Copyright: (c) 1995 Software Interphase, Inc.


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About
 About Software Interphase, Inc.

 Welcome to Software Interphase, a company dedicated for the last 10 years to serving programmers and documentation writers worldwide.  We make a variety of award-winning programmer's tools for both DOS and Windows, including the popular Help Magician for Windows.  We also offer programming, documentation conversion, and desktop publishing services.  If you have a program to sell, contact us about publishing it- we offer generous royalties (up to 50%).  We are currently looking for new ideas and applications for Visual Basic, WinHelp and the Internet.

Our customers range from the small "mom-and-pop" consulting shops to the large Fortune 100 companies.  99.5% of our customers are happy with their purchases from us.

All of our products come with a 30-day money-back guarantee and we offer excellent FREE technical support.

Thank you for stopping by and taking a look at our offerings.

Don Lambert, CEO

Software Interphase, Inc.

82 Cucumber Hill Road

Foster, RI 02825-1212

USA

Orders:  (800) 542-2742

Tech:     (401) 397-2340

Fax:        (401) 397-6814

BBS:      (401) 397-4601

Compuserve:  70312,2707

Internet WWW:  http://www.sinterphase.com


HelpMagicianPro95
 Help Magician Pro

Overview

Help Magician Pro is a popular, completely stand-alone, intuitive WYSIWYG help authoring tool that doesn’t require another word processor. You can create, edit, view, and simultaneously test professional quality online help files and documentation quickly and easily within a WinHelp-like environment without compiling.  It supports large project network team development, all WinHelp’s features, multiple graphic file formats, built-in screen capture utility, word processing features, spell checker, and paragraph styles.  Also includes RTF import and export, manual-to-help/help-to-manual conversion, graphical topic navigator, integrated multimedia support, and the ability to make a help file shell from your Visual Basic or Visual C++ source code.  Although it is not required, Help Magician Pro works with any Microsoft Windows programming language.

Benefits of Help Magician Pro

•	Saves you time.  If you are familiar with coding RTF or writing footnotes in Microsoft Word, you'll quickly find out that Help Magician Pro will save you considerable amount of time.  What would take you days "the old way", would take you a couple of hours with Help Magician Pro.  When using Help Magician Pro, you don't need to have any knowledge of RTF codes or writing footnotes.

•	Saves you money.  Your first help authoring project will easily pay for the investment in Help Magician.  Besides, Help Magician is also the least expensive of most all help authoring tools.   When you buy a higher-priced product, you're paying for their advertising.  Help Magician gets most of its advertising by word-of-mouth and satisfied customers.   When you become satisfied, we encourage you to tell your friends and colleagues.

•	Continue with your existing work.  Help Magician Pro will import your existing manuals or help files.

•	Help Magician Pro has lots of short cuts to save you time during development.

•	Free technical support - we offer free technical support, unlike other help authoring tool companies that charge for it.

•	We listen to our customers.  If you have a suggestion for improvement or a new feature, let us know-  we most likely will implement it.

•	Mature product - Help Magician has been on the market since early 1992.  It has set the standard as the first commercial stand-alone help authoring system.

•	Satisfaction guaranteed - If you are not satisfied with the product, return it within 30 days for a full refund (less shipping).

Benefits of Help Magician Pro over Other Help Authoring Tools

•	Stand-alone product - doesn't require another word processor, although Help Magician will import your existing manuals and help files from other word processors like Microsoft Word, Lotus Ami Pro, and Word Perfect 6.x for Windows.

•	WinHelp-like development environment - See and simultaneously test your help file as you are developing it.  There's no need to "enter a test mode".  Help Magician Pro even includes a fully functional WinHelp button bar.  It contains all standard editing features like cut/copy/paste, find/replace, spell checking, tab/indent ruler, bookmarks, and more.  In addition to the instant test mode, there is a very powerful "Goto" feature that allows you to go to page, topic title, context string, context number, next jump, next popup, next mid-topic, next paragraph by style, or next image.

•	All important topic parameters such as topic titles, context strings, context numbers, and keywords are available on the main Help Magician window.  Other tools make you wade through a set of menus and dialog boxes to set these items.

•	Powerful fool-proof macro editor guides you along in creating WinHelp macros without making mistakes.

•	True WinHelp Project Management feature allows multiple help authors to work cooperatively on a network on the same project without interferring with each other.  Help Magician will warn if a help author uses the same topic title, context string, or context number as another user.  Any macro definitions or window definitions become available to other authors when they are created.

•	Project archiving feature allows you to save all your related WinHelp files in a ZIP file so that they can be moved to another computer or for backup.

•	Built-in screen capture utility captures your graphic and inserts it directly into the Help Magician editor.

•	Import many graphic file formats with automatic conversion to .bmp or .wmf for display within the WinHelp system.

•	Integrated multimedia support with built-in multimedia testing - no kludgy macros to write.

•	Create WinHelp buttons easily with the Create Button Wizard.

•	Glossary Wizard will create a glossary shell complete with letters a-z, close button, and all necessary macros.   You add the words and definitions.

•	Visual Basic programmers - Help Magician Pro can build a complete help shell by scanning your VB source code.  All you do is fill in the text.

•	All kinds of reporting available:  Links to other pages, links to this page, keyword list, topic list, browse sequences, context relations, and more.

•	Support for all versions of the Help Compiler (including Windows 95) and SHED built-in,  with full support for WinHelp 95 features coming in Dec 1995.

Pricing

$249 for single user license

$995 for 5-user site/network license

Available now.


 WinHelp Browser

Overview

The WinHelp Browser is a great new utility which allows you to find information in Windows 3.1 help files quickly and easily.  It provides an interactive hierarchial map of the help file you are viewing; it allows you  to search for any word or phrase anywhere in the help file; and it makes it easy to print multiple topics at once.

