Thanks for the info all. I'll be sure to check out some of these. FAR HTML sounds good.
On Tue, May 31, 2011 at 12:01 AM, Ian Thomas <[email protected]> wrote: > The “new” Microsoft Help format is targeted by FAR HTML, and is the one > used for VS2010 Help. The group I pointed to has (free) tools for the full > range of Help formats used by Microsoft, including the new format. > > *FAR HTML* is a collection of file and HTML Help utilities for authors. If > you need to quickly manipulate HTML files, or create and edit *HTML Help > 1.x*, *MS Help 2.x* or *MS Help Viewer 1.x *projects then FAR will save > you lots of time. You can safely use *FAR HTML* and *MS Workshop* side by > side. Download the full working version of FAR HTML free today. > > If you can remember the installed help for MSDN Libraries (and how > unresponsive is was), then compare the installed Help for VS2010 in terms of > its speed etc. > > It’s worth having a read of the HelpWare pages, and also The Help Guy blog. > > ------------------------------ > > Ian Thomas > Victoria Park, Western Australia > ------------------------------ > > *From:* [email protected] [mailto: > [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Greg Keogh > *Sent:* Monday, May 30, 2011 9:42 PM > > *To:* 'ozDotNet' > *Subject:* RE: Help files > > > > >What do people use to build help files these days? > > > > It’s been 5 years since I last did this, but we were in a hurry and didn’t > have the time or money for a special help kits like Robohelp or HDK or > whatever. I was quite surprised at how easily I could create CHM files using > Frontpage and Microsoft’s HTML Help Workshop. Frontpage helped me organise > all the html files into folders and give a project view of the whole lot, > and it helped with hyperlinks between chapters/files, and it had spell > checking. I had to manually keep the help project file updated with the list > of source html files, but that wasn’t too much bother, and it just compiled > them and spat out a quite acceptable CHM file. This may work well for you as > well if your needs are not too complex or large. > > > > There’s been a real zoo of help file formats over previous years and it get > irritating trying to run with the trends. However, the humble old CHM file > still seem to be sticking around for now. Perhaps I’m out of date, if anyone > knows of a new trend/direction in help files, let us know. > > > > Actually, does Frontpage still exist? If not, does something like > Expression Web (or Dreamweaver or something else) help create and manage a > “project” of html help topics and links? > > > > Greg >
