Help freezes

[Scot]

We ran into a bug.
If you open Help, go to Index and type the letter M it will lock up Do-More.

[franji1]

Could not duplicate it in 1.4.3 on my PC.  Will need some more info to figure this one out...

When you opened Help
1. How did you open it (Help menu, F1 key, Help button in a dialog, ...)
2. Where in Designer were you when you launched Help (Project Open dialog, Ladder View, etc.)
3. What Help Topic number (DMDxxxx) showed up when you launched help
4. Does Help lock up and/or Designer lock up?
5. Can you duplicate this from other places in Designer with other Help Topics?  If so, provide info for 1 or 2 of these other places.
6. Does it lock up when searching the Index for other things (e.g. letters other than 'M')?

It could be the precise way/where/Help topic where the actual "lock up" occurs.  Regardless, we need to try to figure this out.

[plcnut]

I can dupe it on mine.
Windows 10 pro.

Open DMD1.4.3
Click Help>>Help
Click the "Index" tab.
Type "P"
Dmd locks up.

[franji1]

I can dupe it on mine.
Windows 10 pro.

Scot,
What O/S are you running Designer on?

[plcnut]

I can type lower case a, b, or c and it does not crash. I know that either case of P will crash it. I can do more testing if you need it. Let me know.

[franji1]

We sort of duplicated it here on an engineer's Win 10 Pro machine.  Help locks up, NOT DESIGNER.

Please double check that DESIGNER AND/OR HELP is locked up(click on Designer and navigate within Designer - don't assume an hour-glass cursor means "locked up").

[plcnut]

Designer itself is not locked up. The Designer help goes into "Not Responding" mode, and when you tell it to close it kills Designer as well. I have found that when I maximized the help screen that I can type whatever I want into the search box and it works fine...

[franji1]

MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) has a forum discussion related to this.  Original post April 20, 2016.  Most recent post was July 11, 2016.  No solution.  No work around. 

Windows 10
HTML Help (.CHM)
Different Help authoring tools (RoboHelp, MadCap)

PLCNut's interesting note that MAXIMIZING the Help window made it go away?!?  Scot, does this help you?  In-house maximizing did NOT help help (it still locked up).

[franji1]

into the search box and it works fine...

Search or Index tab?  I have been duplicating it on the Index tab.

[plcnut]

The 'Find' field of the Index tab. Sorry for the confusion.
The lockup is not totally repeatable. Sometimes it does, sometimes it does not. I tried maximizing my window again and this time it locked up anyways...

[franji1]

I tried maximizing my window again and this time it locked up anyways...

Ours locked up Html Help when it was maximized.  Finding a number of articles related to Html Help on 8.1 and 10.  There was a patch for 8.1 posted in the KB article.  Nothing yet for Win 10.   

I've read that it may not lock up if you launch the .CHM by itself.  Have not verified that.
(browse to the .CHM and double click on it, or under Start menu All Programs, navigate to
Do-more->Designer 1.4->Do-more Designer 1.4 Help)

[plcnut]

It appears to be fine if launched on it's own.

[Scot]

I'm running Windows 10 Pro.
It's only in the Index tab that I've run into it.

[Scot]

With some more testing, I found that there is no problem when no project is open.
If I open a project, then click the Help menu and select the first option, "Help" it is repeatable.
The topic that is open is DMD0219.
Help is what locks up. The designer is still responsive. But force closing the help window will close the designer and loose any unsaved changes.
It must be only on certain topics.
If you open the designer then open help with no project open, it works fine - unless you go to topic DMD0219. From there, typing 'm' (in the Index pane) will lock it up.
Doing the same procedure after launching DmDesigner.chm on its own seems to work just fine.

Also, I tried maximizing help launched from the designer and still had the same problem.