The Browse Window

The WinHelp Browser adds a BROWSE button to the button bar in Windows Help.  When you click on this button, the Browse window appears displaying an interactive hierarchial map of the help file you are viewing.  Most topics in a Windows help file contain jumps to other topics containing related information.  The Browse window makes these jumps visible to you in the same way that the Windows File Manager makes visible the relationships between directories and files.

Unlike the File Manager display, however, the Browse window does not show all the jumps in a help file simultaneously; there could be just too many jumps.  Instead, the WinHelp Browser decides which information will be most useful to you at any one time and displays that information in the Browse window.

The current topic in the main help window is highlighted in the Browse window and has an open book icon to the left of the topic title.  If you leave the Browse window open and change the current topic in the main help window, you will see the new topic be highlighted in the Browse window.

Double clicking on a topic in the Browse window makes that topic the current topic and brings the main help window to the front.

If the book icon next to a topic title has a + sign, there are links from that topic to other topics that are not shown in the Browse window.  To see these links, click on the book icon.   Similarly, clicking on a book icon without a + sign will hide whatever links there are from that topic.

You can use the Browse window to navigate through the help file, or you can simply leave it open to the side of the main help window to avoid getting lost in the help file.  As you move through the help file, the WinHelp Browser will update the Browse window to continue to show you the current topic and nearby topics.

The Find Text Tool

The WinHelp Browser also adds a button to the Windows Help called FIND TEXT.  This button lets you search for a word or phrase throughout the whole text of a help file.  The Search results window tells you which topics the word or phrase occurs in and how many times it occurs within each topic.  It will also show you the topic text with the work or phrase highlighted, and let you jump to that topic in the main help window or print the topic.

The Find Text button is more powerful than the Windows Help Search button.   The Search button only lets you search through a list of topic descriptions defined by the keywords.  When the help file authors don't supply an obvious keyword for the information you're looking for, you have to guess at synonyms for that keyword, or you might just be out of luck.  The keyword you're looking for might be in the middle of a keyword phrase, forcing you to look through the thousands of entries in the whole description list to see if the keyword occurs in the middle of an entry.  Finally, the authors may not have done a complete job marking the keywords in the help file.  The WinHelp Browser Find Text button eliminates these possible problems by looking for any word or phrase and by looking through the entire help file.

Printing Multiple Topics

The WinHelp Browser allows you to select multiple topics for printing from the Browse window by holding down the Shift key and clicking on the topics you want to print.   This is much easier than finding and printing each topic individually in Windows Help.

Developer's License

The developer's license allows you to add the functionality of the WinHelp Browser to your own products.  A special runtime version of the WinHelp Browser is provided which is designed to be distributed with your product.

Pricing

If you are an existing customer of Help Magician or purchase WinHelp Browser with Help Magician Pro 95, you can get WinHelp Browser for $99.

If you do not own Help Magician Pro, you can get the WinHelp Browser for $199.

Available now.


 WinHelp Installer

Overview

The WinHelp Installer is a useful utility if you plan on distributing your help files on diskettes to other people.  It will make distribution disk(s) of your help file(s) simply by specifying your help project file.  Your files will optionally be compressed prior to copying to the diskette(s).  The WinHelp Installer will also create a program group containing the icon(s) of the help files you're distributing.  To view your help file, your users would simply click on the icon in the program group.  The included setup program can be distributed royalty-free.

Pricing

Order the WinHelp Installer for the low price of $99.

Available January 1996.


 WinHelp Graphics Package

Overview

The WinHelp Graphics Package includes a handy utility for resizing bitmaps and metafiles and a clipart collection of useful communication artwork that you can use within your help files.

Pricing

Order the WinHelp Graphics Package for the low price of $79.

Available January 1996.


 WinHelp 95 Contents Editor

Overview

The WinHelp 95 Contents Editor allows you to easily create the CNT file that accompanies your help file for Windows 95 use.   The CNT file tells Windows 95 how to display the contents of your help file in a hierarchial tree.  To create a CNT file, use the WinHelp 95 Contents Editor to import the topic titles from an existing help file (.hlp), a project file (.hpj), an RTF file (.rtf), or a Help Magician source file (.hlx).  Then simply create books and drag and drop titles from the titles list to the books in the hierarchial list.  To reorganize topics and books, you can drag and drop them within the hierarchial list.

The WinHelp 95 Contents Editor also offers a few more features that will save you time, such as the ability to print the hierarchial list of the CNT file; topic preview; a spell checker; a find/replace function; cut, copy, paste, paste into book, undo, and redo; and support for the advanced options of the CNT file.

The WinHelp 95 Contents Editor will read existing CNT files and is compatible with all help authoring tools.

Pricing

FREE if you purchase a full licensed copy of Help Magician Pro 95, or purchase an upgrade to Help Magician Pro 95.

$15 if you are receiving a free upgrade to Help Magician Pro 95.

$69 if you purchase the WinHelp 95 Contents Editor as a stand-alone program.

Available now.


 Help Magician Office

Help Magician Office is a bundled package consisting of everything you need to create professional quality Windows Help files in a stand-alone, WYSIWYG WinHelp-like environment without the requiring an external word processor.  Help Magician Office includes:

The Popular Help Magician Pro

WinHelp Browser

WinHelp Installer

WinHelp Graphics Package

WinHelp 95 Contents Editor

FREE automatic product updates for a year

FREE technical support

Discounts on other Software Interphase software products

Pricing

$495, single user license

$1995, 5-user network license

Available January 1996


 Ordering Information

Royalties, Licensing, Warranty, and Tech Support

The help files generated with Help Magician Pro can be used royalty free.  We offer a full 30-day money-back guarantee:  if you are not completely satisfied with our product, return it for a full refund (less shipping).  Please call to obtain a return authorization number.  A return may be subject to 15% restocking fee if the product comes back in non-saleable condition.  FREE technical support is provided by phone, fax, bbs, and email.

