Help file Wont display

[JJ]

Hi

I've got two PCs

One with excel 2003 (11.6560.6568) SP2
And the other excel 2003 (11.8120.8122) SP2

The problem I have is my help file shows fine in the earlier Version
but just displays a blank plain white screen in the later version.

So its something Microsoft has Changed in a Fix!


When i look at the function in Object browser on the old version it
shows the correct path for the help file on the other one the one that
doesn't work shows ???????????


Has any one got any ideas. Short of patching The old one up to the new
version a patch at a time to find out whats change/wrong with my help
file.

Cheers

 

[NickHK]

I have intermittent problems with XL & VBA help (and can never help on
worksheet functions with F1).
Not sure of the cause but a restart of Excel and termination of the
msohelp.exe process(s) in task manager seems to clear it.

Only had this since I have both XL2K and XL2002 installed on same machine.

Any better solution greatly appreciated.
And a re-install does not correct this behaviour.

NickHK

 

[JJ]

Right i've narrowed it down to an excel update kb_number 905756 with
this installed my helpfile dosen't work any ideas?

 

[Peter T]

Hi Nick,

Wish I could offer a better solution! I also have occasional intermittent
problems with Help with multiple versions installed (only Excel, VBA is OK).
My problems seem to relate to Office Assistant. Sometimes I get a message
telling me I need to 'repair' Office which may or may not temporarily fix.

I have never found a common set of actions or scenarios that trigger the
problem, except sometimes problems start when starting the Chart wizard or
Shift-F3 (even without calling Help).

Regards,
Peter T

 

[Gord Dibben]

There is a hot-fix that was issued a couple of months later to correct some of
the problems caused by 905756.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/920111/en-us

Not sure if it addresses your particular problem but worth a try.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

 

[NickHK]

Peter,
Yes, VBA Help is fine, it is only Excel's help which is flakey.
Can't say for sure it's a multiple Office version issue, but I'm loathed to
be limited to a single Excel.
It's not major, just annoying.

At least it's not just me.

NickHK

 

[JJ]

well I'm still having trouble!

Its only with a custom helpfile (.chm) for a udf that I've created.
Excels own help is fine!

 

[Peter T]

Where is the name and path of the chm defined, have you looked at
Application.MacroOptions

Regards,
Peter T