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juliaHal
Known Participant
September 25, 2017
Question

Link to an external topic in another folder

  • September 25, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 1063 views

How do I create a link to a remote topic in a CHM in a different folder? I don't want to move the other chm to the same folder as the project I am working in. A similar question was asked a few years ago and the answer was

Hi there

They will either need to be in the same folder or they will need to be registered with Windows. Otherwise, one has no clue the other exists.

Cheers... Rick

Since the CHMs won't be in the same folder, how do I register them with Windows?

Thanks.

Julia

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

Captiv8r
Captiv8r
Legend
September 26, 2017

Hi Julia

RoboHelp normally ships with a tool named "HTML Help Registration".

How you find it and run it will depend on your installed version of RoboHelp. If it's version 2015 or 2017, try clicking the Project tab, then Pods and finally choose the Toolbox pod.

I believe earlier versions had the Pods on the View menu.

When you run it you should see a dialog similar to below:

Click the Register... button, browse to and select the CHM you wish to add. Once you click Open, you should be done and may then close the HTML Help Registration utility.

Cheers... Rick

J
juliaHalAuthor
Known Participant
September 26, 2017

Thank you, Rick.

Sadly, registering the target CHM hasn’t worked.

To explain what happens, we need to start with some directory aliases.

PRDDir C:\ProductDirectory\bin\ contains myproducthelp.chm (usually installed by the product, but for this exercise, copied from Work2Dir)

SUBprdDir C:\ProductDirectory\subproduct\bin\ contains otherHelp.chm

Work1Dir C:\writerworkingdir\MyProduct\....\HTMLHelp\ contains myproducthelp.xpj

Work2Dir C:\writerworkingdir\MyProduct\....\HTMLHelp\!SSL!\ Microsoft_HTML_Help\ contains the compiled myproducthelp.chm

The product help directory (called PRDDir for convenience) and subproduct help directory (SUBprdDir) are fixed and are there on every computer where the product is installed. I have some flexibility in the working directories, but I don’t think it will matter.

According to HTML Help Registration, otherHelp.chm is registered in SUBprdDir.

Working in Work1Dir, I set up the link in myproducthelp to the desired topic in otherHelp.chm. RoboHelp asks if I want to copy otherHelp.chm to Work1Dir. If I say no, RH does not create a link. If I say yes, RH copies the file and creates the link. Then when I compile myproducthelp.chm, RH copies otherHelp.chm to Work2Dir.

The link in myproducthelp.chm works as long as it is in the same directory as otherHelp.chm. It does not work when the CHM files are in different directories.

Other things I tried but that didn’t work include:

· I set up a directory structure in the parent to Work1Dir that mimicked the relationship between PRDDir and SUBprdDir.

· I copied myproducthelp.chm to PRDDir on a different computer that does not include any of the writerworking directories but that does include otherhelp.chm in the expected directory.

Installing otherhelp.chm to the PRDDir directory is not an option. Can you suggest a way to make the link work correctly?

Thank you for any help you can give.

Julia

A
Community Expert
AmebrCommunity Expert
Community Expert
September 27, 2017

All of the advice I've seen says that the chm files must be in the same directory. I've also seen advice that links between chm files should be in the format 'ms-its:chmfile.chm::/filename.htm' rather than 'chmfile.chm::/filename.htm'. So what you could try is manually entering the href (as it will need to be when it's installed ) rather than using the Remote Topic option:

ms-its:../subproduct/bin/chmfile.chm::/path/filename.htm

(note the ../ after the colon to navigate up one directory to ProductDirectory)

I don't know if this will work given all the websites to the contrary, but it should be quick to try. And Robohelp may bork the syntax on you as well, given how it likes to "fix" mistakes.

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