Can't open CHM in hosted enviroment

[Shaffery]

I have been generating my help files as a CHM for years. However, last week, when I generated an updated CHM (using RH 10 and Win10 Enterprise), it wouldn't open in the host environment, as it has for years. However, it will open in a browser. Any idea how to resolve this?  Thanks!

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

Can you expound on what you mean with the "hosted environment"?

For several years now the CHM format has been limited on where it will open. Microsoft began enforcing restrictions on things like a shared network drive due to security concerns. You could make them work, but it required jumping through some hoops to do it.

Seems pretty unusual that it would open in a browser. That one is new on me. Normally if you try to open a CHM using a browser, the ability to download the CHM is presented as opposed to showing you the contents of the CHM.

Cheers... Rick

[Shaffery]

Hi Rick,

By "hosted environment", I mean the software that my company develops and sell to outside companies. I write the help files for that software and the end user can open the help files from within that software program.

I didn't correctly state how I can open the CHM. I just right-click it and select OPEN. I was referring to that as a browser (incorrectly).

[Captiv8r]

Hmmm, question here.

Does the CHM open, but not present anything? Or simply refuse to show any indication that it's opening?

So it DOES open if it's double-clicked? Does it operate okay if you open it that way?

Cheers... Rick

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

If it was working & now it's not, I would suggest that something has changed in your environment - IT may have blocked up that security hole that your CHMs were taking advantage of to launch. Have you tried to "unblock" the CHM?

[Shaffery]

Hi Jeff,

I saw that solution on the internet and tried to do that. There is no unblock option when I right-click on the CHM file. So I don't know of any other way to unblock it.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

So if it opens on it's own outside of the software, but won't open when in the software, it sounds like you need to have a chat with your developers on how they are trying to launch it.

[Shaffery]

LOL! Did that. They claim that they have changed nothing. That it's me who made a change to the CHM. Sigh!

[Captiv8r]

I'm not sure if the phrase is "Gawd I love the finger pointing" or Gotta love the finger pointing". Anyhoo, as stated elsewhere, something has changed and now things are broken.

As the developers are claiming they haven't changed anything, the onus is unfortunately on you.

Here's how I would approach it.

Do you have a setup with a working copy of the CHM file before you made changes? Hopefully you do. As that will provide what we call a "sanity check" that simply serves to assure you that things were working fine at one point in time.

Assuming you can do this and have done it, the next step is to pick apart the changes that were made. For example, do you have a backup copy of your project at the point where things were working? If so, revert to it and ever so slowly, make a small change, compile, then test. That process may reveal something you missed.

And before you make changes, compile again and see if the output works. It should. But if it doesn't, that seems to suggest another change has occurred elsewhere beyond what you are able to control.

Hope this helps a smidge... Rick

[Shaffery]

Thanks, Rick! Good suggestion. It will take me some time to do this since the file is over 61.0MB. But I'm going to figure this out. Thanks again to you and Jeff for providing very quick responses. Cheers!!

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Or you could ditch this antique technology, upgrade to RH2017 and create Responsive HTML5 instead

[Shaffery]

Tried that, too! The developers asked me not to upgrade the software because they didn't want anything else to change. Forward thinking, huh??? 🙂

[Captiv8r]

Yeah, that happens a lot. The thing is, even though CHMs are considered "antique", they still WORK.

From the development standpoint, a CHM is a single file they add to the distribution mix. The web based outputs introduce a virtual swarm of files to install.

I wish you the very best of luck! Rick

[Shaffery]

LOL! Right??

Anyway, I fully intend to get a 2017 version of the software and see if I can get an error-proof CHM out of it. Just as one of the many tests I'm going to do to figure this thing out.

Thanks again for your help and good wishes!

Kathy

[Captiv8r]

Just to note that it's good you are going to try this.

Once you download and install, make sure you have a backup copy of your project. That way if things don't work as planned, you can easily revert. Once you touch the project using 2017 you won't be able to revert back to using 10 to open and edit it.

Cheers... Rick

[Shaffery]

Good reminder! Thanks, Rick!

[Peter Grainge]

I suggest installing 2017 on a different machine, just in case you don't proceed with that. If you install on the same machine, it's likely you will have to not only uninstall 2017 but also reinstall the current version.

Challenge the developers to run an installation of their current version of the software with an old version of the CHM. There will likely be broken links but the key thing is that also fails, it's down to them.

That said, I just looked at Compatible versions of OS and MS Word with RoboHelp and RoboHelp 10 is not supported on Windows 10 so that could be a factor. Rick may know better whether it may nonetheless still work.

---

See www.grainge.org for free RoboHelp and Authoring information.

@petergrainge

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

@Peter - side note - I did finally get RH10 running on my Win10 machine, but it took much persuasion ;>)

[Shaffery]

Thank you, Peter. I will check that out.