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[CLOSED] All images missing from help browser

Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2019 5:54 am
by DIV
Hello.
I'm not sure if there is a simple setting responsible, but when I clicked on the "Help" button (from within the OpenType Designer dialogue box), I cannot see any of the images that are supposed to be present. I see the text, but all images are replaced with the classic 'box with a cross in it'. See screenshot attached hereto.

I have FontCreator Pro, version 11.5.0.2430 (x64), running on Windows 8.1 x64.

—DIV

Re: All images missing from help browser

Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2019 6:11 am
by Bhikkhu Pesala
The images are there for me on Windows 10 in the help file with the latest build 2430 of FontCreator 11.5.

Are all images missing from help?

How about Online Help?

Re: All images missing from help browser

Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2019 7:34 am
by DIV
DIV wrote: Sat Feb 09, 2019 5:54 am I see the text, but all images are replaced with the classic 'box with a cross in it'.
Yes, all images, every instance, in FontCreator's Help browser.
I just chose the page in the screenshot because it shows two images missing. It was not the page that first opened up, given the context I mentioned.

The online help accessed through an internet browser is fine.

—DIV

Re: All images missing from help browser

Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2019 8:34 am
by Bhikkhu Pesala
Open Options from Help and check your Internet Options to see if Images are blocked.
Internet Options.png
Internet Options.png (13.45 KiB) Viewed 7932 times

Re: All images missing from help browser

Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2019 10:30 am
by Erwin Denissen
Does this updated manual work for you:

https://www.high-logic.com/tmp/fontcrea ... reator.chm

Re: All images missing from help browser

Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2019 11:34 am
by DIV
Hi, Bhikkhu Pesala.
As far as I can see, there is no blocking of the images due to my internet settings, accessed from FontCreator's Help Browser under Options > Internet Options > Advanced > Multimedia ...
20190209b_FontCreator_Help_InternetOptions.png
20190209b_FontCreator_Help_InternetOptions.png (20.91 KiB) Viewed 7923 times
—DIV

Re: All images missing from help browser

Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2019 11:59 am
by DIV
Hello, Erwin Denissen.
Thank-you for supplying an updated file.
I am not sure whether I have 'installed' it correctly. First I closed FontCreator. I renamed the original help file, and copied the updated help file you provided into the FontCreator directory. It is unfortunate that this does not seem to have solved the problem for me.

By the way, if I open the archives (using 7-Zip), I can see that the images are present in both the original help file and the updated help file, and I can view those images with a third-party viewer (IrfanView).

From the Windows File Explorer I can also 'directly' open the help file using "Microsoft® HTML Help Executable". However all images are still missing. Apparently this is the same help viewer that is called by FontCreator actually, so it makes sense that the result would be identical. What else to add? This "Microsoft® HTML Help Executable" is version 6.3.9600.17415 (dated 2014-11-21). Perhaps it is somehow out of date??

Of maybe some other system/security setting is affecting the image display?

—DIV

Re: All images missing from help browser

Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2019 12:14 pm
by DIV
Perhaps the FontCreator.chm files (original and updated) are OK: I can view them correctly, with all images displayed, using a different help viewer, namely Sumatra PDF.

Microsoft® HTML Help Executable

Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2019 12:50 pm
by DIV
It does seem to be a more general problem with the "Microsoft® HTML Help Executable" help viewer on my system.
  • 7-Zip CHM file: contains only text, so no evidence of problems.
  • FontCreator CHM file: all text shown, but images not displayed (placeholder/error symbol shown instead). Missing images show Address such as mk:@MSITStore:C:\Program%20Files\High-Logic%20FontCreator\FontCreator.chm::/fontcreator_010_font_overview.png after right-clicking placeholder to view Properties.
  • Free Download Manager CHM file: all text shown, but images not displayed (placeholder/error symbol shown instead). Missing images show Address such as mk:@MSITStore:C:\Program%20Files%20(x86)\Free%20Download%20Manager\Help\Free%20Download%20Manager.chm::/remote%20control.png after right-clicking placeholder to view Properties.
  • EndNote CHM file: all text shown, but almost all images [one exception, below] not displayed (placeholder/error symbol shown instead). Missing images show Address such as mk:@MSITStore:C:\Program%20Files%20(x86)\EndNote%20X5\EndNote.chm::/Graphics/Library%20Toolbar.gif after right-clicking placeholder to view Properties. Also shows a 'script error' at address mk:@MSITStore:C:\Program%20Files%20(x86)\EndNote%20X5\EndNote.chm::/SkinSupport/MadCapUtilities.js (see image attached) — although I can see the file "MadCapUtilities.js" stored under folder "SkinSupport" within the CHM file when opened with 7-Zip. On the other hand, an image is correctly displayed on the 'title page' of the help (see other attachment). Title image shows Address as mk:@MSITStore:C:\Program%20Files%20(x86)\EndNote%20X5\EndNote.chm::/Graphics/ENX5_GSG-titlepg-150dpi.gif after right-clicking placeholder to view Properties.
I can't say if this is a new or an old problem.
I'm sure there could be numerous possible causes.
From a quick look I found one idea is reregistering appropriate DLL and OCX files; I'm not expert in that, so I cannot tell if it is relevant to my issue.
Another possibility is that Kaspersky Internet Security might be interfering, as I've found the current engine (version 19.x) can be intrusive. Maybe it (or something else) is blocking JavaScript that would be necessary to display most images???

—DIV

Re: All images missing from help browser

Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2019 12:55 pm
by Erwin Denissen
We're glad to know it is not an issue on our side, but we hope you will be able to solve it soon.

For now do make use of the online FontCreator manual.

