TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: Help file/NT Problem From:Geoff Lane <geoff -at- GJCTECH -dot- FORCE9 -dot- NET> Date:Tue, 26 May 1998 15:02:08 +0100
Hi Damien,
-----Original Message-----
From: Damien Braniff <Damien_Braniff -at- PAC -dot- CO -dot- UK>
[snip]
>The other
>is more perplexing - the error message (when called from the application)
>is that the file called isn't a recognised help file. However, when you
>simply double click on the file from Explorer you get a message (using V3
>compiler etc) and it opens fine! I've tried several different compile
>options to get it to work on NT but to no avail - I even got a message once
>that a newer version of the Help was needed to read the file!
>
>I've tried a clean install on a Win 95 PC and it works fine.
>
>Any/all suggestions welcome.
---
There is a known 'issue' with NT 4. The link below is to a Microsoft
knowledgebase article that may help.
When this recently happened to me (using Doc-2-Help), Wextech provided the
following:
====================================================================
There are a few things to check. First, are you calling Help from an
application, or is it running as a stand alone file? If this happens
when calling Help from an application, is the application a 16-bit or
32-bit application? How are you calling Help?
The problem, as stated in an earlier response, may have to do with Help
file associations, and you'll have to check your registry to ensure .HLP
files are associated with the proper version of Windows Help. Click the
Start button on your task bar and choose Run. The Run dialog box
appears. In the command line, type:
Regedit
then click OK. The Registry Editor opens. Open the folder:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
Look for the subfolder:
.HLP
In the Name and Data area of the Registry Editor, you should see in the
Name list a (Default) item. The Data string for this item should read:
"HlpFile"
If it does not, you'll have to edit the string. Save changes to your
Registry, then try running Help again.--
=======================================================
HTH,
Geoff Lane
geoff -at- gjctech -dot- force9 -dot- net