HTML Help Workshop; creating the *.chm file

[CatLabMan]

I'm about to create the documentation for a large LabVIEW

automation project. I would also like to use this

documentation as the content for my help-file used by the

LabVIEW program (a *.chm or a *.hlp-file) via the

Control Online Help.VI.

The question is, what is the most optimal way to create this document,

without having to do the job almost twice ?

Normally I would create the documentation as a Word-document.

But as far as I see, the help-file system has to be created by the

MS HTML Help Workshop program, and that uses a large collection

of html-files to compile into the CHM file. And the html-files that

can be exported from Word aren't optimal, are they, with

a lot of extra code etc...

Somebody have obvious
ly looked at this problem before me.

What are the tips, tricks and suggestions around ?

Martin

[Pete Lees]

Martin,

> I'm about to create the documentation for a large LabVIEW
> automation project. I would also like to use this
> documentation as the content for my help-file used by the
> LabVIEW program (a *.chm or a *.hlp-file) via the
> Control Online Help.VI.
>
> The question is, what is the most optimal way to create this document,
> without having to do the job almost twice ?
> Normally I would create the documentation as a Word-document.
> But as far as I see, the help-file system has to be created by the
> MS HTML Help Workshop program, and that uses a large collection
> of html-files to compile into the CHM file. And the html-files that
> can be exported from Word aren't optimal, are they, with
> a lot of extra code etc...

On the last point, you can strip
out most of the extraneous code by
running the HTML files through the Microsoft Office HTML Filter,
available from:

http://office.microsoft.com/Downloads/2000/Msohtmf2.aspx

And see the following for additional information on using
Word-generated HTML files in HTML Help:

http://helpware.net/FAR/far_faq.htm#wordhtml

If you do want to use Word as your main authoring tool, you could use
it in combination with one of the following to single-source print and
online documentation:

WebWorks Publisher WordHelp (http://www.webworks.com)
AVHelp (http://www.avsoft.it)
Doc-To-Help (http://www.componentone.com)
RoboHelp (http://www.ehelp.com)

The following resources may help you to choose a help tool that best
meets your needs:

Tools Comparison Matrix:
http://www.helpstuff.com/downloads/toolsv5.pdf (Acrobat 5 format)
http://www.helpstuff.com/downloads/toolsv4.pdf (Acrobat 4 format)

Which Help Authoring Tool(s) Do You Choose?
http://www.helpstuff.com/downloads/HATcomparison.ppt

Review of Ro
boHelp Office 2002:
http://www.winwriters.com/robohelp02_pt1.htm

Review of Doc-To-Help 6.0:
http://www.winwriters.com/dth6.htm

Pete

[Joey Oravec]

For everbody else in the audience, check out
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/htmlhelp/ht
ml/vsconHH1Start.asp to download the free HTML help workshop. It is a
package which takes a set of HTML files and generates a standard win2k/XP
helpfile.

However, your point is completely true: it just a major pain to make a
"pretty" version of both offline and online help. Both documents can have
the same content: a section explaining each menu item, several sections to
explain common tasks, a section explaining terms, etc. I dont see a huge
difference in usability as long as you create a union of material.

As for exporting I haven't found a good solution. As you've seen, you must
have the seperate HTML files for the help compiler. That's how the table of
contents, etc is generated. For my current project, I maintain that as a
frontpage web and apply a cascading style sheet. I didn't find a good way to
(automatically) split the word document into several HTML files or join the
frontpage web into a single organized word file. It wasn't a huge issue,
because I ended up using printed material as an installation guide and
online help as program documentation.

The one particularily useful thing was programming a custom "document my
progam" VI which exports using my special documentation format. Of course
that is really only suitable for the programmer's reference section. However
I really, really, really hated using Print -> VI documentation and
reformatting every time. I'm sure you'll soon notice that it gets tiring.

-joey

"CatLabMan" wrote in message
news:1042528495.741807@halvan.trd.sintef.no...
> I'm about to create the documentation for a large LabVIEW
> automation project. I would also like to use this
> documentation as the content for my help-file used by the
> LabVIEW program (a *.chm or a *.hlp-file) via the
> Control Online Help.VI.
>
> The question is, what is the most optimal way to create this document,
> without having to do the job almost twice ?
>
> Normally I would create the documentation as a Word-document.
> But as far as I see, the help-file system has to be created by the
> MS HTML Help Workshop program, and that uses a large collection
> of html-files to compile into the CHM file. And the html-files that
> can be exported from Word aren't optimal, are they, with
> a lot of extra code etc...
>
> Somebody have obviously looked at this problem before me.
>
> What are the tips, tricks and suggestions around ?
>
> Martin
>
>

[Emran]

hi,

I also designed a software in labwindows and I want to make "help" for this software as every software have a help option and most of the documentation resides under this,
I have no idea how can I make a .chm or html file for the "help" documentation of my software,any body please?