Flash Help TOC issue

[S_Allen]

Hi there,

I'm hoping somone can help me with an issue I'm having generating a Flash Help project.

This help is context-sensitive. When called from within the application (F1) the proper topic displays. However, the TOC always shows the default book - it does not expand to match to where the user really is within the help.

Even stranger (to me), the TOC works just fine for the first-level and second-level books and pages. However, anything third level or deeper, the TOC behaves as described above - defaulting to the welcome page book.

All the books are books with links (to topics), if that matters.

If I generate the project as WebHelp, it works flawlessly.

I've done other FlashHelp projects, but this is my first context-sensitive project using Flash help.

In all other respects, things seem to be functioning just fine.

Any ideas?

Please help, it's a rather tight deadline. But then, aren't they all?

[Guest]

Welcome to the community.

In your FlashHelp output options, do you have the "Synchronize TOC" option checked, and is it set to Automatically? I don't know if this is the problem, but the symptoms sound like they may have to do with the Sync TOC option. Just a thought.

--Ben

[S_Allen]

Thanks for the reply!

Yep, it's checked - and set to automatically. Just for kicks I tried it set to manually, but that didn't make any change....

[Guest]

quote:

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the TOC works just fine for the first-level and second-level books and pages. However, anything third level or deeper, the TOC behaves as described above - defaulting to the welcome page book.

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Just looking over this again. I was wondering if you mean that the third level and beyond don't work when called directly using CSH, or if they don't work when just browsing through the TOC, or both. Can you clarify? Thanks,

Ben

[S_Allen]

Ben,

Thanks for the reply. To answer your question, the TOC fails only when called directly using CSH. I can manually browse just fine no matter where I am in the help.

[Guest]

Sarah,

I remembered that someone else posted about TOC problems when launching FlashHelp from a C++ application. You said you launch your help using the F1 key. Is your application something other than a Web-based app? Can you confirm that your help system is opening in a browser? (I'm told that C apps should open Web pages in browsers correctly with URLs links, but it doesn't hurt to check.)

I can't duplicate the problem at this point. I have tried calling my context-sensitive help systems from pages that correspond to topics 3 and 4 levels in, and I get the correct TOC entry highlighted (in both IE and Firefox). But I'm working with Web applications where we click on a link to call the help. I also don't have topics linked to every single book, only 50-75% of them, so I don't know if that has anything to do with the problem.

--Ben

[S_Allen]

As it happens, I got a tip to try optimizing the output for Local PC versus Internet, and that solved the issue! 🙂 Thanks again for looking into this for me!

[mark worsnop]

I have the same problem and would like to know what you did to optimize this for PC, if you could share that it would be super. thanks for the help!

[S_Allen]

Sure!

1. Set primary layout to Flash Help.

2. Go to File > Generate Primary Layout. The Generate Primay Layout pop-up displays.

3. About two-thirds the way down the pop-up screen, you should see the option Optimize Speed For with two radio buttons: Local PC or Intranet and WebSite.

4. Select Local PC or Intranet.

5. Complete Flash Help generation as usual.

And that's it! Let me know if it worked for you!

[S_Allen]

I was just looking back at my posts, and see that my last post is all garbled.... do you need me to rewrite it? I'm not sure what happened there.....