🚀 go-pugleaf

Grumpy, the Third Dwarf wrote:
> 
> Hi guys,
> 
> Now  for the stinking help system. <groan>
> 
> I have a customer that is insisting on .chm format help soo... does
> anyone have suggestions on a good Freeware/Shareware help authoring
> program that will do both (.hlp and .chm) formats??
> 
> I am looking at HelpPad and HelpScribble but they are both failing to
> operate correctly. Not doing the same things wrong but neither can
> produce complete project files for the M$-help-compiler to massage.
> 
> I can't see what HelpScribble is doing wrong as it is the crippled,
> eval version and does not show the HTML it generates.
> 
> HelpPad does not seem to compile the last Topic added to the list and
> I don't want to add a dummy last one. Doh!
> 
> So, I am still looking for something that works a little more
> intuitively. Any suggestions will be gratefully received.
> 


Try DotHLP at www.AuricVisions.com. It's OK, but I simply don't like the
Windows 95 help file system. I'm about 90% of the way through writing my
own HTML based help file editor / viewer. 

Since I'm linking the help file up to my own application, I'm also able
to make the help file context sensitive by using DDE. The help file
generated is a single file and contains compressed HTML, BMP, AVI, WAV,
JPG, GIF, PNG. It also allows cross-referencing to other help files.

Limitations - You can't search the help file yet, but the help file I'm
generating is quite small (70 odd pages) so I'm just manually making an
index page. In future I could make the index page self generating.
However, I think the method of browsing I'm using is better - you can
see the Table of Contents and the Contents at the same time. This makes
it a lot easier to browse through. (With Windows 95 you seem to be
clicking back and forth all the time.)

Advantages - Editor / Viewer in one program - makes writing the help
file pretty quick.

Anybody curious ?  email   carl@carnic.com.au

Regards,
Carl Jacobs.