Hlp TO CHM including CSH

the product that i work on is shipped with A chm (Help
menu” and a HLP (for context sensitive help). I need to first
convert the HLP to CHM, and then integrate the CSH into the CHM. I
have converted HLP to CHM but not to sure about how to go forward.
Also what inputs would I require from the developers and at what
stage to accomplish this task?
Would really appreciate some pointers on this task.

Hi,
See these pages for information on how to hand-craft the map
and alias files:
http://frogleg.mvps.org/helptechnologies/htmlhelp/hhtutorials.html#mapping
http://helpware.net/htmlhelp/how_to_context.htm
In general, though, you shouldn't need to change the existing
context integers and topic IDs just because you're moving from
WinHelp to HTML Help. So long as the developers change their
WinHelp API calls to HTML Help API calls, and you configure your
.chm file appropriately, the existing values will work.
In fact, Microsoft modelled the HTML Help API on the WinHelp
API to simplify the process of updating existing applications from
WinHelp to HTML Help. For example, a typical WinHelp API command
is:
WinHelp(HWnd, "helpfile.hlp", HELP_CONTEXT, 1001)
The HTML Help API equivalent is almost the same:
HtmlHelp(HWnd, "helpfile.chm", HH_HELP_CONTEXT, 1001)
For information for developers on how to call an HTML Help
file from an application, see these pages:
http://www.mshelpwiki.com/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=HTMLHelpArticles
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms524256(VS.85).aspx
Pete

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Converting .hlp to .chm

I have converted .hlp files to .chm
I am tring to open a popup help in my application with the
content of the .chm(whatisthis kind of help)
I always get the error
Cannot open file : Path\Employefr.chm
I can open the file in the toc or in the index to a givin
contextID but I cannot open them in a popup.
Is there a way in Robohelp to setup the Popups links ?

Hi Colum
Thanks for your reply. Its nice to know this won't be as
painful as I am imagining :-)
I was hoping to be able to produce the chm using the single
source layout, because it seemed the avenue with least work. (I
didn't mention that we have 5 versions of the same project - one
each in English, Japanese, Chinese, Korean and French.) So, this
will be a bigger project than anticipated - but at least I'll learn
a lot in the process :-)
RE the external links - I think that is me just using the
wrong term. I was using the term to refer to the help projects that
are 'merged' with the main project.
Anticipating that I would have to move to RH for HTML, I have
started a test import. Thanks for pointing me in the direction of
where to look for help in this area - as having done a test I have
a few things I need to clarify :-)
Cheers
Heather

Generating hlp files in RoboHelp HTML

Is it possible to generate .hlp files from RoboHelp HTML version 9? We're generating help files for an older program that only uses .hlp or .chm files. I've only been able to generate .hlp files from RoboHelp for Word, and I don't really want to use it any more. But I haven't been able to generate .hlp files from RoboHelp HTML.
Thanks.

Hello PP
I'll be happy to hazard a guess as to why RoboHelp doesn't "do" WinHelp. It has to do with the history of RoboHelp. Way back around 1992 or so, RoboHelp existed largely as a plug-in to Microsoft Word that made it a lot easier to create WinHelp files. Basically it was a set of macros that formatted the arcane coding necessary inside Word documents that made things work for the WinHelp compiler.
HTML emerged later on and the first version of RoboHelp HTML was born. This created an entirely new format and an entirely new application (RoboHelp HTML or RoboHTML) was born. HTML help was the new kid on the block. As such, I'm guessing the developers were sort of watching to see if or how much it would "catch on".
So the application code bases were totally different. And remain so to this day. As Microsoft has taken measures to try and dissuade folks from using WinHelp, I'm sure RoboHelp for Word is likely on life support and probably has been for some time. RoboHelp for Word and RoboHelp HTML work in totally different ways. And given the fact Microsoft wants WinHelp gone, it simply doesn't make any sense to expend effort on making RoboHelp HTML capable of outputting WinHelp.
Cheers... Rick
Helpful and Handy Links
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How do i integrate hlp with form 6i

I want "help" functionality in form 6i. How can i integrate .hlp or .chm file with my form such that its topic can be accessible by pressing F1.
Can somebody tell me the purpose of "Help book title" of almost every item in form 6i?
Edited by: Aasem on May 28, 2010 10:01 AM

This is GREAT! Thank You!

