About Oracle Help

Oracle Help for Java is Oracle Corporation's implementation of Sun Microsystems' JavaHelp standard. Oracle Help is a Help format designed to work with applications written in the Java programming language, but it can work with applications written in any language. Oracle Help and Java applications run on a variety of platforms (Windows, UNIX, Mac, Linux, etc.).

Oracle Help is a delivery system, not a Help authoring tool. RoboHELP provides full support for Oracle Help and automatically creates Help features such as table of contents, full-text search, index, navigation controls, and popup windows.

You can now create Oracle Help systems as easily as you create WinHelp, HTML Help, WebHelp, and JavaHelp - all from the same source project. You can also leverage existing HTML Help projects to create Oracle Help systems.

How does Oracle Help work?

Behind the scenes, Oracle Help is a compressed file (.JAR file) or a set of files used to run a Help system for an application. You generate Oracle Help after you finish authoring Help topics, creating a table of contents, and building an index in RoboHELP. All the files you need to distribute are created in a single output folder for easy distribution.

What do you need?

Help authors need the following to properly create and preview Oracle Help in RoboHELP Office:

Note: You can use the Oracle Help components version 3.2.2, or 4.1.2 or later. Version 3.2.2 is built using Oracle's internal Java GUI Toolkit called EWT. Version 4.1.2 is built using Java Foundation Classes. The functionality, APIs, and supported file formats are the same in both versions. If your developers are building their applications using JFC, or if you want to have your developer build custom navigators for your Help project, you should use version 4.1.2 or later. If your developers are using Oracle products, then you should use version 3.2.2.

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The Oracle Help components can be downloaded for free from the Oracle Corporation Web site, www.oracle.com. The JDK and JRE can be downloaded for free from the Sun Microsystems Web site, www.sun.com.

What do your end users need?

End users need the following to properly view your Oracle Help project:

(For more information, see Distributing Oracle Help.)

What comes with Oracle Help?