Table of Contents not displaying in IE for Merged Projects in RoboHelp 11

[MDennetti]

I have created merged projects in RoboHelp 11. The table of contents and the Start page display OK in Firefox and Chrome, but in Internet Explorer version 11, the table of contents does not display, and the message "Internet Explorer restricted this webpage from running scripts or Active X controls" is shown. Clicking "Allow blocked content" enables the Start page to be displayed, but the table of contents is not shown. If you refresh the page in Internet Explorer, everything is displayed without any problems. Can anyone suggest a fix for this please? Is it possible to refresh the page automatically perhaps? Thanks for any suggestions.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

You’ll need to get patched up to get the fixes for browser security issues for IE11 and Edge (& FF too). See Willam’s site - https://www.wvanweelden.eu/articles/robohelp-patches-and-updates

[MDennetti]

Thanks. I installed patch 11.0.4 but it has not fixed the problem with the TOC not displaying. Do you suggest installing any of the other updates? I could not see anything relating to this problem for RoboHelp 11.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

And you regenerated your WebHelp? You might have to look at Willam’s site to get some unofficial hacks from other versions.

[MDennetti]

Regenerated WebHelp, same problem I'm afraid. Not too keen on the word "unofficial" or "hack"...

[Peter Grainge]

Unofficial workarounds might have been a better term. Willam provides many solutions and works closely with Adobe. There will be nothing nasty in his solutions but they are unofficial in the sense that Adobe have not run them through their testing. As with any software company issues get through the official testing so even that is no guarantee.

Personally I would try any solution offered by Willam. As always have a backup because there could always be an unknown that is unique to you.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring information

@petergrainge

[MDennetti]

Thanks very much. I'll have a look. Has anyone else seen this problem with the TOC not displaying in Internet Explorer?

[Willam van Weelden]

Thanks for the vote of confidence Peter.

The unofficial fixes are mostly backported fixes or updates I made together with people that had specific problems. While I try to test as best I can, I cannot provide the kind of support that Adobe can offer. Hence unofficial and no warrantee. Though if it doesn't work, you can always contact me to see whether we can create something that does work.

[MDennetti]

Thanks.

[MDennetti]

There are some patches listed on William's site for RoboHelp version 10 which look promising. Is it generally safe to install patches for an earlier version of RoboHelp?

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

You could try it, but always make a backup of the original js files first – I’ve found that making a copy of the original files & then using a compare tool (like Beyond Compare) to have a look at the differences gives me hints as to what to tinker with in my copy.

[MDennetti]

Thanks. Another clue: the Help content works OK when accessed from a web server. It is only when it is accessed from your local drive that we see the problem.

[Peter Grainge]

Please upload a screenshot of the whole screen when the TOC is not displayed locally.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring information

@petergrainge

[MDennetti]

[Peter Grainge]

I really did mean the whole screen. I'm wondering if IE is blocking the TOC.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring information

@petergrainge

[MDennetti]

[MDennetti]

Hi, is this screen shot OK?

[Peter Grainge]

Am I right in thinking this is a dummy project set up for test purposes? If it is or you can nonetheless share it, I will take a look.

See the Contact page on my site and send the project as instructed there. Do make sure you include a link to this thread and please do not email the project direct.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring information

@petergrainge

[MDennetti]

Thanks for your offer, it's great to know that you are willing to help with this problem. I created a new project with just dummy content and I found that the problem with the TOC not displaying went away for IE11. I copied the settings in the WebHelp Settings dialog to the original project and the problem went away in this project too. I don't know exactly which setting fixed the issue, or whether it was a combination of settings. Unfortunately, we still have a problem using the Microsoft Edge browser, as follows: the start page displays OK, but the TOC does not display at all, even if you refresh the page. It the TOC pane appears to be refreshing about twice a second, but nothing is displayed. The TOC is not displayed in Firefox either, but displays OK in Chrome. RoboHelp is on version 11.0.4.291, and I have installed the RH10 patch for Edge problems, with did address the problem we saw originally using Edge, but left us with the problem I have described above. I'd really appreciate any advice you can offer with this, and could send you dummy project if that helps. Perhaps you could let me know if Edge is supported for merged projects in RH11, and, if not, whether it is supported in version 2015. Best wishes, M

[Peter Grainge]

This seems to linked to some other issues so please send me the merged setup and I will check out various scenarios. What I am expecting is that the child projects will display OK in IE but not the merge.

I will also be trying different outputs and different versions of RoboHelp.

Please follow the instructions on my Contacts page.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring information

@petergrainge

[MDennetti]

Thanks, I copied the dummy project over as you suggested.

[MDennetti]

Thanks for everyone's advice. Our solution was to move to the Responsive HTML output. The TOC displays OK in this output.

[Peter Grainge]

Coincidentally today I got to take another look at the project you sent me. I opened each in turn and generate the parent to a folder outside the project. That automatically creates a folder called mergedProjects within which there is a folder for each child. I generated each child to those folders and the merge works as expected in both IE and Firefox. The only fault I could see was that whilst Project 3 showed when you clicked that in the TOC, the highlight returned to Project 1.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring information

@petergrainge

[Peter Grainge]

Let me know if you want me to send the working version back to you.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring information

@petergrainge

[MDennetti]

Yes, please. Thanks very much.