Second Level Help Page Links do not Work

[kenormson]

The first page of help information displays in a window at the rightof the
main Word Page.

Clicking on an item therein moves that window to the left and brings up a
second window to its right.

Clicking on any of the links (or + expansion items) in that window seems to
do nothing.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks

 

[Stefan Blom]

Which version of Word is this?

Have you tried repairing the Word installation?

 

[kenormson]

Stefan,
I am using the Office 2003 package, including Word.

No, I have not tried to repair the installation. I presume that invloves
starting an install process, so I will try that now.

Thank you for the suggestion.

Ken Ormson

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

On the Help menu, choose Detect and Repair... Word will guide you through
the process.

 

[kenormson]

Ms barnhill,

Thank you for the timely note about the built-in repair.

I have used that, supplied the original CD, and completed successfully.

However, the help situation is unchanged - link on the first page work as
expected, whilst those on the second page/window do nothing.

Ken Ormson

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Okay, let me understand better. You enter a search term in the "Type a
question for help" box, and you get the Help task pane showing Search
Results. You select one of the hits and get the Microsoft Office Word Help
window. There are topics (in blue) that should expand when you click on
them, but they don't? What happens if you click on the Show All text at the
top right of the window?

 

[kenormson]

Thanks for your interest in my problem.

You have summed up the situation perfectly.

The Show All action is exactly the same as any other link in that window -
nothing happens!

I have also tried clicking on Help in the menu, then entering the search
term (in my case, Java) into the panel at the bottom of that window. It
produces the same results, but I thought it worth a try.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

When I enter "Java" as a search term, I get 10 hits (from Offline Help
only), beginning with "About Java applet support." Is that what you're
seeing?

 

[kenormson]

MS Barnhill,
When I click on "Help" in the menu and open up a window at the right of the
document.
Entering "Java" in its search box gets 6 hits from online help. If I click
on any of those links it opens new window in which none of the links work.
If I use the drop down menu to change the search to Offline, I get 10 hits
as you did. Clicking on any of those links opens a new window BUT the links
in that window work correctly!
This means that I can now use the Help facility fully, even if only Offline.

It looks as though my default Help search is set to look Online. I will
investigate how to change that.

It also indicated that the problem of links not working is related to Online
working, so that is another avenue to investigate.

Thanks again for your help - at least I have a partially working Help system
now.

Ken Ormson

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Very odd that you would get fewer hits with online Help, since ordinarily
you would get all the offline topics *plus* the online ones. As for where
the setting is, use F1 to open the basic Help task pane, click on Online
Content Settings, and clear the check boxes as desired.

 

[kenormson]

Ms Barnhill,
I agree that it is strange to get fewer items from the online help.
I have now sset Word to use the offline help as a default, and I still get
10 items for "Java". Clicking on an item opens a new window and all the
links in that window work as they should. So that put Word back to a working
situation.
If I use the drop down Seearch box at the foot of the first help window to
select "Microsoft Office Online", I get just 6 items from Office Online.
Clicking one of those opens a new window and none of the links in that window
do anything. My thinking now is that the problem is more likely to be caused
the security settings in IE8 beta (it was the same with IE7) than anything to
do with Word itself.
Thank you again for all your help, and I will investigate the IE security
settings (and contact a suitable forum if I cannot solve that aspect).

Thanks again

Ken Ormson

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Ah, well, if you're using IE8 Beta, then you're on your own!