Windows Help - Source Files and Compilation

Source Files and Compilation

Source files required to compile a .hlp file consist of one or more documents with the extension .rtf and a help project file with the extension .hpj, along with any image files (.bmp, .wmf, or .shg) that are used within the Help file. An optional table of contents file with the extension .cnt can also be created for use with the .hlp file.

Within the .rtf files, topics are separated by page breaks. Each topic has a series of footnotes that contain information for the help compiler:

# footnotes contain the topic ID (used to create links to that topic).

$ footnotes contain the topic name as it displays in the table of contents, index, and other locations.

K footnotes contain keywords for the index.

A footnotes contain See Also keywords.

* footnotes contain build tags.

+ footnotes contain browse sequence information.

! footnotes contain topic entry macros.

Only the # footnote is required. All others are optional.

Text in each topic can contain limited formatting, including bold text, italics, and colors. Superscript and subscript are not allowed. Jumps between topics in the same Help file usually appear in the source document as double-underlined text (green by default, though this can be overridden) followed by a topic ID in hidden text. Popup links appear in the source document as text with a single underline (also green by default) followed by a topic ID in hidden text. (In the .hlp file, the jumps show up as green text with a single underline, and popups show up as green text with a dotted underline.)

Images can be added using codes such as {bmc image.bmp}. Supported image formats include .bmp, .wmf, and .shg (used for image maps, which can contain jumps or popups that are triggered by clicking on specific parts of the image).

After the source files have been created, the help file can be compiled using a WinHelp compiler such as HCW.exe or by using a commercial software program such as RoboHelp or HelpBreeze, most of which (included the two cited here) also use hcw.exe as the backend compiler.