Merging CHM projects

Introduction: You want a help system distributed over
several CHM files. The topic map means that you may enter via any
one of the CHMs but, once in the help system, you want access to
the complete ToC. RoboHelp does not provide this by default; here
is how to arrange it.
The underlying concepts: You have one "master" CHM which
contains the complete ToC but no topics; and any number of "slave"
CHMs containing the topics. Use baggage trick #1 to include the
master ToC in each slave. Each slave ToC must be contained in a
book in the master ToC (RH hhc bug), but you can have several ToCs
per slave (baggage trick #2). All CHMs must use the same window and
it must be a global window (prefix $global_). All CHMs must be in
the same directory at runtime (Common location).
RH hhc bug: The ToC you define in RoboHelp is stored in a
file ProjectName.hhc; when you generate the project a file called
ProjectName.hhc will be included in the CHM file.
These two files are not the same. This means that (1) if
your merged projects are not contained in books in the master ToC
you will get errors (invalid HTML tag) because the hhc file inside
the master CHM <ul> and </ul> tags are unbalanced. Also
(2) the ToC to be included in the slave CHMs must be the one
extracted from the master CHM, not the one from the master project
directory.
How baggage files work: When user runs the CHM file, its
contents are unpacked to a temporary location (MSIT-whatever).
These contents include the topics, images and also the baggage
files. The baggage file included will be whatever is in the project
directory at generate time. Not all the files in RoboHelp's baggage
list will be included (see elsewhere for quirks of the baggage
system).
Decompiling CHM files: All (?) Windows systems include the
program hh.exe which is run to display CHM files. You can also use
this program in a DOS window to decompile CHMs; the syntax is:
hh -decompile DirectoryToReceiveDecompiledFiles
FileToBeDecompiled.CHM
The directory will be created if necessary; old files will be
silently overwritten. The same functionality is available with a
pretty GUI in the HTML Help Workshop, which you can download free
from microsoft.com.
Baggage trick #1: Create all slave ToCs and generate the
CHMs; include the slave ToCs in the master ToC (File > New >
MergedProject). Generate and then decompile the master CHM (hh
-decompile master master.chm) and include the decompiled master.hhc
as a baggage file in each slave. In each slave, ProjectSetUp >
Windows > $global_window > Properties > Advanced >
Destinations > TableofContents and specify master.hhc (this file
will be available because you included it as a baggage file). Now
regenerate all slaves (see Caveat #2).
Baggage trick #2: The slave ToC will be included in a book
in the global ToC; this means one book per slave CHM. You may not
have partitioned your project in this way. If necessary, create
several ToCs in the slave; each ToC will result in a file xxx.hhc
in the project directory. Include all these as baggage files in the
slave, and generate it. When you include the CHM as a MergedProject
you can select the ToC you want.
Common location for CHMs: you can save copying by generating
all CHMs in one location (SSLs > HTMLhelp > Properties >
OutputFolder). I have a project directory containing subdirectory
Output along with Master, Slave1, Slave2 etc.
Caveats: (1) Browse sequences and Search are not globalized,
if you open a slave CHM you will only have access to the Browse and
Search of that CHM. (2) If you change the master ToC you will have
to regenerate the master, decompile it, copy the hhc to each slave,
and regenerate each slave (this can be automated). (3) There are
apparently restrictions on using names containing underscores; I
have not tested this. (4) The whole process is sufficiently complex
that I recommend creating a test database to try it out.
Conditional Build Tags: I have not tested this, but it
should be possible to define several ToCs in the master and use
them as appropriate.