Re: All images missing from help browser

Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2019 11:38 am
by DIV
Thanks.
It seems to be an erratic problem — always the hardest to diagnose.

:OT
Not technically "off topic" as per the title, but not specifically related to FontCreator or other High-Logic products.
  • I tried pausing antivirus protection/security, with no effect.
  • I tried registering the files mentioned here and here, with no immediate effect. Those DLL's did not show up in the list of installed modules beforehand, but despite the registration being reported as successful, nor were they present afterward. By the way, it turns out that hhctrl.ocx itss.dll and itircl.dll exist both in 32-bit and 64-bit versions (under %systemroot%\System32 and %systemroot%\SysWoW64), and furthermore regsvr32.exe also exists in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions!
  • My Internet Explorer cache location was defined, and of large size (250 MB); the entire thing wasn't read-only, although some constituents were read-only. I didn't change anything here.
  • I tried completely disabling UAC (user access control), but this had no effect on the help browser.
  • My registry setting for MaxAllowedZone was set to 1; changing it to 4 didn't make a difference.
  • Running with elevated permissions (run as admin) didn't make a difference.
  • There was no indication of differences between the one image in the EndNote help file that would always load, and all of the other images that would not load. Nothing unusual or different in the path to the CHM file, nor internally to the images stored within the CHM file.
  • CHM files were not "blocked". Moving them to C:\tmp didn't make any difference.
  • Overall there are a few indications (here, here, here and here) that it might be a problem with specific versions/installations of Internet Explorer 11.
  • I adapted a suggestion to use the IE Developer Tools (F12), for further diagnosis and comparison. I found that I could only access the content of the CHM files using Microsoft's "moniker" syntax (see also here) as in
    1. mk:@MSITStore:C:\Program%20Files%20(x86)\EndNote%20X5\EndNote.chm::/01Intro/Title%20Page.htm
    2. mk:@MSITStore:C:\Program%20Files%20(x86)\EndNote%20X5\EndNote.chm::/Graphics/ENX5_GSG-titlepg-150dpi.gif
    3. mk:@MSITStore:C:\Program%20Files%20(x86)\EndNote%20X5\EndNote.chm::/18Prefs/ToolbarsWin.htm
    4. mk:@MSITStore:C:\Program%20Files%20(x86)\EndNote%20X5\EndNote.chm::/Graphics/Library%20Toolbar.gif
    I used EndNote's help file because it was the only one in which one image reproducibly was shown (ENX5_GSG-titlepg-150dpi.gif, alone or embedded in the title page).
    I was unable to find any conclusive diagnosis using the Internet Explorer "DOM Explorer" (DOM = Document Object Model). Trying to emulate other browsers didn't make a difference, nor (unsurprisingly) did different user-agent strings. Toggling different formatting options likewise didn't assist.
    However, I did discover something peculiar within Internet Explorer:
    1. if I enter a URI such as for ToolbarsWin.htm above into the IE address bar, the embedded images won't be displayed (the 'polaroid with an x' icon is instead shown);
    2. if I then press F5 to reload the page, the images are all shown(!!!);
    3. but if I then/instead move the cursor to the address bar and simply press ENTER, the images are (again) missing!
At this point I discovered that there was something wrong with my display: (i) ColorCop was displaying magnified views that didn't match the original view, and (ii) when loading a page in Internet Explorer, an image of ColorCop was momentarily flickered into view, despite that tool having been already closed down.
Update: In hindsight one other clue was that (iii) the hotkey combination Alt-PrtScn, to take a screenshot of the active (top) window, had stopped working too.

Hence I decided to RESTART Windows. Hey presto, when I logged back in everything was working again. The images in all of the CHM files I enumerated previously were correctly displayed with no mucking about.
SUCCESS!
The only mystery was what to attribute the success to. Maybe just some one-off problem that had been solved by restarting the OS.

Or so it seemed....

Then I eventually SHUT DOWN Windows. This time when I started Windows back up again the situation had reverted to the original condition of not displaying any images (except that title page in the EndNote help).

Update: After reporting the above, I also SHUT DOWN Windows for a second time. Then when I started Windows back up yet again, the situation had swapped back to the 'correct' condition of displaying all images!

Yes, it's lots of information here, and maybe not all of it helpful, and certainly not really related to FontCreator. But maybe it'll eventually help someone else (or even me).

—DIV

Text styles also ignored

Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2019 12:19 pm
by DIV
I have also just discovered that whenever images are missing, the styles are also ignored.

For the FontCreator CHM help file:

Inline text HTML formatting like bolding (<b>) or headings (<h1>) are respected, but formatting defined in the stylesheet (default.css) is completely ignored, so the font defaults to Times New Roman (on my system).


When I force the images to display by using the 'moniker' syntax to formulate a URI and view a page in Internet Explorer, such as mk:@MSITStore:C:\Program%20Files\High-Logic%20FontCreator\FontCreator.chm::/preview.html, and then press the F5 key to 'reload' the content, not just the image is displayed, but also the CSS is loaded, so that the font changes from the default (Times New Roman for me) to Segoe UI (as set in default.css).

—DIV

P.S. Initially a message is also displayed "Internet Explorer restricted this webpage from running scripts or ActiveX controls", but I'm not sure that this is related to the above problems.

Re: All images missing from help browser

Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2019 1:21 pm
by DIV
The images also seem to reliably show up in the default help browser (Microsoft® HTML Help Executable) by refreshing the page/content display. This is analogous to pressing the F5 key when in Internet Explorer. However, in the help browser there is no 'hotkey' to refresh the display, so it is necessary to navigate the menu, viz. Options > Refresh . As noted above, this also triggers the correct application of styles defined in CSS.