WinHelp and HtmlHelp
PaperKiller can export all the pages as Rtf for WinHelp and as HtmlHelp (the Microsoft Help file format intended to replace WinHelp). In other words any hypertext file (.aeh), can be instantly converted in a WinHelp (.hlp) file, or in a HtmlHelp (.chm) one.
To create a WinHelp file, choose “File >Export pages...”, then “Rtf WINHELP (WinHelp Compiler): one file only” as format. PK exports, then automatically start the MS Help Compiler (if this is properly installed).
At the end of the compilation, you will obtain a .hlp file that you can deploy with your application.
Links and keywords are the same defined PK. In PK you can also define the table of contents with “Hypertext >Predefined page order - TOC”.
Please note that WinHelp’s capabilities are limited, so you will not see frames, nor animated images and other advanced functions.
To obtain a HtmlHelp file, choose “File >Export pages...”, then “Html (HtmlHelp Compiler)” as format.
PK exports, then automatically starts the MS Html Help Workshop, if available.
If you do not have this program,
click here to download it. If the link is broken, see the Microsoft Web site or the
http://www.paperkiller.com Web site. The MS Html Help Workshop is a free utility from Microsoft. Once downloaded, double click on it to install.
At the end of the compilation, you will obtain a .chm file that you can deploy with your application.
Note that in order to display the
chm file, the target PC needs MS Internet Explorer 3, 4 or 5 (IE). So if you are not sure your final users/customers have IE, you must distribute it with your application. In addition, you also need to deploy the file
hhupd.exe (click here to download).
Links and keywords are the same defined in PK. In PaperKiller you can also define the table of contents with “Hypertext >Predefined page order - TOC”.
You can see a sample in: iper3pro\Eng\client\f\es_HtmlHelp\
You can use a .CHM for context sensitive Help. The Context-ID (or Topic ID) for each page is the page number. See your programming environment manual to see how to call an HTML Help topic by Topic ID. For Delphi 3/5 you can download this unit (
click here), and add it to the “uses” section. Then use “Project >Options” to assign the name of your .CHM file as Help File name. Then insert the page number you want to call in the “HelpContext” section of each control (as you did for WinHelp).
If you want to use the native format (AEH) to supply a selfextracting/selfinstalling help file to your users, you might want to take a look at
http://ebookswriter.com
