HTML based help not working in Photoshop 6.01 1

[hank55]

I'm running Photoshop 6.01 and Photoshop Elements 1.01 at both work (Win2K) and home (WinXP Pro), and HTML Help just will not work! When I click on help (F1), the hourglass comes up and after about 2-3 seconds returns to the default arrow. Likewise if I try to access the Help Index directly from the toolbar. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling and no success. Other HTML based help applications run fine when accessing their help files or context sensitive help - just not Adobe!
My PC's are a new Gateway Pentium 4 (at work), and a homemade ASUS/AMD Athlon based system (home) with plenty of RAM, HDD, etc. Both Win2k and WinXP have Microsofts latest critical, recommended and driver patches applied.

Hank

 

[SHARKY99]

Do you have a "legit" copy of Photoshop and Elements??????

I only experienced your problem when i was in school, to work at home i used a non-official copy ;-) and ended up with you problem.

Hope it'll help ;-)
Have Fun...

Sharky99 >:O>

 

[hank55]

Yes, PS6 is a "legit" CD I bought. Help actually worked originally, and then I stopped using PS6 for a bit, and when I went back to use it again, Help was no longer there. Unfortunately, so many changes occurred on my PC in the interim I am unable to pinpoint what SW or HW changes occured when it went south.

I've already tried the official Adobe help forum, and the feedback has not been successful. BTW, I was not alone in the forum as many others had exactly the same problem, but, it apparently is also not a large enough issue/bug for Adobe to seriously address. Several persons with the same problem successfully pinpointed SW or other conflicting programs that caused their Non-Help problem, and they fixed it on their PC's. Unfortunatley, none of their posted remedies worked for me.

I borrowed a friends PS Elements CD, uninstalled PS6, and tried PS Elements, and it has the same exact F1-Help problem.

I was hoping someone here at Tek-Tips might have had the problem and had better luck finding a cure which might work on my PC's.

 

[viol8ion]

Have you uninstalled, cleaned out all temp files, scandisk/defrag, and then reinstalled after a reboot?

As a last resort you might try a system restore (after backing up all important data) and clean installs of the software. It is a bit odd that you have experienced it 2 times on 2 systems. When in doubt, deny all terms and defnitions.

http://www.wuli.com

 

[hank55]

Yes viol8ion, I uninstalled, manually cleared out all the folders and even removed the folders themselves, ran Micorsoft XP Disk Cleanup (from drive properties folder) to remove all temp files, etc., ran Norton WinDoctor to remove all "dead" registry keys, and Perfectdisk (defragger) is run almost daily on my PC's, Norton DiskDoctor was also run.

Since I limit sytem restore to about 400Mb, its only good for several days of restore history, and is not a viable option at this point.

 

[Eagleheart]

Hank,

Don't feel bad. You were right when you said you weren't alone in this issue. Of course, when something like this crops up, the first thing the "duh's" want to ask is "Are your sure it's a ligitimate copy?".
I have the same problem on three different machines and I paid well over $1,000.00 for my suite. And you know what Adobe stated to me? "Gee, we wish we knew how to help you." You would think that after spending that kind of money on a graphics suite, you could at least open up the help files when needed without having to make your own shortcut on the desktop. Maybe Adobe's getting TOO big.

Mike

 

[Julianne]

My Help used to work and then all of a sudden it didn't and I've no idea why. These days, if I really need to get help with Photoshop I go into the installation folder and get it from there!

You'll find a folder called Help and within there is a file (look near the bottom) called help.html. Double-click on that and you'll bring up the help system which you can't get from within Photoshop itself!

(C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop 7.0\Help\help.html)

Of course, the problem shouldn't be there in the first place, but at least you can still get access in a round-about way!

http://www.leevalleylions.co.uk

 

[viol8ion]

This seems to be a prevalent problem with PS, though I have never experienced it myself. I am still keeping my ears open for a fix,but at least Juliane has a nice workaround. You could even make the file a shortcut on your desktop. When in doubt, deny all terms and defnitions.

http://www.wuli.com