Edit a help file?
June 15, 2005 11:15 AM Subscribe
Back in the day (about 7 years ago, anyway), Windows came with a utility that allowed the savvy user to edit compiled help files.
I cannot remember the name of the utility, or where to find it - does anyone here know? I would also like to know if this thing exists for XP. I'd ask a Tech Writer list, but I'm in a bit of crunch, and you folks are always so great. btw, the files I would like to edit are .chm, and I don't have any of the 'standard' tools available (Robo or Frame). Thanks as always.
I cannot remember the name of the utility, or where to find it - does anyone here know? I would also like to know if this thing exists for XP. I'd ask a Tech Writer list, but I'm in a bit of crunch, and you folks are always so great. btw, the files I would like to edit are .chm, and I don't have any of the 'standard' tools available (Robo or Frame). Thanks as always.
Best answer: Yeah, that's it; select File->Decompile to, er, decompile a chm to a directory.
Here's a link to the download page.
posted by Loser at 11:37 AM on June 15, 2005
Here's a link to the download page.
posted by Loser at 11:37 AM on June 15, 2005
Is there a way to do this with .hlp files?
posted by Four Flavors at 2:07 PM on June 15, 2005
posted by Four Flavors at 2:07 PM on June 15, 2005
Googling for "winhelp decompiler" turns up a mess of hits, but I don't have any first hand experience with them...
The HTML Help Workshop will only decompile hpj files.
posted by Loser at 4:26 PM on June 15, 2005
The HTML Help Workshop will only decompile hpj files.
posted by Loser at 4:26 PM on June 15, 2005
Response by poster: Loser. thanks! That's exactly what I was looking for!! I think when I last used it, it wasn't for html help, just regular 'online' (within the application) help.
The HTML Help Workshop did indeed de-compile the files, but without the file-naming schema, it was very hard for me to re-compile them appropriately.
I was needing to insert the files in printed form into a document - and thought I might be able to transform the individual help files into Word files in a bulk process.
Alas, that was not to be; so I just shoved the whole thing through PDF, and inserted the new PDF into an existing one. Thanks again, though - y'all came through for me!
posted by dbmcd at 4:36 PM on June 15, 2005
The HTML Help Workshop did indeed de-compile the files, but without the file-naming schema, it was very hard for me to re-compile them appropriately.
I was needing to insert the files in printed form into a document - and thought I might be able to transform the individual help files into Word files in a bulk process.
Alas, that was not to be; so I just shoved the whole thing through PDF, and inserted the new PDF into an existing one. Thanks again, though - y'all came through for me!
posted by dbmcd at 4:36 PM on June 15, 2005
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Loser at 11:32 AM on June 15, 2005