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.CHM help file does not display the topic content

I have created a .CHM help file and copied it to our network, so my co-workers could check it out.

However, when they open the .CHM file, they can see the list of topics on the Contents tab (i.e. in the TOC), but not the content of the topics. When clicking on any topic, no content is displayed on the right side.

What am I doing wrong?

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Comments

When clicking on any topic, no content is displayed on the right side.

This is one of the most frequent issues that happens when creating CHM help files.

We have an article on our website regarding this problem at:

https://www.helpsmith.com/chm-cannot-be-displayed.php

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Most frequent reason:

The most frequent reason is when a CHM file is running from a network PC. Usually there is no problem when the CHM is distributed with an application and accessed locally.

Possible solution:

A CHM file can be blocked by Windows security policy. Please try clicking on the "Unblock" button as mentioned in the article above:

  1. Right click your CHM file, then click Properties in the popup menu.
  2. On the General tab, click the Unblock button (or checkbox).
  3. Click OK.

Unblocking a .CHM help file

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Using Web Help as alternative

If you need your users to access the documentation through network, we recommend that you use the Web Help format as an alternative to HTML Help (CHM).

Please note that for a Web Help system to work properly, it should be located and accessed from a web server through http:// (or https:// protocol), but not from a local computer through file:// protocol.

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