RoboHelp 2020 - Search Results do not display any topics.

[ranjit_godbole]

Greetings,

Adobe RoboHelp version: 2020.4.173

We've recently moved from Adobe RoboHelp Classic 2019 to 2020.

I'm still figuring out the new layout of the tool. I happened to generate a .chm and all is working fine except the "Search" function in the .chm. I key in any word and I don't get any results "No topics found".

Could anyone please give me some pointers. Thanks!

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

As a test, try creating HTML5 help and see if you get the same issue or not. CHMs are so ancient that sometimes you can't tell if there's really a problem or just some limitation to the format.

[ranjit_godbole]

Hi Jeff,

I was able to generate Responsive HTML5 and for Multiscreen HTML5 I got an error "Failed to generate Multiscreen HTML5."

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

So was the search working in the Responsive HTML5?

[ranjit_godbole]

I opened the index.htm files in the Responsive_HTML folder and in the "Search" tab, I keyed in a search word and it did display some topics. 

I've never used Responsive HTML5 and Multiscreen HTML5 before, just FYI.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Ok, so it sounds like there's something wrong with the CHM you created - it's local on your machine when you try to use it, right? CHMs were locked down years ago on network drives because of security issues.

[ranjit_godbole]

That's correct! It's local on my machine when I created it. 

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

So try one of the sample projects and see if you can create a CHM with it (that searches). That might indicate a problem with your project or with CHMs in general.

[Amebr]

Do you also have a new computer? It could be that the required dlls aren't registered properly.

Try MJ's Diagnostics to check for unregistered dlls, and register them:

http://kb.helpwaregroup.com/ms-html-help/mj-s-diagnostics

[ranjit_godbole]

Hi Amebr, yes, I'm on a new machine. Let me go through the link. 

[ranjit_godbole]

Hi Amebr, I'm still trying to find my way to go about registering the dll's, however, the "search" function still won't work on my colleagues old machine. 

[ranjit_godbole]

Hi Amebr, any reason as to why the search results aren't displayed on my colleagues old machine? 

[Amebr]

The only suggestion is the same as for yours. Perhaps IT uninstalled the dll as being no longer required.

[ranjit_godbole]

The "search" function in the .chm is not working on my client's machine too. So, I don't think our IT has anything to do with search on our client's machine. Also, the search funtion works fine in .chm's generated in Adobe RH 2019 on my machine as well as on client's machine. 

[Amebr]

In that case you'll need to contact Adobe.

See the following page for support contact options:
https://helpx.adobe.com/contact/enterprise-support.other.html#robohelp

[ranjit_godbole]

Sure, will do, thanks Amebr.

[SNB123]

What was the outcome of this? Im running into a similar issue with 2020 right now

[ranjit_godbole]

Hi @SNB123 ,

1) Download and install htmlhelp.exe.

2) Ensure that your machine has MSXML 4.0 or higher (\windows\system32).

This solved the search issue on my machine 🙂