I appreciate this post, as getting our merged chm projects to
work together seamlessly has proven to be very difficult. The
approach we're using now is similar to what you describe here, but
results in multiple windows opening on top of each other, rather
than the TOC clicks keeping the user within the same window. I am
trying to make a few changes based on what I'm reading here in
hopes of fixing this issue; however I am having difficulty applying
the global window. Currently all of our help projects use a window
called Main. I have updated those to $global_Main, but now when I
try to click a topic in the TOC of a chm file I get this error
message: "The window name "main" passed to HH_GET_WIN_TYPE has not
been specified." Do you know what might be causing that? Is there a
specific procedure I need to follow in order to update to using a
global window?

Help: External Links not coming properly in generated chm file

Hi
I am a new user of RoboHelp for Word/HTML. I am currently
having Robohelp 6. But I have also used evaluation version of
Robohelp 7.0. I am trying to convert .HLP files into .chm files.
I would like to give an example for explaining things:
Say I have two .HLP files say AHelp.hlp and BHelp.hlp. Now
AHelp contains a link to some page (say VA_X.htm) in BHelp. And
this link works correctly. When I generate CHM files from these HLP
files, then though the link is correctly highlighted in AHelp. But
it points to some incorrect page like BHelp.chm::/VA_X..htm.
Whereas in BHelp.chm the name VA_X.htm has changed into say
BHelp_Voltage_Amplifier_X.htm.
So what can I do to correct this problem so that the links
are generated correctly?
Plz help!!
Thanks
Regards
TheIlliterate

Hi. Sorry for the slow response. We "gurus" (ha!) are
employees like you and have to balance responding against our
workload. We do try to answer what we can when we can.
As to your specific problem, the way interhelp file links are
handled between HLP and CHM files is different. I have to admit to
not converting HLP files that had inter-help links so I may be off
the mark here. That said, I suspect your course of action will be
to go into each inter help file link and re-add it. You can do this
by double clicking on the link, clicking on the "Remote Topic"
option and selecting the CHM file to link to. You'll be asked to
copy the CHM into the project directory and then you can select the
correct topic.
I'm happy for someone else to chip in here if there is an
easier way.

Can't "source" using Solaris 10 update 3 appliance

I downloaded the Solaris 10 update 3 appliance from the Sun site. When running Bourne shell I can't source. When I do a whereis source it returns not found. Is there something missing from this Solaris 10 VMWare setup? How can I resolve this?
Many thanks
John

Commands like "source" that effect the shells behaviour are implemented by the shell itself. Not by programs found in your path.
The root environment on solaris is "pure" bourne shell (sh).
The list of commands it implements does not include "source" which is a csh command.
Your probably used to the bourne again (bash) shell commonly used by linux.
Which adds a large list of extensions to the sh syntax including csh-isms like source.
Anyway, if you want to use source, you need to be running a bash shell, not sh.
Alternatives are to simply manually run bash.
Or to create a "root2" user with bash as its shell, but still uid 0.
Or to login as a normal user with bash shell and use sudo to get root privilege.
You could change roots shell to bash. But I don't recommend it. I'm told it works, but it could change the effect of startup scripts or have other unintended effects.

Any problems running Windows 7-created help output on Windows XP machines?

Hi,
I feel a bit silly even asking this, but I'm not a coder and don't have the technical knowledge to know for sure that it's a silly question.
Background: We are upgrading to Windows 7 from XP in the near future. We will be using RoboHelp 10 and Word 2010 - at least that's the plan ...
For our department's major product, since it's big and has been around a long time, we are still stuck using RoboHelp for Word to generate WinHelp. We then use the RHelp for Word source to generate WebHelp, since some modules of the product require WinHelp, some require HTML pages, and much of the source material is needed in both outputs. And yes, I did read someone's post likening this process to drinking coffee while running a sprint - believe me, if I had any choice about this I wouldn't be doing it. If RoboHelp has added the capability to generate WinHelp from RoboHelp HTML, let me know .
Anyway, because of previous weird experiences after upgrades, I am being asked to find out: Has anyone used RoboHelp for Word to generate help output - .hlp or .chm or HTML pages - on a Windows 7 machine and tested it on a Windows XP machine? If so, were any problems observed?
Assuming we can still creak along with RoboHelp 10 to generate the same antiquated output ... which we can, right?? ... my gut tells me that a file is a file and I can't see why an .hlp file or web-based help files that run on Windows 7 wouldn't run on XP. But again, I don't have the technical knowledge to say this for certain.
Any advice appreciated. Thank you - Sandy
Message was edited by: sdryer

