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Rohini Gogi reports: <<I am trying to insert the "Related Topics" active X
control into my topics. The button is not inserted, instead a rectangular
box with "active X Control" label appears. When I compile the help file, an
error message appears saying " the security settings of the browser does not
permit this Active X control" . I tweaked with the Internet explorer
security settings.
After that a Related Topics button appears. Clicking on it does not lead to
any topics.>>
First off, the problem you reported will appear on many other computers,
since many people consider ActiveX controls a serious security risk--and
they're not wrong, even though the controls haven't yet been exploited in
this manner to my knowledge. (Unless that's one of the security holes with
HTML help?) I certainly won't take the chance, and always turn them off in
my browsers. That means your control won't work on my computer.
Second, there's no reason not to simply build lists of related topics
manually. When you're creating a help topic, you should always pause to
think about what related topics you should link to. Automating this process
is no more helpful to the reader than building an index automatically
without human intervention. Neither technology understands user needs as
well as you do.
--Geoff Hart, geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada
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