Delphi Components - Using the Microsoft Help Workshop

Borland distributes the Microsoft Help Workshop with its compilers. It is used to convert one or more *.rtf files into a single *.hlp file.

Running Help Workshop | Compiling an *.rtf File | General Notes | User Interface Configuration

Related pages
Writing Help Files | Style_Guide | Table of Contents | MS Help Workshop | Checklist | More Tips


Running the Microsoft Help Workshop

The Delphi 5 help simply says to use the Microsoft Help Workshop to create help. It is located at (Note: The Workshop provided with Delphi 5 (Hwc & HcRtf versions 4.03.0002) is able to compile an rtf file produced with Word 97, the version supplied with Borland C++ 5 (Hwc version 4.01.0950, HcRtf version 4.01.0951) only produces errors.)

In order to access the workshop, I suggest adding it to the Tools menu. In Delphi 5, select

Select Add, Browse for hcw.exe, and give it a title of Help Workshop (Compiler).

Notes:


Compiling an *.rtf File

To use the Help Workshop, you need to create an *.hpj (Help Project) file.

From the menu, select File / New... / Help Project

All you need to add is a link to an *.rtf file and compile.

But, to make it look like the Delphi help, you need to define a few windows and enable the browse button. You can do all of this via the workshop, but its a lot of work.

It is much easier if you just copy an existing *.hpj file, open it in notepad, and change the paths to whatever you want. (You can have as many *.rtf files as you want.)

This is one of the files I use ... Uh, just ignore the warning not to modify the file (I do :)

BMROOT is where your pme bitmaps are stored (protected, published, read-only).

The bitmaps are available in CommonHelpFiles.zip.


General Notes


User Interface Configuration

When creating help files, you are going to have to re-compile them many times. This is how to do that with a single button click.


Author: Robert Clemenzi - clemenzi@cpcug.org
URL: http:// cpcug.org / user / clemenzi / technical / Languages / Delphi / ComponentHelp_Workshop.html