybe it is time to move away from the .chm format.

[smbaird]

I am having this issue as well.

Chm build is local and launches fine from the directory.

I get this error on the opening topic pane when I launch from Outlook (it's help for an Outlook addin). If I click on a bookmark, the error goes away and the help looks and functions as expected.

I migrated this help from RoboHelp to Flare. RoboHelp chm files work without issue. Hoping I don't have to revert to Robohelp.

Any new wisdom out there on this issue?

PS. Flare hmt topics appear blank in Dreamweaver though the code is there. Is this a clue?

[Nita Beck]

@smbaird Welcome to the forums!

Before I abandon Flare, I'd check to see if the developers need to slightly adjust the call they're making to the Help. The fact that clicking to go elsewhere works makes me suspect that the devs aren't loading the starting topic quite right. It might have been that the RoboHelp-produced .chm included a bookmark at the top of the starting project and the devs are calling that, or vice versa, that Flare has included that and the devs need to call it. I dunno. I'm just suggesting how you might troubleshoot the issue.

[smbaird]

Running hh.exe directly to the chm files also produces the same error. Really the devs should not have to recode calls unless the path or file name has changed. Why I can open the chm file without problems from Explorer but hh.exe fails is a mystery to me. Still fooling around but re-tooling my old RoboHelp project just in case....

[Nita Beck]

I'd next turn to the MadCap tech support folks. If you're a new Flare user -- and especially having left a Flare competitor -- I think they'd be eager to get you sorted out.

[BedfordWriter]

I've been experimenting with my own Flare-generated .chm file, hoping that I would be able to contribute some ideas, but I can't make it not work.
When I run, HH -mapid 10200 htmlhelp.chm (or whatever number) I get my topic every time.

But, having spent hours hacking CHM files back in the day when I used DocToHelp to produce lots of them, (hi Sabine!) I can't give up without trying. Here are two suggestions, for whatever they're worth:

1) I always relied on KeyTools to find and fix problems. Fortunately, it's still possible to find that invaluable tool here: http://keyworks.helpmvp.com/
I'd try using that to compare one of your old CHMs with one of the new ones in hopes of spotting a difference.

2) I found a discussion that suggests punctuation can make a difference. Your error message includes a # and that looks sort of like what was causing the problem for other people, as discussed here:
https://msitekkie.wordpress.com/2014/04 ... windows-7/

Wish I could be more helpful. Nita's suggestion is probably the best one.

[awojcicki]

If the .chm is on a network drive, you won't be able to view it. It has to be on your local hard drive. This is a constraint dictated by Microsoft, not by Flare.

I noticed that when I publish to my company's network drive, then copy & paste the .CHM file to my local drive, it opens fine (unfortunately, I'm being asked to drop the .CHM file into the network drive so that the dev can build it into the software). This makes me wonder....if the .CHM help file is being built into the software (included in the installation image, which users install onto their local machine), would users be able to open the Microsoft HTML Help window no problem and see the content, because the .CHM file is technically on their local machine?