XYplorer Beta Club

admin wrote:Well yes, I would have gone CHM (with HLP as an alternative option) years ago if I'd found a bloody converter that actually works!

With all due respect and I do mean this in the politest way possible, waiting for a converter to seamlessly and perfectly transform from one format to another is not good enough. There is no significant market demand for such a tool and there probably won't be even after Microsoft withdraws its official support for it

HLP as a help format is on its last legs. I admire Microsoft for pledging to include a support update for Windows 7, I hope that they will do so soon. Yes, in the meantime, there is a workaround, but it creates a situation where you have to rely on someone else (other than you, Don) to provide a solution. I remember you saying that XYplorer will never rely on 3rd-party software to function. Is it that much different to have to rely on another individual to offer a workaround? Like TheQwerty and JC said, the current workarounds are either "techy" or unavailable to trial users. It means a lot that it's us, the paid users, who are raising this matter. I realise that rebuilding the help file from scratch in another indexable and searchable format is a lot of effort. I think a couple of questions that you have to ask yourself are: "Is the help file important in the context of XYplorer as a whole and will you have HLP as the help format that's built into XYplorer in 12-18 months time?" If the answer to the former is yes, then the answer to the latter should be no.

EDIT: Ironically, one of XY's competitors which shall remain nameless today announced an official release with the help file being entirely in CHM format. Go figure.

OK, I decided that you are not totally wrong, folks.

I will go CHM now and all the way.

So I'm right now spending time looking for a good software. I have given up looking for the perfect HLP-to-CHM converter (it does not exist), but I still need a good HLP-to-CHM converter because I'm certainly not going to write the help from scratch in HTML.

So if anybody here knows of a good HLP-to-CHM converter, and perferably one that allows me to continue working with it as my new HAT (Help Authoring Tool), then please let me know.
But, p-l-e-a-s-e, only suggest tools from first-hand-experience! If you are not an experienced Help Author yourself, I'm not interested in your opinion.

The search is over, I opted for Help & Manual. Here's a first (one-click!) CHM attempt for the current official help version (8.30.0000):
http://www.xyplorer.com/download/XYplorer-20090911.chm

What do you think?

Nothing
nothing is shown sais wrong address

xp sp3

Calude

calude wrote:Nothing
nothing is shown sais wrong address

xp sp3

Calude

Try this:
http://www.xyplorer.com/download/XYplorerHelpCHM.zip

admin wrote:The search is over, I opted for Help & Manual. Here's a first (one-click!) CHM attempt for the current official help version (8.30.0000):
http://www.xyplorer.com/download/XYplorer-20090911.chm

What do you think?

First thank you for your work. I like to use CHM.

Second you run into the same problem as i last time:
a-links are created but the description is left back too, so we have them twice

Scripting
Introduction
...
...examples is available here:
http://www.xyplorer.comxyplorer.com,,0)

and

Scripting Commands Reference
utf8encodeutf8encode, writefilewritefile

If i recall right i had just taken the created source HTMLs, modified them and compiled an new CHM with an TC plugin
EDIT:
found it > http://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/viewtopic. ... 841#p28841

admin wrote:

calude wrote:Nothing
nothing is shown sais wrong address

xp sp3

Calude

Try this:
http://www.xyplorer.com/download/XYplorerHelpCHM.zip

Works

Thanks

Calude

Stefan wrote:

admin wrote:The search is over, I opted for Help & Manual. Here's a first (one-click!) CHM attempt for the current official help version (8.30.0000):
http://www.xyplorer.com/download/XYplorer-20090911.chm

What do you think?

First thank you for your work. I like to use CHM.

Second you run into the same problem as i last time:
a-links are created but the description is left back too, so we have them twice

Scripting
Introduction
...
...examples is available here:
http://www.xyplorer.comxyplorer.com,,0)

and

Scripting Commands Reference
utf8encodeutf8encode, writefilewritefile

If i recall right i had just taken the created source HTMLs, modified them and compiled an new CHM with an TC plugin
EDIT:
found it > http://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/viewtopic. ... 841#p28841

Yes, I'm aware that there's a lot a manual work to do. I estimate at least 1-2 weeks. But I decided to go for it.

admin wrote:OK, I decided that you are not totally wrong, folks.

First Dual Pane , now CHM . Can't you stick to your guns when you say "no"?

mwb1100 wrote:

admin wrote:OK, I decided that you are not totally wrong, folks.

First Dual Pane , now CHM . Can't you stick to your guns when you say "no"?

You know, I say "no" to "no", I'm that negative.

admin wrote:What do you think?

Well, not everything works (unless all this is "Work in progress"). For example, in Advanced Topics> Script Commands Reference, links look messed up and don't work.

serendipity, based on this:

admin wrote:Yes, I'm aware that there's a lot a manual work to do. I estimate at least 1-2 weeks. But I decided to go for it.

I would presume it's still in progress..

j_c_hallgren wrote:serendipity, based on this:

admin wrote:Yes, I'm aware that there's a lot a manual work to do. I estimate at least 1-2 weeks. But I decided to go for it.

I would presume it's still in progress..

Thanks JC! Missed that post.

j_c_hallgren wrote:serendipity, based on this:

admin wrote:Yes, I'm aware that there's a lot a manual work to do. I estimate at least 1-2 weeks. But I decided to go for it.

I would presume it's still in progress..

Yes, it is. There are lots of things I have to fix manually. I just want to know if this basically looks like what you expect from CHM. I never use CHM help because I disgust it strongly (yep, still! ) -- so I have no idea if this looks like a "fine CHM help". (To me it looks just awful.)

admin wrote:

j_c_hallgren wrote:serendipity, based on this:

admin wrote:Yes, I'm aware that there's a lot a manual work to do. I estimate at least 1-2 weeks. But I decided to go for it.

I would presume it's still in progress..

Yes, it is. There are lots of things I have to fix manually. I just want to know if this basically looks like what you expect from CHM. I never use CHM help because I disgust it strongly (yep, still! ) -- so I have no idea if this looks like a "fine CHM help". (To me it looks just awful.)

Hmmm, I would say its not disgusting. But the current help is not breathtaking either. Also, in the current help its annoying to always switch between Index contents window and content window itself as opposed to CHM where everything is in one window. Makes life easier.
BTW, I wonder if you ever considered HTML format, since its so universal (no OS related problems) and one can make it as pretty as one wants as opposed to any other format mentioned in What's your preferred Help Format?

Also, these days there are some tools to convert Wiki to HTML, so that might be useful too. Just my 2 cents.