HelpScribble - Reviews and free HelpScribble downloads

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2.59 MB

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helpscribble

HelpScribble - application to create Windows Help files HelpScribble is a useful, full-featured and easy-to-use help authoring tool for creating help files from start to finish.

Create WinHelp (.hlp) files, HTML Help (.chm) files, a printed manual and online documentation (on a web site) all from the same HelpScribble project.

Write full-featured help files with the built-in editors for SHG files (hotspot bitmaps), WinHelp macros, contents tree, browse sequences, etc.

If you have previously used another help authoring tool, reuse your work by importing the HPJ+RTF files created with the other tool or by a decompiler.

Use the help files you make with HelpScribble to provide context-sensitive help with your Window applications, no matter which development tool you use. If you use Borland Delphi or C++Builder, you will like the way HelpScribble's HelpContext property editor integrates with them to make assigning Topic ID values to HelpContext properties very easy.

HelpScribble is a stand-alone tool. It does not depend on MS Word or any other third party package. It does need a help compiler that you can download for free here.

Here are some key features of "HelpScribble":
Writing Help Files is Easy
A help file consists of a series of topics. A topic is a single page in the help file. When you press F1 in a Windows application, you will be shown one topic from its help file. Each topic generally explains one specific aspect of the application: a menu item, a small dialog box, etc. Most topics contain links to other topics which provide information about related aspects of the application.

In HelpScribble, you can create new topics by selecting Topic|New from the menu. Then you use HelpScribble's built-in word processor to type in the topic's text. To create a link to another topic, simply right-click on that topic in the list at the left, and pick "Create Link" from the pop-up menu. That is all there is to creating a help file.

A useful strategy is to first create all the topics using Topic|New. Type in their titles, but do not type in the actual text yet until all topics have been created. By first creating empty topics, you can focus on the general structure of the help file. When that is done, you can focus on the content of the individual topics. This also makes it easy to create links between topics while writing the body text, since you will have already created all topics.

How To Provide Context-Sensitive Help
with Your SoftwareWindows applications request help by referencing a help file and a numeric topic ID. In the screen shot above, you will see that each topic in the list has a number. This is the number your application will use to request help.

Often, the programmer responsible for linking the application and the help file is not the technical writer using HelpScribble to create the help file. HelpScribble allows the writer to save the list of topics, with their titles and numbers, to a file. The list can also be printed from within HelpScribble. The programmer can then use this list to add the context-sensitive help calls.

A help file created with HelpScribble can be used as documentation with any Windows application, no matter which development tool you use. The most basic way to request help, context-sensitive or not, is to use the WinHelp() Windows API call. The fourth parameter of this API function is where you will put the Topic ID from HelpScribble. If you want to use the HTML Help format, use the HTMLHelp() API call.

Things are much easier when you use some kind of visual development tool. With most of these tools, all controls have a property called HelpContext, HelpID, or something similar. Set this property to the appropriate Topic ID from HelpScribble. When the user presses F1, the HelpContext number from the control that has input focus will be used to determine which help topic will be displayed.

Almost all Win32 development tools support WinHelp. Some also support HTML Help. .NET (dot net) development tools only support HTML Help. But HelpScribble fully supports both, and allows you to easily switch between both formats. When you download HelpScribble, you will see that we included its help file in both WinHelp and HTML Help format.

Limitations:

The free evaluation version is fully functional, except for the export features, and does not expire.

Help files you create with the free evaluation version have a small reminder at the bottom of each topic.

$99.00	2.59 MB

Basic Information

Downloads:	9	Last update:	Jan 24, 2008
Size:	2.59 MB	Operating System:	Windows All
Price:	$99.00	License:	Shareware