creating help files 1

[CADTenchy]

Looking for exactly this topic: thread102-831847 but wondering if there is more up to date advice?



Steve (Delphi 2007 & XP)

 

[Glenn9999]

HelpMaker?

----------
Measurement is not management.

 

[DelphiAaron]

i ended up buying Help and Manual.


Aaron

 

[MilesAhed]

Depends on your needs and your budget. If the help isn't that many pages a free solution that's portable is to create html pages and use an index creator that creates an index.html file with links to all the pages. Suitable for web based help and can be used anywhere html can be read. Also you can then use the MS help workshop stuff.

There was a nice little freebie that used awk to format an .hlp help for small projects. Only thing is to get .hlp to
work in Vista you have to take ownership of the dummy help executable they put on Vista, delete it, and replace it with a real .hlp help engine. So that's a mess. It's too bad because some of the hotspot stuff is cool and no longer works in html help.

For documenting a component or unit if you search around there are some good freebies that read formatted comments and compile them into html help. It's been a couple of years since I used this particular one so I can't recall the
name. Try

http://www.TheFreeCountry.com.

I'm sure there are some free help tools there. The one I used came with a style sheet that formatted the component help in Virtual Basic style.. with grid lines and whatnot but without the style sheet it was suitable for Delphi component or control docs.

 

[roo0047]

If you want to create .hlp files (as opposed to html), my favorite is Cheetah 9 particularly because it was not only written in Delphi, but also interfaces so well with Delphi. Even though it is aged (last update 2002)

Cheetah 9 is an editor to create rtf Help Topic Files to be used with Microsoft's Help Workshop. Features: syntax highlighting, topics and keywords Trees, click-insert text and image hotspots, includes as a sample all files used to create the Cheetah help file. Find/Replace, Print, AutoComplete, import component source; Instant Delphi Component help; smart replace; import pascal source as rtf; import existing RTF topic files; Visual contents designer, single topic editor, auto-create project, follow link, quick preview; HelpContext Mapping and LinksTree. NEW in version 9: Export/Import chapters via XML; fast-link; improved interface.

I found it easy to use and customize and the price is right. See zip file download at

http://jansfreeware.com/

(click programming, under software on the left.) or here:

http://jansfreeware.com/jfprogramming.htm

Roo
Delphi Rules!

 

[melmitts]

I used Help & Manual for a while but have since settled in with HelpSmith. It is a lot less expensive than Help & Manual and does what I need.

Mel

 

[CADTenchy]

Follow up...

After looking at a lot of the alternatives, I'm going for HelpMaker to author my help files, and compile into CHM help file, and EC Software Help Suite.

Thanks all.


Steve (Delphi 2007 & XP)

 

[RickL28]

I've tried out many of the help tools including EC Software Help and Manual and recently bought Helpsmith 2.0. It is very affordable and has a much more power system of dynamic styles. I really like it.