Creating Help files
About Help authoring tools
There are many authoring tools and related products available
for creating online Help files on Windows. All of the authoring
tools for RTF-based Help files use the Microsoft Help compiler to
compile a set of source files into a finished Help file.
What to include
The source files for any Help system typically include:
- Topic files
(RTF), which contain
the text of your Help system as well as footnote codes and commands
that serve to identify the topics and provide navigation and other
features - Graphics files
, typically bitmaps
(BMP), which are associated with specific topics - A project file
(HPJ), which
does not become part of the finished Help system but contains instructions
for the compiler, some of which can affect the appearance and functionality
of the Help windows you specify - A contents file
(CNT), which
is not compiled into the finished Help file but is deployed along
with the Help file as part of the overall Help system. The contents
file provides the entries that populate the Contents tab of the
Help Topics dialog box and other information that can affect the
overall behavior of the Help system.
How to proceed
If you are using one of the full-featured Help authoring tools,
you can follow its instructions for creating the necessary source
files and compiling them.
If you are using the Microsoft Help Workshop that comes with
the Microsoft SDK, you can use this tool to create your project
file and contents file and to compile the finished Help file. However,
you will need to author your Help topics directly in Microsoft Word.
The online Help for the Microsoft Help Workshop provides much information
on Help authoring, including instructions on how to use the various
footnote codes recognized by the Help compiler, the WinHelp macros,
and the WinHelp API.
Sample project file
For your convenience,
the text of a sample project file is provided in one of the topics
of the PBUSR70.HLP file that is installed with PowerBuilder. To
access it:
- Open PowerBuilder Help
and click the User button. - Navigate to the Sample Help Project File topic from
the Contents tab in the Help Topics dialog box, under User-defined
Help. - Copy the Help topic to the Windows clipboard.
- Open a text editor such as Notepad and paste the
clipboard text into a blank document. - Save the document in text format as PBUSR70.HPJ.
You will need to edit your project file to reflect the details
of your Help development environment, such as source filenames and
directory pathnames. You can do this in a text editor, or open the
project file in Help Workshop or another Help authoring tool and
edit it there.