Delphi OpenHelp - Unable to view context sensitive help; Delphi displays a blank page

Problem/Question/Abstract:

Pressing F1 when a 3rd-Party Delphi component is selected fails to bring up the help information

Answer:

Start up Delphi. Select Help | Customize. This will start Borland OpenHelp and it should open up D7.ohp. Select the Contents tab. Select Add Files by clicking the add files button or right clicking in the ListView box. You must add the <helpfilename>.cnt file. In order to see this file you must change the Files of Type from *.toc to *.cnt.

You will get a message asking:

Do you want to change the system registry path of <helpfilename>.cnt from C:\<location>\<helpfilename>.cnt to C:\<location>\<helpfilename>.cnt?

Select yes.

Click on the Index tab. Select Add Files. You must add the <helpfilename>.hlp file.

You will get a message asking:

Do you want to change the system registry path of <helpfilename>.HLP from C:\<location>\<helpfilename>.HLP to C:\<location>\<helpfilename>.HLP?

Select yes.

Click on the Link tab. Select Add Files. You must add the <helpfilename>.hlp file.

Save the project inside of OpenHelp. Close OpenHelp. You must now go to the Delphi 7 help directory (using a utility such as Windows Explorer). If you installed to the default location go to:

C:\Program Files\Borland\Delphi7\Help

Erase all .gid files. These are hidden files so make sure you are able to view hidden files. Context Sensitive help should now work with the 3rd-Party components.

THIS FIX WILL ALSO WORK WITH NATIVE DELPHI COMPONENTS WHOSE HELP FILE IS MISSING OR NOT DISPLAYING CORRECTLY