Compiled Sensitive Help Options

[TA08]

Currently I am using Microsoft CHM and would like to switch to another help format due to the fact that Microsoft are no longer updating or supporting this. I have tried to generate Dotnet Help files but have found very little documentation provided in the knowledge base or integrated help within the Madpak suite I use for customising this interface, i.e. removing all the Madcap references and logos etc. I also have problems in trying to change the label text on the Features tabs as there are inconsistencies i.e. Favorite and Favourites.

Can anyone provide me with any advice about using this interface or recomend an alternative interface please? It is for software applications that uses the .chm files when the user calls it from F1 or via the Help menu within our applications.

Thanks

[RamonS]

Unfortunately, there isn't much choice. Also, Microsoft officially considers CHMs as help format of choice for the W7/Server2008(R2) versions. DotNetHelp makes sense if you produce help for a DotNet application and plan on using embedded help. Without embedded help DotNetHelp's advantages are not that convincing as you need to have each user install the DotNetHelp viewer from MadCap.
As for the spelling, you may want to check with language you selected for your project and the Windows system you use. If you want "Favourites" (meaning English, not American) you may need to set everything in system and project to use English (UK) as locale.

Alternatively, you can use WebHelp. The advantage is that you get the look and feel of DotNetHelp and a lot more flexibility, but you may run into permission issues unless you have the developers either build their own help browser (a plain simple form with a browser control in it and with the properties set as needed) or install a small local web server. There are plenty to choose from that will work fine.

[TA08]

Thanks for your response Ramon.

I have been struggling to obtain any information on DotNet Help and for many other reasons I also agree with you that I don't feel that this would be a suitable alternative to using Microsoft CHM for me. I am new to using this interface and now know that I was misled on its capabilities, functionality and customisation options. However doing a bit of research & from yourself I have discovered from that I can actually use WebHelp but unfortunately there isn't really a lot of information on how you go about setting this up.

I already use WebHelp as a standalone interface so this can be used on Intranets. If possible I would also like to use this as my CSH. You mention:

Alternatively, you can use WebHelp. The advantage is that you get the look and feel of DotNetHelp and a lot more flexibility, but you may run into permission issues unless you have the developers either build their own help browser (a plain simple form with a browser control in it and with the properties set as needed) or install a small local web server. There are plenty to choose from that will work fine.

Could you please provide me with more information on the permissions issue and any links to sample viewers etc?

I assumed that I had changed all the language settings to English which would be reflected in the entire project but obviously missed the one for toolbars as I wasn't aware that I had to also do this, so thanks for the heads up.

[RamonS]

There are two options. You can install a small HTTP server alongside your application. I only used the EngInSite WebServer from Luckasoft (see http://www.enginsite.com/Download.htm at the bottom). While this may solve some issues with security settings it adds an unmaintained web server to each installation and some folks may not appreciate that. After all, you can serve anything with that server. There may be ways to configure it so that it only works for localhost. There are several others and you should evaluate some and see how far this can take you.
The other option is to use local file access. So rather than using a URL for a web address (http://...) you use file://... as protocol for the URL. The application can easily figure out where it is running (or the installer writes the path to an ini file that is local to the exe and it is read from there) and based on that the path can be built up the same way as for any server based WebHelp. If you use this option make sure to turn the "Mark of the Web" on, otherwise IE will throw a tantrum. The problems you may encounter are rights related and policy related, such as not allowing to run JavaScript.

Which of the options works best is hard to say. If you have the means to offer both then do that. What I did once was offering both Internet based WebHelp and local WebHelp. Local WebHelp was via file access, but that help got updated only when installing a new release. The Internet based WebHelp was constantly maintained, but accessing it requires an Internet connection. The application always tried the Internet version first, if it did not get any response it would fall back to the local help. On top of that, a system option allowed to explicitly set to use only Internet or local.

[TA08]

I will have a look into the server options and the links provided.

I am unable to offer both WebHelp options to my customers re CSH unfortunately so it would be for local file access only.

Thanks Ramon for the info