"See Also" buttons do not work with Flare 4

[scottpfen]

I am using Flare 4.0.16 for Windows XP on an Intel Duo Core machine (2.66 GHz, 1.96 RAM). It appears that beginning with Flare 4, the chms that I generate do not have working Concepts A links.

On every topic on which I test the "See Also" buttons after generating the chm, an error message appears saying "Selection is not associated with any topics. Please try another selection." This has happened with every project for which I generate a chm.

Meanwhile, a co-worker/contractor does not have this problem, although it is the same Flare release, but installed on a laptop.

In addition, the shortcuts to the pdfs in the program files are malfunctioning. Fortunately they didn't malfunction when we released the product this summer (our product release was late July, the V4 install was late August). I am wondering whether this is part of the same problem. Could some kinds of code be corrupted or stripped from the HTML files by the new version, or could some settings on a local machine be producing these problems?

[Pete Lees]

Hi, scottpfen,

The technology that underlies the ALink and Shortcut features is Microsoft's HTML Help ActiveX control (hhctrl.ocx), so the fact that neither feature works suggests that you may have a problem with this ActiveX control. If you see similar problems in other HTML Help files on your computer, such as the Internet Explorer help file (try the Related Topics links), then you can be fairly confident that the copy of the ActiveX control on your machine is at fault. Usually, this is because the control has incorrect entries in the Windows registry.

As a first step, you might try reregistering the ActiveX control by opening a Command Prompt window and typing the following two commands:

Code: Select all

regsvr32 /u %windir%\system32\hhctrl.ocx
regsvr32 %windir%\system32\hhctrl.ocx

Pete

[scottpfen]

Pete:

Thanks for getting back to me.

HTML files compiled before a certain date still display the Concepts A-Links correctly; it's after that date that the See Also buttons fail. My Related Topics links in IE Help work correctly. And I tried reregistering ActiveX as per your suggestion. But I still have the same problem. I did however fix a shortcut, recreating it in Flare 4.

Regards

Scott

[Pete Lees]

Hi, Scott,

Is the search feature broken as well? In that case, the problem may be an incorrectly registered DLL (itcc.dll), which is used by the help compiler to assemble the search and ALink indexes. This would explain why old help files work OK on your computer but new ones don't.

For instructions on how to reregister itcc.dll, see this article in the Flare Knowledge Base:

http://kb.madcapsoftware.com/default_CSH.htm#OUTH1003F

For good measure, you could also download and run MJ's Help Diagnostics, choosing the option to reregister all HTML Help 1.x DLLs.

http://helpware.net/downloads/index.htm#MJs

If you still experience the problem after taking these steps then this would appear to be a problem with your Flare installation. You'll get far better advice on how to troubleshoot this type of issue from one of the many Flare experts here, who are hopefully watching this thread.

Pete

[scottpfen]

Running the itcc.dll in Flare did cure the Concepts A-Link and Search failures for my English language HTML Help.
However, I continue to experience the same problems with Russian-language files: the search functions and the Concepts A-Links continue to fail, although the concepts themselves have been translated.

An ancillary problem concerns the type fonts on the skins. I tried to change the fonts on the Language skin, but with no luck (I found however that I could change the text of the See Also buttons through the language skin). However, that's worth another post.

[Pete Lees]

Are you compiling the .chm file on a computer whose default system language is set to Russian? I believe that that may be necessary in this case.

See the following (applies to Russian as well as Japanese, I think):

http://helpware.net/FAR/far_faq.htm#JapComp

Pete

[scottpfen]

I have installed Flare 4.1 on my HP Pavilion laptop (Windows Vista). (HP Pavilion dv9700 Notebook PC; 64-bit)

When I generate a chm on this laptop with Flare 4.1 installed, the Concepts A-Links (See Alsos) do not work.

I have received instructions to click on the itcc.dll file to register it. This file is in Flare.app/Resources/Bin/itcc.dll. This works in XP, but apparently not in Vista. (Thanks to Pete Lees and Richard Ferrell for this advice.)

The instructions that worked for me on XP are in the Madcap Knowledge Base, Article OUTH 1003F, Summary: Missing results in HTML file, by Richard Ferrell.

However, when I try the same thing on my laptop, I get the following error message:

"RegSvr32

The module "itcc.dll" was loaded but the call to DllRegister Server failed with error code Ox80070005.
For more info, search online using error code as search term."

When I googled "RegSvr32", I came across an article on the Microsoft site, but it wasn't helpful to this non-programmer.

I ran a freeware diagnostics program, and that didn't correct the problem either.

[Pete Lees]

Hi, Scott,

I believe that you must be an administrator to run regsvr32 on Vista. Can you try the following?

1. On the Start menu, click All Programs and then click Accessories.
2. Right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as Administrator on the context menu.
3. Type regsvr32 path_to/itcc.dll.

Pete