Specifying a link in FrameMaker to a topic in a RoboHelp-generated .CHM file

Question

I'm using the Adobe Technical Communication Suite 5. I've got two FrameMaker 12 books, each linked to its own RoboHelp HTML 11 project, and I'm generating two separate .CHM files.

My goal is for a topic in one .CHM file to contain a link to the other .CHM file. The two .CHM files are going to be in the same directory, but customers have the option of installing both .CHM files in any directory they choose, so I need to use a relative path name.

Since the sources are all in FrameMaker, I need to specify a hyperlink in a FrameMaker file that uses a relative path name to open a specific topic in a .CHM file. That hyperlink needs to be preserved when I run the FrameMaker file through RoboHelp.

I tried posing this question to the RoboHelp/FrameMaker Integration forum, but I only received responses from RoboHelp experts. They know how to solve my problem in RoboHelp, but not how to specify such a link in FrameMaker. I'm hoping someone here has solved this problem from the FrameMaker side.

Thanks in advance for any help.

feline_1973 · Accepted Answer

I have a project where we're making an OEM-type addition to a 3rd party help system, so my CHMs get installed alongside a bunch of 3rd party ones.

They always get placed in the same directory though! So I guess this is not the same scenario as your relative path problem.

If it is any help, though, what I do to link to the 3rd party CHMs is launch them in the help system, right-click and select "Properties", and you can see the URL they are at. On my system it has the form:

ms-its:<C:/Program Files x86,,, (ie the path to where they're installed).... > /chmname.chm::/path/....htm

(note the strange syntax of two colons after the .chm name)

What I do copy this from the Properties dialog, then in FrameMaker, I apply a character style to the text that I want to be a hyperlink, insert a hypertext marker, and add the marker text in Adobe's odd syntax "message URL ms-its:chmname.chm::/path/...htm"

in other words, you delete the <C:/Program Files....> portion of the path,

and just have "ms-its:" and the CHM filename and its internal path. (No slash between ms-its: and the CHM filename).

This is relative addressing of a kind... it assumes the CHMs are all in the same directory.

I guess that in your case, you need to try adding some kind of relative path instead inbetween ms-its: and the CHM filename

Bob_Niland · Answer

Having no experience with RH or .CHMs, some obvious questions would be:

Relative to what?
If the two files have a predictable topological relationship in the served [possibly virtual] filesystem, or have known final full URLs, then it's at least possible.

Does the topic have a specific <a tag or id= attribute?

If not, it's going to be hard to deep link to it.

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