own ebook or help system through delphi

[earlrainer]

Hi guys,

you know all the various help file creating utilities like robohelp etc that allow you to create your own help files.

I want to make something similar (a small one though..and of course not fancy enough to compete with the big guys).

Anybody got any pointers on this topic.

i heard that making such programs that make help files or even ebooks are easy as 1-2-3 in VC++,VB

if it's possible in those languages, I have absolutely no doubt that our delphi can also create such programs.

but even after searching the net , I havent got a clue how to do it in delphi.

Any clues guys?

 

[footpad]

earlrainer,

Unfortunately, Delphi doesn't come with any Help authoring tools. There are several alternatives:

--

http://www.helpwriter.com/delphi.htm

offers a utility for making small Help projects (less than 30 topics); it's shareware and the professional version provides more features.

--

http://www.helpscribble.com/download.html

also provides an evaluation version that adds a nag notice to your topics.

-- Microsoft provides HTML Help for free from their website (see

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/htmlhelp/html/hwMicrosoftHTMLHelpDownloads.asp)

. It's a bit harder to use than the others, but the price is right.

There are many other tools available. For example, I combined a simple HTML viewer with a list box to provide Help functionality within a tabbed notebook. You could just as easily use the RichEdit component to present RTF files in a Memo box.

There are many other alternatives.

Hope this helps...

-- Lance

 

[Stretchwickster]

Lance,

I think what earlrainer was getting at was creating his own tailored help-authoring tool using Delphi, which acts in a similar way to the current help tools like RoboHelp.

Earlrainer,

I don't know if you could try this process:

http://greatis.com/delphi/help-createhelp.html

Basically, (as Lance said) you could create your help contents using a TRichEdit component and save as an rtf file, then you could probably automate a call to hcw.exe in order to compile it.

Clive

http://www.kucu.co.uk

Ex nihilo, nihil fit (Out of nothing, nothing comes)

 

[earlrainer]

hi guys,

I really appreciate your help.

what I am attempting to do is this...I want to basically protect the contents of the help file i.e I want to prevent the users from copying the help text.

of course this would require to disable the copy function.
I dont know how to do that.

so someone suggested to make own help system,that has the look and feel of normal help.

how can I do that?Lance can you elaborate a little on the html viewer part.

Thanks

 

[Stretchwickster]

Why not create a pdf help file as it is difficult to copy from - it acts as a good protective layer for your help contents.

Clive

http://www.kucu.co.uk

Ex nihilo, nihil fit (Out of nothing, nothing comes)

 

[earlrainer]

Hi Clive,

But pdf files also have an option in the menu EDIT-SELECT ALL-COPY which allows to copy

in fact pdf was my first suggestion, but then there came lot of other issues like downloading of reader etc.

 

[Stretchwickster]

The only other way I can think of is to empty the clipboard everytime the user tries to copy. But if the user really wants to make a copy they can use Print Screen or a tool which does a similar thing.

Clive

http://www.kucu.co.uk

Ex nihilo, nihil fit (Out of nothing, nothing comes)