Creating an output on a later OS does not affect its ability to be used an older OS. The issue, as you know, is creating winhelp to be used on Windows 7 or 8. That forces each user to download a file to support winhelp.
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
@petergrainge

Hyperlinks to XLS, DOC, and PDF files that are included in a .chm file work intermittently.

SUMMARY
Hyperlinks to XLS, DOC, and PDF files that are included in a
.chm file (and the Baggage Files) only work intermittently. The
only solution appears to be deleting the Temporary Internet Files.
PROBLEM
1. I place the XLS, DOC, or PDF file in the Windows
sub-directory that corresponds to the RoboHelp project sub-folder
where the topic in which I’ll place the hyperlink exists.
2. I open the help project in RoboHelp HTML.
3. I right-click on the project’s Baggage Files
sub-folder that corresponds to the Windows sub-directory in which I
placed the XLS, DOC, or PDF file (in step 1).
4. I import the XLS, DOC, or PDF file.
5. I open the topic in which I’m going to place the
hyperlink in the WYSIWYG editor.
6. I “drag and drop” the Baggage File into the
topic (in the WYSIWYG editor) to create a link to it.
7. I save the changes and then generate HTML (.chm) help.
8. I open the .chm file and click the hyperlink. The XLS,
DOC, or PDF file may or may not open.
9. When the hyperlink works correctly, for DOC and XLS files,
a “File Download – Security Warning” dialog box
appears asking, “Do you want to open or save this
file?”. The buttons that are available are
“Open”, “Save”, and “Cancel”.
These buttons work then as one would expect. (When the hyperlink
works correctly for a PDF file, it simply opens the PDF file in a
new window; there’s no prompt to save, open, or cancel.)
10. When a hyperlink does NOT work, for DOC, XLS, and PDF
files, no dialog box or other visual message is displayed. Instead,
the sound that is associated with the “Exclamation”
program event is played (the “Windows XP
Exclamation.wav” file is the WinXP default).
Other Notes:
- The hyperlinks ALWAYS work when I view a topic using the
“View Selected Item” function (Ctrl+W) in the RoboHelp
HTML project.
- Once a hyperlink stops working, it will not start working
again until I delete all the Temporary Internet Files.
- A hyperlink will stop working even if Internet Explorer
(iexplore.exe) is closed the entire time.
WORKAROUND
Through trial and error, I have discovered that if a
hyperlink stops working, I can get it to work again using the
following steps:
1. Leave the .chm file open.
2. Open Internet Explorer.
3. Click Tools>Internet Options….
4. From the “Internet Options” dialog box, select
the “General” tab.
5. Under the “Temporary Internet Files” section,
click the “Delete Files…” button.
6. From the “Delete Files” dialog box, select
“Delete all offline content” and then click
“OK”. The files are deleted and the “Delete
Files” dialog box closes.
7. Click “OK” to close the “Internet
Options” dialog box.
8. Without closing Internet Explorer and without re-starting
the .chm file, all the hyperlinks that didn’t work before
will now work.
GENERAL SYSTEM INFORMATION
- Windows XP Pro, SP2
- Internet Explorer 6.0.2900.2180
- RoboHelp X5, 5.0.2 Build 801
- HTML (.chm) help project files exist on my local machine
- HTML (.chm) help file is run from my local machine
- Project is under RoboSource version control
TEMPORARY INTERNET SETTINGS
- “Check for newer versions of stored pages” is
set to “Automatically”
- “Current location” for the Temporary Internet
files folder is set to “C:\Documents and Settings\My
Username\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\”
- “Amount of disk space to use” is set to
“594” MB
“View Files…”
- An XLS or DOC file will be listed here if I click its
hyperlink and then click either “Open” or
“Save” from the “File Download – Security
Warning” dialog box.
- A file will appear here even if I click “Save”
and then click “Cancel” from the subsequent “Save
As” dialog box.
- If I click “Cancel” from the “File
Download – Security Warning” dialog box, the file does
not appear in the Temporary Internet Files folder.
- When a file does appear in the Temporary Internet Files
folder, its Internet Address is displayed similar to the following:
“ms-its:C:\PrimaryProjectFolder\ProjectName.chm::/SubFolderName/FileName.xls”
“View Objects…”
Here’s a list of all the program files that appear:
- “Microsoft Office Template and Media Control”
(Last Accessed 12/13/06) (Version 12,0,6024,0)
- “Shockwave ActiveX Control” (Last Accessed
12/14/06) (Version 10,1,4,20)
- “Shockwave Flash Object” (Last Accessed
12/18/06) (Version 9,0,28,0)
- “Windows Genuine Advantage Validation Tool”
(Last Accessed 12/14/06) (Version 1,5,722,0)
- “WUWebControl Class” (Last Accessed 12/13/06)
(Version 5,8,0,2469)
Today is 12/18/06 so the only program file that is listed as
having been “Last Accessed” today is the
“Shockwave Flash Object”.
REQUEST FOR HELP
I really want to include certain PDF, DOC, and XLS files in
their native format in a .chm file. However, I need a better
solution to my problem than the one I discovered. What I really
want is to avoid the entire problem altogether.
Have anyone seen this before or have any suggestions?