Automatic Updates

For $25 a year ($33 Canada, $41 elsewhere outside North America) per product, we offer a disk-only update plan.  Up to 6 times per year, you will receive the latest minor release of a product with minor enhancements and/or bug fixes.  Plus you will receive a discount on the purchase of major upgrades.  Contact us for pricing on Automatic Upgrades for SITE/Volume licenses.  All pricing and availability subject to change without notice.

Payment Terms

United States

We accept Mastercard, Visa, American Express, Checks, and CODs.  In addition, we accept Purchase Orders from qualified companies within the United States.

Outside United States

We accept Mastercard, Visa, American Express, Cash, Prepaid Checks drawn on a US bank, Wire Transfer (contact us for instructions).

SITE Licensing

We offer excellent pricing on multiple copies of our products for multiple users at a single location.  Purchasing a SITE license will get you a master set of disks, the required number of manuals, and FREE tech support for all users on the license.  Contact us for pricing on SITE licenses for multiple locations.

    For faster service, call (800) 542-2742 or

Print and Fax this form to (401) 397-6814

Click Here to Print Form

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Qty	Description	Cost 	Total

____	Help Magician Pro	$249	__________

____	Help Magician Pro 5 User	$995	__________

____	WinHelp Browser	$99	__________

____ 	WinHelp Installer	$99	__________

____	WinHelp Graphics Package	$79	__________

____	WinHelp 95 Contents Editor	$69	__________

(free when purchased with Help Magician)

____	Help Magician Office (1 user)	$495	__________

____ 	Help Magician Office (5 user)	$1995	__________

____	Auto Update Plan (per product)   $25	__________

Shipping-	USA:	UPS Gnd ($6)	2-day ($10)	__________

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Send Orders to:

Order Processing

Software Interphase, Inc.

82 Cucumber Hill Road

Foster, RI 02825-1212

USA

Other Company Info:

Orders:  (800) 542-2742

Techline:  (401) 397-2340

Fax:  (401) 397-6814

Compuserve:  70312, 2707

http://www.sinterphase.com


InternationalDist
 International Distributors

Australia

GUI Computing Pty. Ltd.

26 Cato Street

Hawthorne, 3122

61-3-804-3999

Belgium

Image Computing Belgium

Rue Th. Debaisieux

124-1090 Bruxelles

32-2478-9250

Canada

SoftChoice

173 Dufferin Street, 1st Floor

Toronto, Ontario  M6K 1Y9

416-588-9002

Denmark

Globus Data ApS

Kongevejen 69

DK-2840  Holte

45-4242-5688

 France

EcoSoft

74-76 Avenue Gabriel Peri

92238 Gennevilliers, Cedex

33-1-4733-2148

Germany, Austria, Switzerland

Zoschke Data Gmbh

Bahnhofstrasse 3

D24217   Schonberg/Holstein

49-4344-6166

Netherlands

Formula OpenSoft Benelux BV

Postbus 1171

3300 Bd Dordrecht

31-1853-6341

Spain

Visual Programming

La Gaviota 2

24191 Pinilla, Leon

34-8727-2765

United Kingdom

Grey Matter Ltd.

Prigg Meadow

Ashburton, Devon  TQ13 7DF

44-36-465-4100


AboutBox
Notes

This file was created using Help Magician Pro for 256-color or higher systems.

If you are using a 16-color display, then the colors in this demo may not show up properly.

Entire contents copyrighted 1995 by Software Interphase, Inc.


Contents
WinHelp '95 Contents Editor

Introduction

Rules

The Main Window

Step-By-Step Procedures

Keyboard Shortcuts

Other Products


Introduction

The WinHelp '95 Contents Editor makes it easy for you to create the contents (.CNT) file for Windows 95 help. You simply drag and drop from the topics list to the hierarchy Contents List. Topics can be imported from existing help projects or created manually.   You can create books and move topics into books quite easily.  Then simply save your CNT file and that's it!  Without the WinHelp '95 Contents Editor, managing the CNT file can be a difficult task.  The WinHelp '95 Contents Editor is compatible with all help authoring products and will read Help Magician Source files directly.

The WinHelp '95 Contents Editor was written by Don Lambert using Visual Basic Professional 3.0.  It is distributed by Software Interphase at a suggested retail price of $69.

Software Interphase makes a variety of WinHelp Utilities including the popular Help Magician Pro product.

Contact Software Interphase at:

Software Interphase, Inc.

82 Cucumber Hill Road

Foster, RI 02825-1212

Tech Support:	(401) 397-2340

Ordering:	(800) 542-2742

BBS:	(401) 397-4601

Email:	70312,2707@compuserve.com

sinterphas@aol.com

Internet:	http://www.sinterphase.com

Enjoy this product!


Rules

There are some rules that govern how a book or topic will be added, inserted, or moved to a new location.  Sometimes you may not expect a book or topic to end up where you thought it would!  This is because we change the book or topic level to fit the hierarchy rules set by the Contents Tab in Windows 95.

1.  Topics must appear before books on the same level in the hierarchy.  If you add, insert, paste, or move a topic below a book on the same level, it is placed within the book.

2.  Books that contain no topics are not displayed in the final Contents Tab of your compiled help file.

3.  If you move, cut, copy, or paste a book, all books and topic pages within it are affected.

4.  If you open a CNT file that doesn't conform to the rules stated above, we will attempt to correct the file during open to follow the rules.

♦	Note:  You can turn off the Rule Checking by selecting "Turn Off Rule Checking" from the Options Menu.


