Microsoft HTML Help Publisher

The standard HTML help format for Microsoft Windows®, utilizing the MS HTML Help Viewer.

The Microsoft® HTML Help Publisher window allows you to customize the appearance of your help interface elements by choosing a CHM topic icon, font face, font size, default topic, and more! Please note that the Language setting refers to Microsoft elements and does NOT translate your HTML help pages.

What gets published along with your help pages and Table of Contents are all of the required configuration files for compiling your help pages into a single CHM file. You can use either the uncompiled help pages or a compiled CHM file with the MS HTML Help Viewer.

Using the Uncompiled HTML Help

Like the Web-based Help format, the uncompiled HTML Help features three tabs: Contents, Index, and Search. Your Table of Contents (TOC) is displayed in the Contents tab. Your TOC keywords are displayed as an alphabetical index in the Index tab. And the Search tab hosts a client-side JavaScript search engine that's powered by your TOC keywords. The major difference is that the interface is designed to emulate the look and feel of a compiled CHM file with gray tabs, purple book icon, and yellowish document icon. If you do not have access to Microsoft's free HTML Help Workshop (to compile the CHM file), then you can easily use the uncompiled version of your HTML Help in the MS HTML Help Viewer.

Those three tabs (Contents, Index, Search) can be localized to the language of your choice. For your convenience, HelpLogic provides presets for several languages.

If you need to design your help system to be compatible with older operating systems such as Windows 98 that may not support CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), you have the option to set the TOC Compatibility to the older HTML 3.2 format. If you are only designing for more recent versions of Windows (such as Windows 2000 and XP), then the CSS/HTML option is highly recommended for best visual results. Please note that when publishing, the TOC Compatibility setting only affects the formatting of the TOC (Table of Contents) and not your own help pages from the Source Files folder.

If your HTML source files use the ISO-8859-1 charset text encoding, then use that same one for your TOC Char Set. If your HTML help pages use UTF-8, then assign the TOC Char Set to UTF-8 for consistency. The TOC charset is used in the Contents, Index, Search, and tab frames that HelpLogic dynamically generates during the publishing process. For example, if the Contents, Index, and Search tabs are localized to Japanese, then you would probably want to set the TOC Char Set to UTF-8 to ensure that those Japanese characters display properly in a web browser.

The uncompiled version even supports context-sensitive help! After you have published your help system, you will find a "Context-Sensitive Help.txt" document in your help folder that lists all of the special index files for linking directly to specific help pages from within your software application. The link protocols for context-sensitive help within a compiled CHM file are different, so please see the Microsoft® HTML Help Documentation for details on how to call these help links from within your software application.

Compiling Your Help Pages into a CHM File

If you prefer not to use the uncompiled version of HTML Help and wish to distribute a single CHM help file with your software, your published help folder includes all of the required configuration files needed to compile a CHM file. To make a CHM file, you'll need Microsoft's HTML Help Workshop utility, which is available online as a FREE download (visit the SDK Downloads URL below).

If you look in your published help folder, you'll see three documents with unique file extensions: hlproject.hhp, hltoc.hhc, and hlindex.hhk. These are the configuration files that tell HTML Help Workshop where to find your help pages and how to build the custom TOC, Index and Search for your CHM file. Do NOT move these files -- leave them in the same root directory as your HTML pages (inside your published help folder).

Once you have the free HTML Help Workshop utility installed and running, you'll see an "open folder" icon button in it's toolbar. Click it and choose the hlproject.hhp file to open your help project in HTML Help Workshop.

Once the hlproject.hhp file is open in HTML Help Workshop, simply click the "grinder" icon button (to the right of the open button) to compile your HTML Help into a single CHM file. It's that easy! No manual editing is required since HelpLogic already configured all of the compile settings! Your compiled CHM file will be saved in your published help folder with the filename you specified in HelpLogic's "Name for CHM File" field.

Important Note: Within a CHM file, the search engine lists page matches using their HTML title tag, so be sure to use a descriptive phrase for the HTML title tag of each help page BEFORE publishing.

Microsoft® HTML Help Resources

For information on how to integrate MS HTML Help into your software application, plus additional details on how to use special CHM-to-CHM hyperlinks (which are supported by Code Plugins in HelpLogic's Code Editor), please read the MS HTML Help Documentation. Below are some URLs for accessing the MS HTML Help Documentation online, and downloading HTML Help Workshop and CHM versions of the documentation.

Microsoft® HTML Help Documentation
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/
htmlhelp/html/vsconhh1start.asp

Microsoft® HTML Help SDK Downloads
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/
htmlhelp/html/hwmicrosofthtmlhelpdownloads.asp

 
Important Note: When selecting a publish location, do NOT choose a directory within your source files folder. Publishing from your source files folder into your source files folder will cause an endless loop, filling your hard drive with endless folders. As of HelpLogic 1.0a2, the Publish feature does not allow you to select the source files folder as your publish location.

When HelpLogic is run in Trial demo mode, MS HTML Help Table of Contents are limited to 3 topics per chapter. This publishing limitation is removed when you purchase a license and register the application with your serial number.

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