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pete · Mar 11, 2006, 11:08 PM

When I launch help viewer I just get a blank window. I followed the following suggestions, but nothing worked, including reinstalling the help folder:

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

I also tried creating another account but that didn't help either. Tried in different languages too, but still didn't work. Always blank.

Any other suggestions where to go from here?

Thanks,

PD

pete · Mar 14, 2006, 06:00 PM

bump

Cadaver · Mar 15, 2006, 12:10 AM

Dig out your OS X install DVD and do an Archive and Install.
Might be a bit of overkill, but it'll work, and will be minimally disruptive to your installed documents/applications.

dreamryche · Mar 15, 2006, 02:24 AM

My Help Viewer does that intermittently. I just checked it by launching Mac Help in the Finder's Help menu and, sure enough, blank window. I clicked over to Safari and launched its help, which came up as usual. I then quit the viewer and tried Mac Help again and it worked. Seems odd.

VetPsychWars · Mar 15, 2006, 10:18 AM

Apple's Knowledge Base has an article on this. You need to trash the cache, basically. Do a search over there and you'll find it.

Tom

bbales · Mar 15, 2006, 10:19 AM

By help viewer, do you mean the application-specific help files? (Say, for example, if I go under "help" in the menu bar, I'd get "safari help" right now, b/c I'm in safari.)

I haved had this problem before. I cannot remember the exact fix, nor do I have time to look it up right now, but I know if you go to apple's support site and look under OSX help, you'll find what you have to do. It's apparently fairly common and involves trashing a file or folder in with of the libary/application support areas, I believe. I'll try to find it later and post -- I'm also not sure this is what you're talking about, so I may be completely off base in any case.

JKT · Mar 15, 2006, 11:37 AM

The link the OP posted lists that fix as one of the suggestions so evidently it hasn't worked in this instance (and fwiw, yes, it is far too common an issue, grrr).

pete · Mar 15, 2006, 04:08 PM

I've tried all the methods describe in the link above but nothing seems to work. The main OS help viewer doesn't show anything, nor do any of the applications. I don't use it that often, but when I install a new app and need basic orientation it's nice to have.

Thanks for suggestions. I'll report if archive and install works.

Pete

JKT · Mar 16, 2006, 05:45 AM

If you need something prior to the archive and install, don't forget that Help Viewer is essentially a browser. All help files are html and if you look in your /Library/Documentation/ or within the application package itself, you will be able to locate the index page for each application. You can then open it in e.g. Safari or your preferred browser.

pete · Mar 16, 2006, 09:48 AM

I just tried opening the individual help files in the /library/documentation folder and can't do it with Safari. Nothing comes up and the Safari window is empty too, just like the help viewer.

Hmm, I'm going to try to reinstall the help files from the install DVD again and see if that helps.

JKT · Mar 16, 2006, 09:51 AM

Oops, my bad - those .help files are actually packages - you have to Show Package Contents and locate the index pages in the Resources folder.

pete · Mar 16, 2006, 11:22 AM

So I did that and found that I when I tried to open macHelp.html I got a blank page, while opening the individual html documents in the other folders work. I'd assume the machelp.html should be the first page when one choose helpviewer?

Thanks...

pete · Mar 16, 2006, 04:37 PM

I extracted the help files from the install DVD and just replaced them on my powerbook and it worked! So strange given that I used Pacifist's option to install before and it didn't work.

Anyway...thanks guys.

Pete