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Help File Find Aborts with Unable to Display Find Tab 177


Question:

Hmmm... Strange problem. In Studio when I right click "Insert WIL Function.." or right click on an already inserted function and select "Keyword Lookup" it invokes the "Find Setup Wizard" in the Windows help system which allows you to set the search (minimize or maximize) capabilities of the help files.

After I run through the wizard I get an error "Unable to display the Find tab. (177)" with an OK button. After pressing OK it opens the help file. When I press the "Index" button inside the help file it invokes the wizard again and the entire process starts all over again.

If I'm in Studio and I select "Help" from the main menu and then select "Help Contents" the help file opens without incident. When the "Index" is selected from here it opens and the "Find" tab is available and works without fail.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. I've checked other programs on my machine and even installed older versions of Lotus and Word in order to run them through the wizard for the first time and they don't exhibit this behavior.

Dell 2400
P4 2.66Ghz
1GB RAM
Win XP Home SP1 (All updates)

Upgraded to Winbatch 2004A in hopes of overwriting any corrupted files. No effect. Thanking you in advance for your input.

Answer:

  1. Try deleting all .FTS & .GID files on your drives. The error is usually caused by the .GID file, which is a hidden config file created by WinHelp when a Help file is first opened. The .GID file contains info about the Help file, the .CNT file, filenames and titles of Help files included in the .CNT file, keywords from other Help files, a list of files referenced in the .FTS file, and the size/location of Help windows and dialog boxes.

    If the either the .GID or .FTS files are suspect then you get error 177.

    The easiest way to fix the problem is to delete the .GID and .FTS files created and open the Help file again.

    Reference: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;143118

  2. Use the following procedure to rebuild the "Find" functionality:
    1. Click "Customize search ..." on the "Find" tab.
    2. Select All
    3. Click "Include untitled topics..."
    4. Accept the remaining defaults. When you click the "Finish" button, the word list is built. This may take quite some time on large help files.

  3. Not sure if this one is relevant, but may be worth looking at. http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q224/8/32.asp

Article ID:   W16023
File Created: 2004:03:30:15:42:18
Last Updated: 2004:03:30:15:42:18