Try this -

1. Create a new user on your machine, with a username with one or more of
the special characters in, e.g. Chris O'Leary or Brad & Angie
2. Open any Office 2007 app
3. Press the help button.

Result - XML on the screen instead of a help page!

Tested on XP SP3, 32bit. My username is R & G and fails on this issue.
Others posted around the web too. Still a problem with Office 2007 SP2.
Failure is due to bad handling of special XML characters (the <>&'" set) by
the help viewer.

I don't know where else to post this to bring it to MS's attention - feel
free to distribute.

I've even created a little guide to fix the problem on a page by page basis.



----- Fixing the Office 2007 Help Viewer -----


See this every time you open Help on a Office 2007 app:



<?xml version="1.0" ?>

<?xml-stylesheet type='text/xsl' href='File://C:\Documents and Settings\R
& G\Local Settings\Temporary Internet
Files\MsOfficeHelp12\MOHE6.tmp\toc.xsl'?>



Followed by a load of XML:

<assistance namespace="WINWORD" UseOnlineContent="1">

<title>Getting help</title>

- <breadcrumbs>

<url href="File://C:\Documents and Settings\R & G\Local Settings\Temporary
Internet Files\MsOfficeHelp12\MOHE6.tmp\BROWSE1.WINWORD.xml ">Word</url>

</breadcrumbs>

- <topics>

<url
href="ms-help://MS.WINWORD.12.1033/WINWORD/content/HA10167939.htm">Where can
I find the Readme or Known issues list?</url>



Check your username - mine is R & G



Ampersands can confuse XML code, which is what is used by the Office Help
system. Other characters in usernames that will break it are apostrophe,
less than, greater than, and single quote



The fix



Right click the on the area showing all this code. Choose 'view source'.
This should open up a text editor such as notepad. Look at the entry below



<?xml version='1.0'?>

<?xml-stylesheet type='text/xsl' href='File://C:\Documents and Settings\R &
G\Local Settings\Temporary Internet
Files\MsOfficeHelp12\MOHE6.tmp\toc.xsl'?>

<assistance namespace="WINWORD" UseOnlineContent="1">

<title>Getting help</title>

<breadcrumbs>

<url href='File://C:\Documents and Settings\R &amp; G\Local
Settings\Temporary Internet
Files\MsOfficeHelp12\MOHE6.tmp\BROWSE1.WINWORD.xml '>Word</url>



The first section with R & G is the raw windows username. The next time it
appears it has &amp; instead.



To fix, replace the first username on the <?xml-stylesheet.. line so it
matches the lower one. Here we'll make it say R &amp; G

Then save the text document, overwriting the file. Go back to the Help
viewer, right click in the same place as before, and click refresh. This
time, it should work!



The other characters need other substitution texts (' to &quot;, < to &lt;,
> to &gt;, and ' to &apos;). They are all special characters in XML.

Nothing like a new Office 2007 bug that's in the second service pack!



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