HTML help notes

Pangolin

Notes on Help Files

For may years, software program help files have been written to a standard known as WinHelp. Containing images and hyper links to other pages, its familiar style appears similar to a web page, though the underlying techniques used to prepare WinHelp files are quite different.

Now, with the rapid development of web technologies, web page capabilities have increased enormously and in addition to simple links and images, far greater functionality is now common- place. Examples are on-line data bases, smart forms that check and act upon user inputs and the ability to embed program applets. By comparison, WinHelp has evolved little and as a result has lost popularity in favour of a new standard, HTML Help. This enables programers to include many new features and write help text that is more closely integrated within the software it describes.

For some years, Microsoft have ceased to support WinHelp and help for all new software is written with HTML Help. By and large, the change has been smooth and, except for the help looking a little different on screen, most users probably do not notice the change. To display correctly, however, the new HTML help uses some web browser components and as the newer versions of Windows are shipped with Internet Explorer as part of the package, users should experience no difficulties

Difficulties with Windows 95

If you are using Windows 95 and do not have Internet Explorer version 4.0 or later installed on your computer you may not be able to view HTML Help. Instead you will see messages that say that certain OCX components are missing. Simply installing these files will not remove the problem, but installing the latest version of Internet Explorer will. You do not have to actually use it on the web and certainly do not need an internet connection.

Since Windows 98, NT and 2000 are supplied with the with the necessary Explorer components these difficulties will not occur.

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