You wont be able to do that. The embedded objects would appear as images only.

Trying to Link from CSH to Second (Custom) Window within same .CHM file

We are using RH8 on Windows XP Pro 2002, SP3, outputting CHM.
Background
Our single help source has 2 custom window definitions--one for context sensitive topics (tall and narrow, opens on right, no TOC, always on top) and the second for the main help window (shorter and wider, opens with TOC, in center). The intent is to enable the user fast access to field descriptions via the CSH, but then to link to the main help for those who want to peruse more background information. Thus our goal is to allow two help windows to be open at the same time.
In our CSH windows we are ‘writing to the box,’ and our text is brief. Our long-term design goal for the current CSH content is to create what we envision using in an embedded help pane during the next major product release. We need the CSH window to obscure only a small portion of the application real estate, hence the ‘tall narrow’ window design.
In our CSH topics, we want to add a link that when clicked opens up the separate main help using its own window definition, at a specific topic we specify on a case-by-case basis.
We have tried
First we started with a simple hyperlink, but that opens Main in the CSH window.
Next we tried HTML design time controls, but the second window opens in a browser window.
Then we tried using shortcuts, which worked well temporarily, however they lost their definitions (‘program parameters’ on shortcut tab especially) for some reason. Are there any fixes for this?
We have tried searching the RH help system and the forums but we have not a specific answer.
Can anyone help point us in the right direction to be able to meet our design goals? Are we missing something obvious or are we tilting at windmills?
Thanks!
Sue

Hi there
That link doesn't even work for me when I paste it into the address bar of my Firefox browser. It does work in IE, but not in Firefox. In Firefox it opens the PDF generically.
I tested in a CHM and it did try and link, but it presents a black page. Looks like the correct page, but it's blacked out.
CHM files rely upon elements of Internet Explorer to display their content. So perhaps it's something specific to a certain version of Internet Explorer as well as a certain version of the Acrobat Reader.
Cheers... Rick
Helpful and Handy Links
RoboHelp Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form
Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7, 8 or 9 within the day!
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SorcerStone Blog
RoboHelp eBooks

