Help Returns Blank Pages

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Hi Everyone!
I tired searching this forum for the answer & came up empty. So, please forgive me if it is, indeed, here somewhere.

I was using iPhoto & opened "Help". Several of the pages came up blank when I clicked "Show". A few other OS X apps are doing the same thing today. I tried shut down & re-boot to no avail.

I took these from the User/Library:
com.apple.helpviewer.plist
com.apple.help.plist

Then I shut everything down & started over. The same problem returned. I'm sure the pages exist, as I've been to them in the past.

Did I miss something? I sure appreciate any help you might be able to lend!
(I tried searching 'Help' in Finder. Blank pages! Like having a life preserver with a hole in it.)

Thanks very much!
Paul
 
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Try the iPhoto plist. Move the current one to your Desktop in case you want it back.
...and the Finder plist

If that fails, or instead of the above, try a different user account.
 
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PGB1
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Hi toMACsh!
Thanks you for the ideas.
First I tried moving the iPhoto plist. That didn't work, so I tried Finder's. Still no luck.
I went to the other user account on this mac & had the same blank help pages as in the main account.

For some reason (I don't know why I tired this), I disconnected from the internet. All of a sudden, every help page in all the applications I had trouble with yesterday & today opened fine. These are normal search result pages, not the linked articles at the bottom. Crazy, Huh?

Is there some relationship between Help & being on line? Does a query go to Apple's site first, then to the hard drive's help files?

I'm really puzzled now!
Paul
 
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I dunno. I just tried Help in an app while connected to the internet. It worked fine.
 
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Thanks!
I think my next step is to clear the cache files & do some maintenance with Onyx, repeat ditching plist files & see if that corrects the problem.
I thought about re-installing iPhoto, but the quirkiness has spread to other programs.
After that, I'll mess around like a crazy person & post whatever I find that works!
Thanks again for the ideas! I appreciate your input.
Paul
 

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