Creating Windows Help: The Basics

Just about everyone who uses Windows has ventured into a help file at some time. Windows help files generally have the same look and provide similar searching and navigating functions. The Windows help compiler gives you those basic functions.

Creating a Windows help file can be no more difficult than creating a document with Microsoft Word for Windows. Well, that may be a little bit of an exaggeration, but not much. Many tools are available these days that let you create a document with Word and then convert the file into a help file. It becomes more complicated because of some of the quirks in the Windows help compiler and how the compiler treats certain formatting elements.

If you create a simple text file that does not have tables, graphics, bullet lists, or special fonts, you may not run into any of the quirks. You can create your text, compile it, and voila, you have a Windows help file. Rarely is it that easy.

I mentioned before that many tools are available that may the process easier. Let me briefly explain. The Windows help compiler requires that the information in a file be in a specific format. It requires the format so it knows where to create jumps, pop-ups, and the other elements that make help files unique.

You can create a document in that format, but it’s like learning a programming language. You add one extra space or forget a pound sign, and the file won’t work right. Most of us would rather not have to learn a new "language" to create a help file. We just want to design and write the information. During the last few years, several vendors have created tools that let you "just write the information" and then the tool generates the specifically formatted file for the help compiler.

Many of these tools work with Microsoft Word for Windows, because it makes the conversion easier. After all, Microsoft created the help compiler, so its word processor is most compatible. Some tools say that they can work with a file from another word processor, but I have not tried it. The tools that you use are generally called Windows help (WinHelp) authoring tools. These are commercially available products. They are periodically reviewed in the major PC magazines.

Three of the top tools on the market are (in alphabetical order):

Doc-To-Help

RoboHelp

WebWorks Publisher

Check out the links above to learn more about these tools.