WinHelp 2000 search file failure

[David Hurlston]

Here's a weird one...

Our products consist of a number of WinHelp 2000 help files.

One client could not generate the .fts search file trying one of the products. I found that his IT people had blocked writing to the Windows/Help folder which is where the generated fts file is placed - hence no search. OK, I understand that.

IT allowed him write access to the area, but still no search file generation for that one product. He tried other products that he hadn't tried before and they worked fine. Just the first product failed to work.

It's as if Windows has an evil streak and took offense at the first attempt and decided it wasn't going to let it create the search file - ever.

The client has tried rebooting, reinstallation of our product, searching for the fts file placed somerhwere else on his hard drive - nothing. The client is running XP.

Any ideas people???

[Pete_Lees]

Hi, David,

Perhaps the client could try deleting the hidden .gid file that is created in the same folder as the help file. An old or corrupted .gid file can cause problems with the full-text search.

Pete

[David Hurlston · Accepted solution]

Thanks Pete,

The client just called. His IT person signed on to his machine with administrative rigths and the search then built OK.

I can't explain that, but at least it's fixed