'Back' button does not work as expected in Help document

[Didge]

Hi,

Its great having the Affinity Photo 'Help' document stored locally, without having to go online to search for things

But Ive noticed that after you read a topic and click a link to go to another topic, clicking the 'back' button almost never takes you to the previous screen.

Also, after you click the 'back' button, the 'forward' button is always grayed out so, you can't go forward to the screen you were looking at before you hit the 'back' button'.

Gary

 

[loukash]

I'd suggest in this very case, please post your feedback here: apple.com/feedback
The Help Viewer is Apple's app.

That aside, you can view the local help in your browser of choice if you don't like the Help Viewer. (I, for one, don't.)
Simply bookmark this URL:
file:///Applications/Affinity%20Photo.app/Contents/Resources/AffinityPhoto.help/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/index.html

[Didge]

Hi Lukas,

Thanks for that idea ...

I actually wondered whether the Help document was a separate app, but is doesn't have its own menu bar, so I assumed it was part of Affinity.

The problem with viewing the help document in a browser is that the search function doesnt work very well - it only searches text displayed in the browser, so it doesn't find search terms unless their selection arrows are 'open'.

Also, after many (many) years of trying, I've given up trying to get any technical help from Apple.

Many thanks for the tip though 

Gary

[loukash]

2 hours ago, Gary.JONES said:

The problem with viewing the help document in a browser is that the search function doesnt work very well

Fair enough…

2 hours ago, Gary.JONES said:

Also, after many (many) years of trying, I've given up trying to get any technical help from Apple.

Definitely. It's kinda waste of time and resources. However, simply just repeatedly "annoying" them with feedback and bug reports into their "black hole" is still our weapon of choice here. If everyone would stop doing it, nothing would ever change.

2 hours ago, Gary.JONES said:

I actually wondered whether the Help document was a separate app, but is doesn't have its own menu bar

I don't know the current status quo, but on "older" MacOS you could switch the Help Viewer from "faceless" to a regular app with Dock symbol and menu bar. It was buggy, however.
hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20110308072659995

[Didge]

Thanks Loukash,

Yes - i agree - I did send a bug report to Apple after your suggestion.

The terminal script does stop the help window from floating - but doesn't put it in the dock or give it a menu - no doubt due to the changes since OS 10.6.

If you launch the viewer directly from Core Services, it automatically opens the MacOS User Guide (as it all does from the Finder Help menu) - where the forward and back arrows do work as expected.

Which makes me wonder whether there is something peculiar to the AP help document that contributes to this problem ?

Anyway - a non-floating help document is much more useable than a floating one - so thanks for the tip

BTW - I used to be the GM of Apple developer software for Australasia, but that was a long time ago when Apple was smaller and more responsive to such things.

Gary 

[loukash]

10 hours ago, Gary.JONES said:

Which makes me wonder whether there is something peculiar to the AP help document that contributes to this problem ?

I just checked with the latest APh beta. For me the HelpViewer works on El Capitan as expected.
Could be also a cache thing:
~/Library/Caches/com.apple.helpd
~/Library/Caches/com.apple.helpviewer

[Didge]

Thanks Loukash,

Its good to know it works correctly on El Capitan ...

It definitely doesn't work correctly on my workstation (10.14.6), but I might try it on 10.15/10.16 and see how it goes.

Regards,

Gary

 

[Didge]

I just re-tested the AP Help document using OS 10.15.7 - the back/forward arrows dont work as expected there either.

BUT - The Apple help document works as expected on both platforms.

So - the issue appears to be with the AP help document, rater than the Apple app or OS.