Step-By-Step Procedures

Overview of Making a CNT File

Opening and Saving CNT Files

Importing Topics

From HPJ and RTF files

From Help Magician HMP and HLX files

Working with Books

Adding a New Book

Adding a Book at the End of the Hierarchy

Inserting a Book at Cursor

Converting an existing Topic to a Book

Deleting a Book

Editing a Book

Working with Topics

Adding a New Topic

Adding a Topic at the End of the Hierarchy

Inserting a Topic at Cursor

Inserting a Topic into a Book

Adding Topics from the Imported Topic List

Dragging Topics from the Topic List to the Contents List

Adding All Topics

Previewing a Topic

Deleting a Topic

Editing a Topic

Topic Parameters: ID, HLP Filename, Window Name, Comments

Editing Operations

Cut, Copy, Paste Books and Topics

Undo, Redo

Editing Book and Topic Text

Find and Replace

Spell Checking

Moving Books and Topics

Rules

Using the Arrow Buttons

Using the Mouse Drag/Drop

Using the Keyboard

How to Expand or Collapse all branches in the Hierarchy

WinHelp '95 Contents Editor Options

Show Only Non-Duplicated Topics

List Topics By Context Strings

Combine :Include Files During Open

Turn Off Rule Checking

Setting the Environment Fonts

Printing the CNT File

CNT File Options

Setting the Default Help File

Setting the Default Window

Setting the Contents Form Window Title

The Show Find Tab option

Setting up the Help Files whose Keywords are Included in Index Tab

Setting up the Help Files which are used in ALink/KLink searches

Setting up User-Defined Tabs

Exiting the Program


Overview Of Making CNT File
Overview of Making a CNT File

There are many different ways you can make a CNT file.  Some of the more common ways are outlined below.  Note that we specify a menu and its sub-option by the "menu...sub-option" notation.  You would select that pulldown menu and its sub-option.

Starting a New CNT File with Existing Help File Source

This procedure assumes you want to create a new CNT file from an existing help file source (i.e. HPJ project file, Help Magician HLX file, or Help Magician HMP project file).

1.  Start up the WinHelp '95 Contents Editor or select File...New.

2.  Select File...Import Topics and choose your help source file.  Once the file is chosen, an alphabetical list of topic titles will appear in the Topic Listbox (unless you have Options...List Topics by Context String checked off- in this case an alphabetical list of context strings will appear in the Topic Listbox).

3.  Move the topics in the Topic Listbox to the Contents Listbox.  If you wish to have the topics disappear from the Topic Listbox as you move them to the Contents Listbox, make sure you checked the Options...Show Only Non-duplicated Topics option.  You can move topics in a few ways:

a.  Double-click on the topic in the Topic Listbox and it will be appended to the end of the Contents Listbox.

b.  Select one or more topics (select multiple topics by holding down the Ctrl Key while clicking the topics you want to select with the mouse) in the Topic Listbox with the mouse and drag it to a book in the Contents Listbox.  The selected topic(s) will be placed within the selected book.  It is possible to drop the topic(s) onto another topic in the Contents Listbox, and in this case, the new topics will be inserted before the highlighted topic in the Contents Listbox.

c.  Select Topic...Add All Topics from List to move all topics in the Topic Listbox to the Contents Listbox.

4.  For each of the topics in the Contents Listbox, you can optionally set the HLP Filename that this topic will be looked up in (defaults to current file), the Window Name that the topic will be displayed in (defaults to main), and any comments.  The TopicID box will be automatically set if you do any procedures in part 3 above.

5.  If you need to do any editing of the Contents Listbox (like creating books, moving topics into books, ordering topics, etc), consult other areas within this manual.

6.  Don't forget to set the Default Help File, Default Window, and Contents Form Window Title in Options...CNT File Options.  The Default Help File will assume the Filename (converted to a .HLP extension) of the Imported Topic List.

7.  Do File...Save As and save the file (as a CNT file).  You should make sure you specify the filename of the CNT file the same as the HLP file.  Thus, if you had a help file called "MYFILE.HLP", the CNT file would be "MYFILE.CNT".  You may now use the new CNT file with Windows 95.

Working with an existing CNT file

1.  Select File...Open and open an existing CNT file.  If you were previously working on a CNT file and did a save, the WinHelp '95 Contents Editor will also bring in the items for the Topic List (through the .TOP file), thus you'll be continuing where you left off previously.

2.  If you have any additional topics to import, select File...Import and choose your help source file.   Select the option Append to Topic List to add the new topics to the Topic List.

3.  Move the topics in the Topic List to the Contents List.  If you wish to have the topics disappear from the Topic List as you move them to the Contents List, make sure you checked the Options...Show Only Non-duplicated Topics option.  You can move topics in a few ways:

a.  Double-click on the topic in the Topic List and it will be appended to the end of the Contents List.

b.  Select one or more topics (select multiple topics by holding down the Ctrl Key while clicking the topics you want to select with the mouse) in the Topic List with the mouse and drag it to a book in the Contents List.  The selected topic(s) will be placed within the selected book.  It is possible to drop the topic(s) onto another topic in the Contents List, and in this case, the new topics will be inserted before the highlighted topic in the Contents List.

c.  Select Topic...Add All Topics from List to move all topics in the Topic List to the Contents List.

4.  For each of the topics in the Contents List, you can optionally set the HLP Filename that this topic will be looked up in (defaults to current file), the Window Name that the topic will be displayed in (defaults to main), and any comments.  The TopicID box will be automatically set if you do any procedures in part 3 above.

5.  If you need to do any editing of the Contents List (like creating books, moving topics into books, ordering topics, etc), consult other areas within this manual.

6.  Don't forget to set the Default Help File, Default Window, and Contents Form Window Title in Options...CNT File Options.  The Default Help File will assume the Filename (converted to a .HLP extension) of the Imported Topic List.

7.  Do File...Save As and save the file (as a CNT file).  You should make sure you specify the filename of the CNT file the same as the HLP file.  Thus, if you had a help file called "MYFILE.HLP", the CNT file would be "MYFILE.CNT".  You may now use the new CNT file with Windows 95.

