Help not working plus....what does this mean?

Discussion in 'Mac Apps and Mac App Store' started by hotdog, May 29, 2004.

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  1. hotdog, May 29, 2004

    hotdog macrumors newbie

    Joined:
    Apr 9, 2004
    #1
    Just read the advice given to someone who's having probs with their 'help' not working - me tooo. some one wrote this....
    "Make sure that you repair permissions on a weekly or biweekly basis to get the best results out of OS X. Also I run disk warrior once a month and my computer never has a single problem."

    can anyone explain in simple terms.. "repair permissions' ???

    also have tried advice about moving other files out of library>documentation.... and help still doesnt work (since I upgraded to panther from jag)
    ...the window launches - although it appears blank... no welcome to help graphics.
    I can type in a query then press return but there's no reaction. nada
    on the little drop down menu next to the magnify glass is...
    search (null)
    search all help

    ???????
     
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  2. HexMonkey, May 29, 2004

    HexMonkey Administrator

    HexMonkey

    Staff Member

    Joined:
    Feb 5, 2004
    Location:
    New Zealand
    #2
    On Mac OS X, every file and folder has a set of permissions. These determine who is allowed to read, write and execute the file. Unfortunately, permissions can get set incorrectly (especially by installers), which creates problems when applications can't load things properly, often causing unpredictable results.

    Repairing permissions corrects these problems. To repair permissions, open Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility, select your hard disk on the left, and click the "Repair Disk Permissions" button.

    However, I doubt that permissions are the problem. I've seen a number of people with Help Viewer problems (me included), and deleting a few files has fixed the problem almost every time. The files are:

    • Home/Library/Preferences/com.apple.help.plist
    • Home/Library/Preferences/com.apple.helpui.plist
    • Home/Library/Preferences/com.apple.helpviewer.plist
    • Home/Library/Caches/com.apple.helpui/
     
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