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Windown Help Compiler 1
- Thread starter ddmtn546
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There are actually two help authoring systems from MS: the old Microsoft Help Workshop and the newer HTML Help compiler.
The Help Workshop was distributed with development tools for Windows 3.1 and Win95. It contained the compiler, some documentation on writing Help files, and a Word template. I think it was also downloadable from Microsoft, but I wouldn't expect to find it there any more. Unfortunately, if your application must run on Windows 3.1 systems, this is the type of Help file to use.
The HTML Help compiler is included with developer editions of Office, and with other developer products. If you have Office Premium Edition, you can purchase Office Developer Tools to convert it to Developer Edition. As its name implies, this help system produces HTML Help files, the same type used for Office's own help files.
Many professional developers use third party Help authoring systems, such as RoboHelp. These are expensive, but typically offer features such as single-sourcing the Help system and a user's manual.
In any case, learning to build a real help file is not as simple a task as you might assume. If all you need are simple, plain text pages, you're better off just displaying them on one or more forms. If you need many pages, you can store the text in a table and base the form on that table rather than create a lot of memory-wasting forms; use the Form_Open event procedure to choose the help text to display, based on a global variable set up by the form invoking Help.
If you DO use a form, you'll either have to put a Help button on each application form and tell the users to use it instead of the Help menu or F1 key, or you could set up a KeyPreview in each form to trap the F1 key, and replace the standard Help menu with your own custom menu that invokes code to open your Help form. Obviously, your custom Help button is easier to create, and easy enough for users to deal with.
The Help Workshop was distributed with development tools for Windows 3.1 and Win95. It contained the compiler, some documentation on writing Help files, and a Word template. I think it was also downloadable from Microsoft, but I wouldn't expect to find it there any more. Unfortunately, if your application must run on Windows 3.1 systems, this is the type of Help file to use.
The HTML Help compiler is included with developer editions of Office, and with other developer products. If you have Office Premium Edition, you can purchase Office Developer Tools to convert it to Developer Edition. As its name implies, this help system produces HTML Help files, the same type used for Office's own help files.
Many professional developers use third party Help authoring systems, such as RoboHelp. These are expensive, but typically offer features such as single-sourcing the Help system and a user's manual.
In any case, learning to build a real help file is not as simple a task as you might assume. If all you need are simple, plain text pages, you're better off just displaying them on one or more forms. If you need many pages, you can store the text in a table and base the form on that table rather than create a lot of memory-wasting forms; use the Form_Open event procedure to choose the help text to display, based on a global variable set up by the form invoking Help.
If you DO use a form, you'll either have to put a Help button on each application form and tell the users to use it instead of the Help menu or F1 key, or you could set up a KeyPreview in each form to trap the F1 key, and replace the standard Help menu with your own custom menu that invokes code to open your Help form. Obviously, your custom Help button is easier to create, and easy enough for users to deal with.
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