Starting a CNT file from scratch

There may be an occasion where you don't have the help source file available, but you do know the topic IDs that are in the help file.  In this case, you would have to manually create each topic and assign a topic ID to it in the Contents List.  All of your editing will be done within the Contents List (Topic List becomes inactive).

1.  Start up the WinHelp '95 Contents Editor or select File...New.

2.  Create and organize your books and topics by following the procedures outlined in other areas of this manual.  For each new topic you create, you will have to enter its Topic ID in the box just below the Contents List.  If you wish to have the topic appear in a window other than the main window, you must enter the name of the window in the Window Name box (in addition to knowing the Topic IDs in the help file, you will also have to know the names of the windows in the help file).  If the topic is in a help file other than the main help file, you will have to enter its name in the HLP Filename box.

3.  Don't forget to set the Default Help File, Default Window, and Contents Form Window Title in Options...CNT File Options.

4.  Do File...Save As and save the file (as a CNT file).  You should make sure you specify the filename of the CNT file the same as the HLP file.  Thus, if you had a help file called "MYFILE.HLP", the CNT file would be "MYFILE.CNT".  You may now use the new CNT file with Windows 95.


Keyboard Shortcuts

File Access

Open CNT File	Ctrl+O

Save Current CNT File	Ctrl+S

Editing

Cut	Shift+Del

Copy	Ctrl+C

Delete	Ctrl+D

Find	Ctrl+F

Find Next	F3

Find Previous	Shift+F3

Paste	Shift+Ins

Paste Into Book	Ctrl+Ins

Undo	Ctrl+Z

Topic/Book Management

Insert New Book	Ctrl+B

Insert New Topic	Ctrl+T

Preview Topic	Ctrl+P

Move Selected Topic/Book Down	Shift+Down Arrow

Move Selected Topic/Book Up	Shift+Up Arrow

Promote Book	Shift+Right Arrow, while book selected and focused

Demote Book	Shift+Left Arrow, while book selected and focused


CNTFileOptionsGeneral
CNT File - General Options

The following CNT File Options dialog can be brought up by selecting Options...CNT File Options from the main menu.

                                  The CNT File Options Dialog

The Default Help File

(Also know as the HLP Filename in the :Base option)

Specify which .HLP file will be the default help file in the Contents file.   This file will be referenced when no filename is given for each of the topics listed in the CNT file.  In a single file system, this filename should be the name of the .HLP file you are displaying.  You can click on the BROWSE button to enter a filename using the file dialog box.

The Default Window

(Also know as the Window Name in the :Base option)

Specifies the default window in which to display the topics.  If you do not specify this parameter, the main Help window is used as the default window when displaying topics.  If you have imported topics from an existing Help Project File (HPJ) or Help Magician Source File (HLX), all the window names will be available in this drop down list.

Show Find Tab

(Also know as the :Nofind option)

WinHelp automatically adds the Find Tab (and its attendant full-text search capability) to the Help Topics dialog box.  Unchecking this option overrides this and prevents WinHelp from displaying the Find Tab in the Help Topics dialog box.

Contents Form Window Title

(Also know as the :Title command)

Specifies the text that appears in the title bar of the Help Topics dialog box.  This Title is also displayed in the title bar of Help Windows that do not have a caption (or Window Title).

Click on the ACCEPT button to accept the changes for all the options, CANCEL to cancel any changes, or HELP to show this help.


CNTFileOptionsIndex
CNT File - Combined Index Options

The following CNT File Options dialog can be brought up by selecting Options...CNT File Options from the main menu.  Then click on the Combined Index tab.

♦	Purpose:  To define the HLP files whose keywords are included in the Index Tab.

How To Add HLP files into the Combined Index

1.  Click on the Add button.

2.  Enter the HLP file and the Title of the Help file (the title will be displayed in the Topics Found dialog box).

3.  Click on Accept.

How to Delete a HLP File Reference

1.  Highlight the HLP file in the List.

2.  Click on Delete.

How to Edit a HLP File Reference

1.  Highlight the HLP file in the List.

2.  Click on Edit.

3.  Change the HLP file and Title of the Help File.

4.  Click on Accept.

♦	Tip:  The items in the list show the syntax as it will appear in the CNT file after the :Index command.


CNTFileOptionsLink
CNT File - Link Files Options

The following CNT File Options dialog can be brought up by selecting Options...CNT File Options from the main menu.  Then click on the Link Files tab.

♦	Purpose:  To specify which HLP files that will be included in the ALink and KLink searches.  ALink and KLink are macros that enable you to provide jumps to multiple topics based on keywords rather than specific topic pages or context strings.

How To Add HLP files into the ALink and KLink searches

1.  Click on the Add button.

2.  Enter the HLP filename.

3.  Click on Accept.

How to Delete a HLP File Reference

1.  Highlight the HLP file in the List.

2.  Click on Delete.

How to Edit a HLP File Reference

1.  Highlight the HLP file in the List.

2.  Click on Edit.

3.  Change the HLP file.

4.  Click on Accept.

♦	Tip:  The items in the list show the syntax as it will appear in the CNT file after the :Link command.


CNTFileOptionsTabs
CNT File - User Defined Tabs Option

The following CNT File Options dialog can be brought up by selecting Options...CNT File Options from the main menu.  Then click on the User-defined Tabs tab.

♦	Purpose:  User-defined Tabs are for advanced users that already have written a special DLL.  For example, Microsoft has written a "Search Plus" dll "search01.dll" to give added search capabilities.   Search Plus can be seen in Microsoft Word 7.0 for Windows 95.

