CHM crashes when you click on links to PDFs/word on IE9 only

Report · Jun 22, 2011

Here's the situation:

CHM file is created with a few links to baggage objects, which are PDF files. I have links in both topics and direct from the TOC.

On PCs with Internet Explorer 8 or less installed, users are able to click these links and the PDF file opens.

On PCs with Internet Explorer 9 installed, the CHM file crashes (and worse still, takes the application the help was launched from with it).

The error message is: Microsoft HTML Help Executable has stopped working [Close Program].

I have tried creating a small project with links to PDFs, and word docs, both as baggage files and just external links, and the same thing happens. I have tested on multiple PCs (even a Vista PC that was OK when it had IE8 and not OK when I upgraded it to IE). I am running the CHMs off my PC, not off network drives.

Has anyone else seen this? I would have thought other people would have noticed this if it was a generic problem with CHM files and IE9, but I can't see anyone mentioning it in this forum or anywhere else on google. Which makes me think it's something I've done wrong...

One last thing, I output the file as webhelp and the links worked fine.

Thanks in advance to anyone who has a suggestion here.

Report · Jul 11, 2011

Eventually got there. The questions are in a mandatory survey you have to complete before you can see the bug reports.

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

Help others by clicking Correct Answer if the question is answered. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here. "Upvote" is for useful posts.

Report · Oct 11, 2011

Is there any update to this issue? Will Microsoft be fixing this?

Report · Oct 11, 2011

Who knows? I have not seen anything and I am not aware of anywhere that tells you what bugs they are fixing.

Have you posted it as a bug on Microsoft's site? It needs lots of people to complain.

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

Help others by clicking Correct Answer if the question is answered. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here. "Upvote" is for useful posts.

Report · Oct 11, 2011

I replied to one of the posts on Microsoft's site, but I can post it as a bug as well and see what kind of response they will give at this point. Peter, do you know if there is a way to break the pdfs out from the chm and link to them directly in a folder? I am on RoboHelp 8. Do you know of any other work arounds? Thanks so much!

Report · Oct 12, 2011

@amyboosh

The only workaround I can think of is for you to put the PDFs on a webserver and create links to them. That assumes your users have internet access at all times.

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

Help others by clicking Correct Answer if the question is answered. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here. "Upvote" is for useful posts.

Report · Sep 10, 2012

Has anyone been able to confirm that this has been fixed and in what version of IE 9? I remember seeing this happening for us, but now it appears to be fixed. (My co-worker tested it and found that in update version 9.0.9 there's no crash when opening an embedded PDF).

Report · Oct 11, 2011

I have no clue. All I could do was log it and remove all of our Captivate links before the next major release of our software went to market! [SIGH]

Karen

Report · Oct 11, 2011

Uhhhh, Captivate?

Captivate things should work fine in RoboHelp. I thought the issue was with PDF and Word content?

Cheers... Rick

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Report · Oct 11, 2011

We produce our Captivate videos as .exe files. When those embedded links were clicked on test machines with IE9 installed, they crashed the CHM and also the main application (not just the Help, but the CAD/CAM software)!......No warning about whether or not you want to save your work..….just plain closed up like a clam without saving.

We had no time to do anything but yank all the links to the Captivate .exe files before we released our software. I detailed this in my Jul 8, 2011 5:50 AM response to this thread, and that’s how I logged it with Microsoft.

Karen