Error message when you try to open a help window from a SharePoint site

Consider the following scenario. An administrator installs several server language packs in addition to SharePoint. Then, the administrator creates a site in a language other than the base server language. You connect to the newly created site. Then, you try to open the help window for that language. In this scenario, when you click Help, you receive the following error message:

SharePoint 2007

SharePoint 2010

This issue occurs because SharePoint has not completed the installation of the help collections. The job may be queued by the SharePoint Job Timer.

To resolve this issue, follow these steps to check tha tthe Help Collections for the Language are activated for the site:

SharePoint 2007

1. Start SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration.
2. Click View All Site Content, click HelpFold under Document Libraries, and then click Lock.
3. If this folder displays active locks, wait for the job to be executed. If you have waited a long time, run the "SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard" to restart the help collection installation.

SharePoint 2010

1. Start the SharePoint 2010 Central Administration
2. Go to Site Actions -> Site Settings
3. Find Site Collection Administration and click on Help Settings
4. Make sure that all required help content is checked
5. If you cannot see any content there to check you should run the SharePoint 2010 Products Configuration Wizard from Start -> All Programs -> Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products

Make sure that you wait for a sufficient time for crawling to occur. Additionally, wait for the help content to be installed correctly.

If the previous procedure does not resolve the issue, directly install the help collections. To do this, follow these steps to directly install the help collections:

1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
2. At the command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:
   
   SharePoint 2007
   
   cd %COMMONPROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN
   SharePoint 2010
   cd %COMMONPROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\14\BIN
3. At the command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:
   Hcinstal.exe /act InstallAllHCs

Note By default, you do not have to specify a particular language or a particular help collection. All pending License Package Authoring Tool (LPK) installations are finished at the same time. In the command, InstallAllHCs refers to all help collections and to all languages.

To install a particular language or a particular help collection, you can use one or more of the following parameters:

• The /act parameter indicates the action that is being performed.
• The /loc parameter indicates the locale ID (LCID) of the language.
• The /mns parameter indicates the manifest name of the help collection.

For example, to install only the Spanish OSS help collection, use the following command: After you run the command, you are presented with a return code that informs you of the result of the operation:

• Return code 4 means that the operation was successful.
• Return code 32 means that no action was taken.
• Return code 256 means that the operation failed.