How To Define User-Defined Tabs

1.  Click on the Add button.

2.  Enter the text that will appear in the User-defined Tab and the associated DLL file.

3.  Click on Accept.

How to Delete a User-defined Tab

1.  Highlight the User-defined Tab in the List.

2.  Click on Delete.

How to Edit a User-defined Tab

1.  Highlight the User-defined Tab in the List.

2.  Click on Edit.

3.  Change the Tab Text and the associated DLL file.

4.  Click on Accept.

♦	Tip:  The items in the list show the syntax as it will appear in the CNT file after the :Tab command.


Opening and Saving CNT Files

How to Open CNT File

To open an existing CNT file for editing, select File...Open from the main menu.  You will be presented with the following dialog box.

Select the desired CNT file from the list and click on OK.  You can move around the drives and directories by clicking on the Drives and Folders list.

If you are working on a CNT file and you go to open another CNT file, you will be asked if you want to save your existing CNT file before proceeding.

♦	Tip:  The File Menu lists the last four CNT files that were opened.  To open one of these files, just click on its name.

How to Save a CNT File

If you haven't named a CNT file that you are currently working on, choose File...Save As from the main menu.  It is advisable that you save your CNT file as the same name as your main help file (with a CNT extension).  To enter a name, type it in the Filename box along with the .cnt extension and click on OK.

Once you've saved the CNT file for the first time, you can save any future changes you make to the file by selecting File...Save from the main menu.

♦	Tip:  If you have any topics listed in the Topic List, these will be saved in a file with the .TOP extension.  Next time you open this CNT file, the topics will be read in from this file and you may continue where you left off.


Importing Topics

♦	Purpose:  You import topics to make it easy to create the companion CNT file for your help file.  After importing topics, it's just a matter of creating books and dragging topics into the books.

How to Import Topics

To import topics, select File...Import Topics from the main menu.  You will be presented with the following dialog box.

1.  Choose your file type.  The WinHelp '95 Contents Editor supports four different file types for importing topics:  Help Project Files (.HPJ), Rich Text Format Files (.RTF) designed specifically for WinHelp, Help Magician Single Files (.HLX), and Help Magician Project Files (.HMP).  Choose your desired type in the List files of type.

Help Project Files (.HPJ):  This file may contain a list of one or more RTF files associated with the final help file.  The WinHelp '95 Contents Editor will read all RTF files in the project to extract the topic titles and context strings.  In addition, it will read all defined windows.

RTF Files (.RTF):  Use this file type if you don't have a Help Project File (.HPJ) associated with it.  Selecting this type may or may not result in reading in context strings and window definitions.

Help Magician Single Files (.HLX):  Use this type for reading Help Magician source files that are not a part of a Help Magician Project.

Help Magician Project Files (.HMP):  Choosing this type will read in a Help Magician Project file including all files that are a member of a project.

2.  Select your file and click on OK.

3.  If you have a list of topics in the Topic List, then you will be asked if you want to Append the new topics to the Topic List.

4.  If you are importing a topic list for the first time and you are not currently working on a CNT file, then the filename of the CNT file will default to the filename of the Imported File (for convenience).

5.  The topic list contains all the topics.  You may now organize the topics into the Contents List.


Creating Books
Working with Books

♦	Purpose:  Create books to neatly organize your topics.  Topics and books can be contained within books.  Be sure you understand the Rules concerning topics and books.

How to Create a New Book

1.  There are two ways you can enter a book into the Contents List.

a.  A book can be inserted where the cursor is in the Contents List.  Choose Book...Insert New Book from the menu.  You will be prompted for the name of the book (the name of the book will appear in the Contents List).  If the cursor is on a book, then the new book will be inserted before the existing book.  If the cursor is on a topic, then the new book will be inserted at the topic position and the topic will now become part of the book.

b.  A book can be added to the end of the Contents List.  Choose Book...Add Book To End from the menu.   You will be prompted for the name of the book.  If there are any books defined in the Contents List, the new book will be included at the end of the last book in the Contents List.

♦	Tip:  If you wish to move the book to a different position, highlight the book and click on one of the arrow buttons.

♦	Tip:  You can Undo this operation by clicking on Edit...Undo from the menu.

How to Convert an Existing Topic into a Book

1.  Select the topic you want to convert in the Contents List.

2.  Select Topic...Convert Topic To Book from the menu.

3.  You will be prompted with the option of continuing.  If you do, all topic parameters will be lost when the topic is converted into a book.  Any subsequent topics in that level will be moved into the book.

♦	Tip:  You can Undo this operation by clicking on Edit...Undo from the menu.

How to Delete a Book

1.  Select the book you want to delete in the Contents List.

2a.  If you want the book (and its contents) to be Cut into the Clipboard, click on Edit...Cut from the menu or hold Shift key down and press Del.  This book may be pasted anywhere else in the Contents List.

2b.  If you want to permanently delete the book, click on Book...Delete Book At Cursor from the menu or press Ctrl+D.

♦	Tip:  Deleting a book will also delete the book's contents (including all books and topics in that book).

♦	Tip:  Deleting a book can be Un-done by clicking on Edit...Undo from the menu.

How to Edit a Book's Text

1.  Select the book you want to edit in the Contents List.

2.  Click on the Edit ...  button in the toolbar.

3.  Make your changes and click on Accept.

See Also

Moving Books and Topics


CreatingTopics
Working with Topics

♦	Purpose:  Topics play a vital role in the Contents Tab.  When a user clicks on a topic in the Contents Tab, that topic is displayed in the WinHelp window.  The link between the topic listed in the Contents Tab ("Contents List" in WinHelp '95 Contents Editor) and the Help File is the Context String ("Topic ID" in WinHelp '95 Contents Editor).  Be sure you understand the Rules governing Books and Topics.

How to Create a New Topic

Under most circumstances, you shouldn't have to create topics manually.  But we have provided the means in case you have to.

