TOC panel does not show

[Guest]

I use RH X5 with Windows Vista Business. If I compile and show a project inside RH the left panel always appears ok, after returning "yes" to the Windows question about allowing blocked contents. But if I call the published project inside the Output folder, the left panel disappears. Hope someone can help.

[jdcyclone1]

What are you publishing your compiled project as...FlashHelp, WebHelp?

[Guest]

WebHelp Pro

[Peter Grainge]

X5 itself is not compatible with Vista. You can generate an output with X5 under one of the compatible OSs and that will run on Vista.

Also WebHelp Pro is designed to run on a server with RoboHelp Server installed. Do you have that? If not, use WebHelp.

[Guest]

Hi Peter, thank you very much for your help. As a matter of fact, I had the same kind of trouble when using RX5 with my old box,, with XP and RoboHelp Server. Sometimes the left panel would refuse to show, but after a few changes and compilations it would return. With Vista, RH5 is doing quite well, the sole problem being it begun like XP, alternating showing and not showing the left panel, and now it simply refuses to show. I even tried copying the project to my old box, with XP and RoboHelp Server, and compiling it, and the scenario is just the same: it does not show. Well, I will try WebHelp as Primary Layout, and see what happens.

[Guest]

I am having the same issue with TOC panel not showing from browser IE or Firefox.  I published our project from RoboHelp HTML 8 with Web Pro to RoboHelp Server 9.

When the help site is accessed by browser the welcome page appears but no Table of Contents.  In the upper left hand corner a "show" link is visible.  The User has to click "show" for TOC to appear.  Only then does the tool bar appear for Contents, Index, Search, Glossary.  This was not a problem in the past when publishing our project from RoboHelp 8 with Web directly to our website without RoboHelp Server 9.

Am I missing a setting or process when publishing to RoboHelp Server 9?

[Captiv8r]

Hi there and welcome to our community

You likely aren't missing any setting. What is probably happening is that you are using the wrong type of link to open the help.

If you open only a topic that is part of a larger help system you normally see the "Show" link. If you wish to see the full frameset, you need to link to the start page of the help. As you are using the Pro output, you may also need to adjust your Window settings found in the Project Set-up pod.

Cheers... Rick

Helpful and Handy Links RoboHelp Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7, 8 or 9 within the day! Adobe Certified RoboHelp HTML Training SorcerStone Blog RoboHelp eBooks

[johndaigle]

An addition to what my good colleague, Rick, has said. Last week I had a client with a similar (no TOC, Show link) situation.

The web administrator had asked her for the name of the "default page" in order to create a link to the site, She dutifully gave him the "Default Topic" of her project instead of the StartPage, which is sometimes referred to as the default page by web administrators (like default.htm or index.html.) Confused, yet? This semantic difference can lead to bizarre results.

RoboHelp Server has an additional requirement when linking to it. The syntax to open the project correctly from a web browser is like this:

http://localhost:8080/robohelp/server?area=general&prj=CustomerCare

Where localhost:8080 is the name of the web server;  "general" is the Area and "CustomerCare" is the name of the RoboHelp project (prj). That, along with specifying the Default Window (ouch, there's that default word again!) will open the project in the proper frameset.

I don't know if this is what you are encountering, but thought I would throw this into the muddle.

John Daigle
Adobe Certified RoboHelp and Captivate Instructor
Evergreen, Colorado

www.showmethedemo.com

[Guest]

Thanks John and Captiv8r for the help and quick response.  The issue is resolved applying guidance from both of you.  First, the syntax to open a project correctly from a web browser is hard for a new RoboHelp Server 9 user to find.  John, your syntax guidance put us on the right track.

Second, I believe the TOC not showing from browser was resolved by changing the publishing selection (RoboHelp HTML 8) in WebHelp Pro.  From the first page after clicking WebHelp Pro "WebHelp Pro Options page" we changed the default window selection to WebAppFull, and selected the "Master Page" designated for our project.  Table of Contents, Index, and Glossary selection was set to WebAppHelp.

We now launch from the browser with Table of Contents and tool bar visible to users!

The new reports in RoboHelp Server 9 look great!  We anticipate receiving valuable feedback from our customers that will facilitate improvement to our online help content.