Hello!

The "Topic Edit View" and the "Topic HTML View" cannot be opened. The command fails.

Using the toobar button command "Topic Edit View" or "Topic HTML View" I get the following error: system error #1881 "Error at txtCustomFieldText - Value: Datatype does not match"

My System: Windows 7 x64, HTML Builder Version 4.68

Reinstalling the Builder does not help. The last time I was working with the HTML Builder (with this installation of the HTML Builder) is about 3 years ago (2017).

Can anybody give me a help please? Thank you in advance.

Regards, Werner

Can you open or create a new help file and try this again and see if it happens again?

It sounds to me there's corrupted data in the table. Specifically this seems to relate to custom fields that were added? If you added fields make sure they are Memo fields.

+++ Rick ---

Hello Rick, thank you very much for your help ... and the quick help too.

It is working for a new poject so I returned to a prior version of our help project. With the older project it works again so I will update this project and use it.

Thank you again!

Please excuse me very mutch but there is another error message which wasn't in the past.

It happens for the ready build help file (.chm) and when opening the help from VBA for an object. It is the message: "The window name 'main' passed to HH_GET_WIN_TYPE was not been specified."

I think it has to do with the following entry in the "ww.hhp" file (?):

In the past (older project) the entry in "ww.hhp" was:

**[WINDOWS]

wwHelpWindow="Object Model Help","ww.hhc","ww.hhk","indexpage.htm","indexpage.htm",,,,,0x63520,,0x387e,[0,0,700,480],,,,,,,0

main="Object Model Help","ww.hhc","ww.hhk","indexpage.htm",,,,,,0x20,,,[271,372,593,566],,,,,,,0 **

Now, each time when compiling the project ("Build Help" command) the entries are changed and the entry for "main" is removed.

[WINDOWS]

wwHelpWindow=,"ww.hhc","ww.hhk","indexpage.htm","indexpage.htm",,,,,0x63520,,0x387e,[0,0,700,480],,,,,,,0

Do you know who makes this modification and why? And how to avoid this?

Thank you in advance for another help please.

Regards, Werner (www.schaudin.com)

Hello Rick,

I found a workaround the [WINDOWS] section (www.hhp) is not modified/changed anymore.

Workaround:

NOT using "Build Help" from the Help Builder. Instead: Open the "HTML Help Workshop" and using the "File" | "Compile..." command there.

The [WINDOWS] section is not modified and the Help is opens without this error message.

This solves my problem. Just I cannot use the "Build Help" from the Help Builder.

If you know the reason, I'm still interested to know. Would be fine to use the build command from Help Builder.

Regards, Werner (www.schaudin.com)

The problem most likely is that there was something corrupted in the configuration file. When in doubt you can delete or rename the config file and it will be re-created.

The file lives

<MyDocuments>\West Wind Html Help Builder\wwHelp.config

Not sure about the help building in v4. I haven't used that version in a looong time it's been retired 10 years ago...

+++ Rick ---

Rick,

deleting "wwHelp.config" did not help. The [WINDOWS] sections is still modified.

Any further idea?

Where can I check/set/add the/a help window (default: wwHelpWindow) in the Help Builder? Do you know? I know the 4.6 is an old version.

Werner

I'm not sure honestly since this is an old version.

I do know that certain setting changes in the configuration only work through Html Help Workshop - the compiler (which is maddeningly not the same even though it uses the same EXE) handles some things differently. If settings are customized you likely have to compile through Workshop.

In the current version here's what the generated [Windows] section looks like:

[WINDOWS]
wwHelpWindow=,"wwhelp.hhc","wwhelp.hhk","index.htm","index.htm",,,,,0x63520,,0x387e,[0,0,700,480],,,,,,,0

Here's the whole header section:

[OPTIONS]
Compatibility=1.1
Compiled file=wwhelp.chm
Contents file=wwhelp.hhc
Default topic=index.htm
Display compile progress=No
Full-text search=Yes
Index file=wwhelp.hhk
Language=0x409 English (United States)
Title=West Wind Html Help Builder
Default Window=wwHelpWindow

[WINDOWS]
wwHelpWindow=,"wwhelp.hhc","wwhelp.hhk","index.htm","index.htm",,,,,0x63520,,0x387e,[0,0,700,480],,,,,,,0

and that works for compiling from within Help Builder.

As I said at this point I'm not really supporting the old version of Help Builder so if there's something off with the compilation (which would be odd since that code hasn't been touched in at least 10 years) there's nothing I can really do about it.

The only suggestion I have is to create a new project and compare side by side what settings are different. Maybe one of the project setting changes triggers the divergence and as I said some features simply don't work with command line compilation and require the actual Workshop exe to compile.

FWIW, HTML Help Workshop isn't even available from the Microsoft site anymore - I installed a new machine a month ago and yesterday realized I didn't have Workshop installed. I spent an hour trying to hunt down a copy of HTML Workshop - the link in Help Builder is broken and there are no replacements.

+++ Rick ---

Hello Rick,

" ...and that works for compiling from within Help Builder."

Yes. Compiling works. It is because the VBA environment (our application) looks for a "main" window when opening the help. For this reason the window "main" was added to ww.hhp [WINDOWS] section.

The Help Build (at least version 4) writes the ww.hhp file newly and adds the the section [WINDOWS] in his own way and without to keep the second section entry for "main" window.

Well, it is OK for me because In can use the workaround I found:
...using the "HTML Help Workshop" for compiling the project. I just have to add the [WINDOWS] 'main' each time again.

I think we can close this issue. Thank very much for your help!

Regards, Werner
(www.schaudin.com)