There are three ways new topics can be added into the Contents List:

1a.  Insert a topic at cursor.  Highlight the area in the Contents List where you want the topic to be inserted and click on Topic...Insert New Topic from the menu.   Type in the topic name and click on Accept.

1b.  Insert a topic into a book.  Highlight a book in the Contents List and click on Topic....Insert New Topic Into Book from the menu.  Type in the topic name and click on Accept.

1c.  Add a topic to the end of the Contents List.  Click on Topic...Add Topic To End from the menu.  Type in the topic name and click on Accept.  The topic will be added at the end of the Contents List.  If there are any books in the list, the topic will be added to the end of the last book.

2.  After creating the topic name, the topic will appear in the Contents List (or hidden inside a book if the book is closed).

3.  Add the Topic ID in the Topic ID box.  The Topic ID is the Context String in the Help File.   You may also want to tie this topic to a WinHelp Macro by selecting the Macro option and typing in the macro.

4.  You can optionally set the HLP Filename and Window Name that the topic will appear in.

How to Add Topics from the Imported Topic List

This is the easiest and preferred method of getting topics into the Contents List.  There are many different ways of getting the topics in the Topic List into the Contents List.

A.  Drag and Drop Method.   Highlight the topic in the Topic List and while holding the left-mouse button down, drag the topic into the Contents List onto the area where you want the topic and release the mouse button.  If you dragged onto a book, the topic will be inserted into the book.  If you dragged onto a topic, the new topic will be inserted into the Contents List.  The Context String is automatically added into the Topic ID parameter under the Contents List.

♦	Tip:  You can move multiple topics from the Topic List by holding the Ctrl key down and clicking on the topics you want to move.  Upon the last selection, drag the topics (the mouse will change to a multiple document notation) to the Contents List.

B.  Double-Click Method.  If you double-click the mouse in the Topic List, that selected topic will be added to the end of the Contents List.   The Context String is automatically added into the Topic ID parameter under the Contents List.

C.  Add All Topics Method.  For a quick outright transfer of topics to the Contents List, select Topic...Add All Topics From List from the menu.  All topics in the Topic List will be moved to the end of the Contents List.  From there you can re-order topics within the Contents List.   The Context String is automatically added into the Topic ID parameter under the Contents List.

♦	Tip:  If you do not want the Topic List to show the topic(s) you've just added to the Contents List, check the menu Options...Show Only Non-Duplicated Topics.

How to Preview a Topic

A.  Previewing a Topic in the Topic List.  Highlight the topic to preview with the mouse, then click the Right mouse button.  If a companion HLP file exists in the same directory as the imported topic file, then the topic will be previewed through WinHelp.

B.  Previewing a Topic in the Contents List.  Highlight the topic to preview with the mouse, then click the Right mouse button.  If a companion HLP file exists in the same directory as the CNT file, then the topic will be previewed through WinHelp.

How to Delete a Topic

1.  Select the topic you want to delete in the Contents List.

2a.  If you want the topic to be Cut into the Clipboard, click on Edit...Cut from the menu or hold Shift key down and press Del.  This topic may be pasted anywhere else in the Contents List.

2b.  If you want to permanently delete the topic, click on Topic...Delete Topic At Cursor from the menu or press Ctrl+D.

♦	Tip:  Deleting a topic can be Un-done by clicking on Edit...Undo from the menu.

How to Edit a Topic's Text

1.  Double-Click on a topic in the Contents List or Select the Topic and click on the Edit... in the toolbar.

2.  Type in your changes and click on Accept.

See Also

Moving Books and Topics


Editing Operations

How to Cut, Copy, and Paste Books and Topics

The WinHelp '95 Contents Editor maintains its own internal clipboard to hold books and topics that are cut or copied.  When you do a paste function, the entire clipboard contents are pasted into the Contents List.  This is one of the handy ways of moving or duplicating books and topics.

The difference between Cut and Copy is Cut physically removes the topic or book from the Contents List into the clipboard and Copy makes a copy of the topic or book from the Contents List to the clipboard.

To Cut or Copy

1.  Select the Topic or Book in the Contents List

2.  Select Edit...Cut or Edit...Copy from the menu.

To Paste

1.  Position the highlight bar in the Contents List where you want the pasted items to go.

2.  Select Edit...Paste from the menu.

3.  If the highlight bar is on a book, the pasted items will be inserted before the book (and into the previous book if necessary).

To Paste into Selected Book

1.  Position the highlight bar on a book in the Contents List.

2.  Select Edit...Paste Into Book from the menu.

3.  If the highlight bar is on a book, the pasted items will be inserted into the book.

♦	Tip:  Undo operation is available for these procedures

How to Undo or Redo a procedure

Undo and Redo works for most of the operations throughout the WinHelp '95 Contents Editor.  Simply click on Edit...Undo or Edit...Redo to perform the desired function.  The state of Undo or Redo operation will be detailed in the Edit menu itself.

How to Edit or Change the Book or Topic Text

1.  Select the book or topic in the Contents List.

2.  Click on Edit... in the toolbar.

3.  Make your changes and click on Accept.

How to Set the Topic Parameters

The topic parameters govern how the topic in the CNT file is linked to the HLP file and also how it is displayed.  These options are conveniently available just below the Contents List.  As you click on each topic in the Contents List, its parameters are shown in the area below.  You can modify these parameters by simply typing them in.  An explanation of each parameter follows.

Topic ID and Macro Option:  Determines the link method for the topic in the Contents List.  Selecting either one of these options will change the functionality of the Topic Parameters area.  (The Include option is a special situation accessible only by the Topic...Insert Include File at Cursor menu option)

Topic ID box:  Contains the Context String Link to the topic in the HLP file that will be displayed in WinHelp.

Macro String box:  Contains the Macro String that will be executed when the user clicks on the topic in the Contents Tab.

