Help Viewer.app problems

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Alan Fry - 12 Jan 2005 12:09 GMT

Selecting for example Finder->Help->MacHelp:

a) launches Help Viewer in about 1sec
b) opens the Help Viewer window in about another 1sec.

After that the 'technicolor pizza' spins for some 30-40 seconds, stops
but the Help Viewer window remains blank.

If 'Help Viewer->New' is clicked, a new window opens and the pizza spins
for another 30 seconds or so, but this time the expected window content
comes into view. Clicking on topics sometimes works with 'normal
latency' other times takes 15-30 seconds to respond.

In short Help Viewer is broken and I am at a loss to know what to do to
fix it. Any help would be much appreciated.

The set up BTW, is a G4 running Panther 10.3.7. 'Help Viewer' version is
2.0.7(v111.4)

Alan Fry

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Cathy Stevenson - 12 Jan 2005 17:20 GMT

> Selecting for example Finder->Help->MacHelp:
>
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
>
> Alan Fry

Check: http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/helpviewer.html

Cathy

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Madwen - 12 Jan 2005 19:58 GMT

> Check: http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/helpviewer.html
>
> Cathy

What a great resource; thanks!

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Alan Fry - 12 Jan 2005 21:18 GMT

>>Selecting for example Finder->Help->MacHelp:
>>
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
>
> Check: http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/helpviewer.html

Thank you very much indeed for this most helpful reference.

Having read it very carefully and followed the prescription equally
carefully, matters are certainly much improved.

However, after clicking (say) MacHelp it >still< takes some 30 seconds
before the window draws. After that things work pretty well.

There is a comment towards the end of the document that there is "no
Help Viewer Preference to prevent Help Viewer Checking the Internet"
Since I have a permanent broadband connection I suspect this may be what
is happening (?). Although, having said that, my wife's iBook, also
10.3.7, and on the same Airport net, does not suffer from the same
MacHelp start-up delay. So...I don't know...('Snitch' didn't seem to
help FWIW.)

A decisive test is going to be to see whether the iBook 'Help'
performance is worse if Airport is turned on. If it is, it would support
the thesis that it 'internet searching' which is causing the delay. I
will try this tomorrow and report the results here.

Interestingly there is a parallel here with a recent problem with
'Stuffit' which was taking up to 5 minutes to launch. Turning off
(unchecking) 'Preferences>Options>Allow version checking' resolved the
problem completely.

Matt Neuberg wrote:

> I just got through fixing that on my machine. :) Go into the top-level
> (not user-level) /Library/Documentation/Help folder and empty it out.
> Restart the computer. That should fix it; if not, also delete all your
> user prefs that start apple.com.help...

Thanks Matt for your contribution too, which is consistent with the
advice in 'thexlab.com' FAQ. However I think the "AirPort.help,
AppleScript.help, and MacHelp.help" files must be retained in
HD/Library/Documentation/Help/, since these are the big files containing
all the help stuff.

Many thanks to both of you for your prompt contributions,

Alan

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matt neuburg - 12 Jan 2005 18:08 GMT

> After that the 'technicolor pizza' spins for some 30-40 seconds, stops
> but the Help Viewer window remains blank.

I just got through fixing that on my machine. :) Go into the top-level
(not user-level) /Library/Documentation/Help folder and empty it out.
Restart the computer. That should fix it; if not, also delete all your
user prefs that start apple.com.help...

m.

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AppleScript: The Definitive Guide
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Alan Fry - 13 Jan 2005 11:15 GMT

> Cathy Stevenson wrote:
>
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
>>> If 'Help Viewer->New' is clicked, a new window opens and the pizza
>>>spins for another 30 seconds or so, but this time the expected

window >>>content comes into view. Clicking on topics sometimes works
with >>>'normal latency' other times takes 15-30 seconds to respond.

>>> In short Help Viewer is broken and I am at a loss to know what to

do >>>to fix it. Any help would be much appreciated.

>>> The set up BTW, is a G4 running Panther 10.3.7. 'Help Viewer'
>>>version is 2.0.7(v111.4)
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
>
> However, after clicking (say) MacHelp it >still< takes some 30

seconds >before the window draws. After that things work pretty well.

> There is a comment towards the end of the document that there is "no
>Help Viewer Preference to prevent Help Viewer Checking the Internet"
>Since I have a permanent broadband connection I suspect this may be
>what is happening (?). Although, having said that, my wife's iBook,
>also 10.3.7, and on the same Airport net, does not suffer from the

same >MacHelp start-up delay. So...I don't know...('Snitch' didn't seem
to >help FWIW.)

> A decisive test is going to be to see whether the iBook 'Help'
>performance is worse if Airport is turned on. If it is, it would
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>(unchecking) 'Preferences>Options>Allow version checking' resolved the
>problem completely.

This does indeed seem to be the problem. On my G4, pulling out the
ethernet cable to the network modem (a brute force way disconnecting the
machine from the Internet), the Help Viewer window draws pretty quickly.

With the iBook, Airport connected to the network modem, the same sort of
thing happens. If Airport is 'off' Help Viewer is fast, and if Airport
is 'on' the Help window shows the Spinning Ball of Death for a while.
The wait is shorter on the iBook than the G4 -- maybe because the iBook
is younger and faster or has more free space maybe. Who knows.

The final solution for the hard-wired G4 is to create a new location in
which ethernet is disabled. How to do this is very clearly set out in
<http://docs.info.apple.com/article2.html?artnum=43002>. This URL comes
from the document Cathy referenced above.

I sincerely hope all this will be of some help to any others suffering
from -- er -- Help.

Alan

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Mac Forum / Applications / Mac Applications / January 2005

Help Viewer.app problems