All,
The below is a "rough and ready" guide to building a MS HTML help system for
your application. It will show you how to generate the .chm file, and how to
link to it from your GUI application. I've included a zip folder containing
all the example files you'll need.
The MS HTML system is based on a single .chm file, it's kind of like a zip
folder with all the HTML contained within it. To create the .chm file you
have to download free tools from Microsoft:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/htmlhelp/html/hwMicrosoftHTMLHelpDownloads.asp
You need HtmlHelp.exe, download and install. The key file is hhc.exe which
'compiles' your html files into a .chm file. Copy hhc.exe and place it in
the same folder as the files in the attached zip. There is plenty of
documentation on the MS site to explain the actual details, but:
To build the .chm, hhc.exe needs to have 4 files as well as your HTML
documentation:
.hhp file which contains the options and all the HTML files to be included
in your help file (any images will be included automatically)
.hhc file which contains the table of contents for your help system (the
tree on the left of the help system) the TOC is itself HTML.
.h file which contains numeric constants to identify topics (these constants
are used within your GUI)
.ali file which maps the numeric constants to actual HTML pages.
Typically you'll generate these files automatically from your documentation.
Once you've got these files, you now build your .chm file:
cd to the dir with the example zipped files then:
hhc.exe help.hhp
Now run gui.pl in the same folder, it'll bring up a window with a few
buttons. When you click on the button, the html help system automatically
opens and goes to the correct topic. You can create as many topics as you
like - it's quite flexible. When you distribute your app, you just need the
.chm file.
Cheers,
jez.