Window Name:  The name of window that will display the topic.  Valid for TopicID mode only.  If this field is left blank, then it defaults to the name of the window found in Options...CNT File Options (Default Window).  If you've imported topics from an existing help file, then this list will contain the names of all availble windows for that help file.

HLP Filename:  The name of the HLP file where the Topic ID (Context String) will be found.  If this field is left blank, then it defaults to the name of the help file found in Options...CNT File Options (Default Help File).

Comments:  Put any comments you wish about this topic in this box.  Double-Click in this box to show a larger editing window.

How to Find Text

Find Text will search the Topic List, Contents List, or Both for specified text string.  If found, the area within the list will be highlighted.

1.  Select Edit...Find from the menu.  The following dialog box will appear.

2.  Type in the text you wish to find.

3.  Select the Find options and click on Accept.

4.  To repeat the last find in a forward direction, press the F3 key.

5.  To repeat the last find in a backward direction, press the Shift and F3 keys together.

How to Find and Replace Text in the Contents List

Find and Replace Text will search the Contents List for specified text string and replace it with another string.

1.  Select Edit...Replace from the menu.  The following dialog box will appear.

2.  Type in the text you wish to find.

3.  Type in the text you wish to replace with.

4.  Select the Replace options and click on Accept.

♦	Tip:  Undo operation is available for this procedure

How to Use Spell Checking

The WinHelp '95 Contents Editor includes a spell checker with a 100,000 word English dictionary.  The spell checker will scan the Contents List for spelling errors in the Topic and Book names. The spelling checker dialog box appears below.

♦	Tip:  Undo operation is available for this procedure


Moving Books and Topics

♦	Note:  All movement of books and topics is subject to the Rules of topic and book placement.  You can turn off rule checking by selecting Options...Turn Off Rule Checking from the menu, but it's not recommended.

How to Move Books and Topics using the Arrow Buttons

1.  Click on a book or a topic in the Contents List.

2.  Click on an enabled arrow button in the toolbar.

How to Move Books and Topics by Dragging and Dropping

1.  Click on the book or topic you wish to move in the Contents List.

2.  While holding down the mouse button, drag the item to another area within the Contents List.  If the area you wish to drag to is not displayed, simply hold the mouse button down and move the mouse to just below or just above the Contents List.  The Contents List will scroll.  Then move the mouse back into the Contents List area and release the button to drop the topic/book.

How to Move Books and Topics using the Keyboard

1.  Click on a book or a topic in the Contents List.

2a.  To move the item up the list press Shift+Up Arrow.

2b.  To move the item down the list press Shift+Down Arrow.

2c.  To promote a book (move it right) under a previous book, press Shift+Right Arrow.

2d.  To demote a book (move it left), press Shift+Left Arrow.

♦	Tip:  Movement direction may become disabled to conform to the rules of topic and book placement.

♦	Tip:  If you move a book, all its child topics and books are moved with it.

♦	Tip:  Undo operation is available for this procedure.


How to Expand or Collapse all branches
How to Expand or Collapse all branches in the Hierarchy

To view all possible items in the Contents List, simply click on Tree...Expand All Branches.

To close all opened books in the Contents List, click on Tree...Collapse All Branches.

If the display window gets messed up, click on Tree...Refresh.


Options

♦	Tip:  All these options below are available through the Options menu.  A description of each option follows.

Show Only Non-Duplicated Topics

If this menu item is checked, then any topics that exist in the Contents List will not show up in the Topics List.  This feature is handy if you are moving topics from the Topics List to the Contents List and you don't want to take the chance of duplicating the topics in the Contents List.

List Topics By Context Strings

Checking this menu option will display all the topics in the Topics List by Context Strings instead of Topic Titles.  The Topics List will be sorted.

Combine :Include Files During Open

If this menu item is checked, any Include file references in the CNT file (being opened through the File...Open menu option) will be expanded and merged with this CNT file.  If this menu item is not checked, the :Include reference will be shown in the Contents List.

Turn Off Rule Checking

Rule Checking is a feature in the WinHelp '95 Contents Editor that makes sure that the CNT file conforms to the display rules of the Contents Tab.   If you bring in a CNT file that doesn't fit the rules, the Contents Editor will attempt to alter the CNT file as it is opened to conform to the rules.  If you paste a book or a topic, the rules are also in effect.  There may be occasions where you want to disable rule checking, so it is provided here.

See Also

Rules

Setting the Environment Fonts

This option allows you to specify the font, size, and color of the display area within the Contents List.  This affects the WinHelp '95 Contents Editor only, and not the Contents Tab with WinHelp.

♦	Tip:  All option settings are stored in a special CNTEDIT.INI file and will be remembered when you start up the program again.


Printing the CNT File

The WinHelp '95 Contents Editor contains a unique feature that allows you to Print the hierarchy in the Contents List.  The printout will contain a indented graphical book/topic representation, the book/topic name, and the topic ID (context string) in parentheses for each item in the hierarchy.  The printout will show all elements of the list as though it was fully expanded.

To Print the CNT File

1.  Make sure the CNT file is opened with the File...Open menu command.

2.  Select File...Print from the menu.

3.  The following dialog box will appear.

4.  Choose your printer and click on OK.


ReferenceSection
WinHelp '95 Contents Editor Main Window

The Main Window

Click on an area for more information.


Glossary

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Exiting the Program
Exiting WinHelp '95 Contents Editor

Select File...Exit from the main menu or double click on the upper left corner of the window.  You will be prompted to save any unsaved changes.


FileMenu


EditMenu


TreeMenu


BookMenu


TopicMenu


OptionsMenu


HelpMenu


Last File

The WinHelp '95 Contents Editor keeps track of the last four files you worked on.  Simply click on one of these in the File menu to open that file.


NewFile
New CNT File

This menu option starts a new CNT file.  If you were working on a CNT prior to selecting this menu option, you will be asked if you wanted to save the changes before starting a new file.