Converting HLP to Webhelp - TOC has erroneous chm url

Hello,
We're looking to move from old winhelp (.hlp) projects made with an old (circa 1998) version of Robohelp, to html-based webhelp made with RoboHelp 11. I was amazed to see that you could import a winhelp project by specifying an hpj file. The conversion seem to go ok, but most of the entries in the new table of contents looked like they were trying to go to some other chm file (which is weird since we didn't use chm files before and I wasn't converting to chm based help). The TOC links are labeled as "Remote URLs" instead of local html files. For some reason it looks like it's treating most of the topics on the TOC as external topics, which they are not. Has anyone seen this before and know an easy fix?
Many thanks,
-Keith

In Snippets my site hosts an article written some time ago about converting WinHelp. Hope it helps.
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
@petergrainge

Include a help file(*.hlp)

I want to include a help file(*.hlp) into
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More info...
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hi,
is it possible to place an *.chm file(help file) in the dash board .
i tried but OBI is not opening it up in that format.
can some one give me an solution to this.
thanks

'.chm' is a Microsoft Compiled Help file that only works in Microsoft Explorer. You are advised to convert it to a friendlier format like HTML.
As per Microsoft, due to a remote code execution vulnerability, you cannot open .chm from a URL. However there are some workarounds in the link below:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896054
Coming back to Oracle BI, you could open the link in a separate window, and ask users to download the chm. Once downloaded locally, the chm file should work fine.
HTH,
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How to convert .hlp files to .chm file in windows 7 ???

Need to know the steps....

As a moderator can I ask that people be more specific. Had you stated that at the outset it would have saved RoboColum(n) from stopping work to prepare the list he gave you.
Creating a CHM is as simple as going to the Single Source Layout pod and opening the Microsoft HTML Layout, then setting the options you require. Help for those can be accessed by pressing F1.
If you have problems with any of the steps, then come back with specific questions and someone will be happy to help.
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
@petergrainge

Characters corrupted converting hpj+rtf to chm help

Hi,
Sorry this was originally posted in htmlhelp but there were no answers so I'm reposting here to see if anyone can help.
I'm trying Robohelp to see if I can use it to create localised versions of our help files.
I have the old .hlp project .hpj file and .rtf files from all of the languages that we need to create.
- For Windows_1252 languages I can use Microsoft's HTML workshop with no problems.
- For non Windows_1252 languages such as Russian (Windows_1251) the htm files created by the MS tool show the correct page content but the Titles and Keywords are corrupted and the href links are missing.
Hence my attempt to try Robohelp.
So far I've found that importing the hpj file and the desired rtf file works fine again for Windows_1252 languages. But that's not much help as I could already create those in the MS tool.
When I try to import the hpj file with a non Windows_1252 rtf file such as Russian, I can create a chm and all of the links seem to be intact, but all of the characters including the page content characters are corrupted.
This can be seen in the htm file displayed in Robohelp as soon as the new project import has finished. I've tried setting the language for all the .htm files to Russian, I've set the language for the project to Russian and I've picked Russian as the language in the .chm build dialog. Unfortunately I think none of these are likely to work as the characters have already been corrupted in the htm files created during the import.
I've tried the Robohelp build on XP with the Locale set to Russian, and I've tried it on Windows 7 x64 with the Russian language pack installed, Russian selected as the display language and Russian set as the Locale.
I notice the codepage in the Robohelp created htm's are set as UTF-8 as opposed to Windows_1251.
I'm pretty sure this is just something I'm doing wrong as the MS HTML Workshop manages to get the correct characters out of the rtf page content.
Any idea where I might be going wrong? Is there someway to define the language of the RTF before the import process?

Hi there
Drawing from distant memory here. I believe RoboHelp expects Word DOC files. It saves as .RTF if you create WinHelp files, but I believe the main file type is .DOC. I'm unaware of any way to force it to only work with RTF.
Then again, I never ever claim to know it all about any given subject. So perhaps someone has a clue on how it might be accomplished.
Out of curiosity, if you want CHM files and CHM files are HTML based, why the insistence on RTF as your source? Why not convert to RoboHelp HTML and work with HTML content?
Cheers... Rick
Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7 within the day - $24.95!
Click here for Adobe Certified Captivate and RoboHelp HTML Training
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Hlp TO CHM including CSH

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