Contents

The following Help Topics are available:

Introduction

Introduction

System Requirements

Step-by-Step Instructions

How to Use Help-to-Word

Help-to-Word Options

Index Entries

Topic Style and Order

Page Setup

Graphics

Text Colors

Save User Selections Upon Exit

AutoFormat Options

Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting

How to Contact Blue Sky Software

Sales

Technical Support

For Help on Help, Press F1.


Introduction

Welcome to Blue Sky Software's Help-to-Word. Help-to-Word lets you easily create conventional documentation in Microsoft Word format from an existing Help file.

•	Reorders topics in converted document to reflect your Help file's CNT file.

•	Automatically creates a table of contents.

•	Creates an Index from K-keywords and appends it to your Word document.

•	Automatically inserts page numbers.

There are many scenarios in which you will find Help-to-Word valuable. Among them,

When you want to create a user manual from a Help file.

Help-to-Word automatically creates a manual, complete with a Table of Contents and Index if you wish. All you need is your Help file.

When you need part of the text from a Help file.

You can convert the HLP file into a DOC file, then cut or copy the portions of text that you need.

When you need the graphics from a Help file.

You can extract a Help file's graphics as individual files to be used in your other projects.

When you need to modify a Help file but its source files are not available.

Help-to-Word provides you with all the text and graphics from the HLP file. This saves you from having to type in the text and recreate the screen shots.

What's New

This version of Help-to-Word offers these new features:

Reorders Help Topics to Conform to CNT File
The order of Help topics within a Help file tends at times to be chaotic. Help-to-Word sorts your topics in the converted document into the order specified by your Contents Tab (CNT file). Topics not referenced in the CNT file are placed at the end of the document.

Automatic Conversion of Help Index K-Keywords to Word Index Entries

You can tell Help-to-Word to convert your Help file's K-keywords to Word Index entries and append a listing of them to the end of the document it generates.

Automatic Generation of Table of Contents

Help-to-Word can generate a table of Contents in your Word document based on your Windows 95's Contents Tab or your Windows 3.x Help file's topic titles.

Versatile Formatting Capability

You can choose whether to base the formatting styles of your new documents on the CNT hierarchy or select a default Word heading style to apply to topic titles.


Blue Sky Software Headquarters

Blue Sky Software Corporation
7777 Fay Avenue, Suite 201
La Jolla, CA 92037
USA

http://www.blue-sky.com

Blue Sky Software also has a network of Authorized International Dealers. Please call the Blue Sky Software Sales Department for information on how to contact your Authorized International Dealer.

Blue Sky Sales Department

Blue Sky Technical Support Department


Sales

Blue Sky Software Corporation Sales Hours are 8:30 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. Pacific Time, Monday to Friday.

•	Blue Sky Software Sales Phone:	619-459-6365

•	Blue Sky Software Sales Fax:	619-459-6366

•	Blue Sky Software World Wide Web:	http://www.blue-sky.com

•	Blue Sky Information Email:	info@blue-sky.com


Technical Support

Blue Sky Software offers a variety of support options to help you get the most from the RoboHELP HTML Plug-in. This section summarizes those options.

Note:

You must be a registered user to access Blue Sky Software Support Services. Blue Sky Software support services are subject to Blue Sky Software prices, terms and conditions in place at the time the service is used. Please try to resolve your problem by referring to the User's Manual, before contacting Technical Support.

You can obtain product support in several ways:

Technical Support Web Page

Cruise Blue Sky's Web site at

•	http://www.blue-sky.com

and click to the Tech Support page. From there you can jump to answers to frequently asked questions about all of Blue Sky Software's products.

Email

Ask questions and receive answers from the Technical Support Department via
email. Just send email addressed to:

•	support@blue-sky.com

You will receive a reply via email within 24 hours.

TechSource Immediate Response Email

You can receive immediate answers to many of your questions through TechSource, Blue Sky Software's automatic email response system. To receive a complete list of all available email answers, send email, using "menu" as the subject, to:

•	techsource@blue-sky.com

You will receive a menu of answers to frequently asked questions from which you can choose items to be emailed to you.

24-hour Bulletin Board System (BBS)

Use the Blue Sky Software Bulletin Board to download samples or submit files.

•	Blue Sky Software Bulletin Board
619.551.2495

•	Protocol:	2400 bps, 8 Data, 1 Stop Bit, No Parity
OR
9600 bps, 8 Data, 1 Stop Bit, No Parity
OR
14,400 bps, 8 Data, 1 Stop Bit, No Parity

Fax

You can fax questions or comments to Blue Sky Software. Just send a fax to the number listed below. You will receive a reply by fax.

•	Blue Sky Software Technical Support Fax
619.459.6366

Telephone

You must be a registered user to access Blue Sky Software support services. Blue Sky Software support services are subject to Blue Sky Software prices, terms and conditions in place at the time the service is used.

You can reach Blue Sky Software Technical Support by phone between 8:30 AM and 5:00 PM, Monday through Friday.

When you call, please be at your computer, have your documentation in hand, and be prepared to provide the following information:

•	Product serial number used for registration.

•	Product version number.

•	The type of hardware you are using.

•	The exact wording of any messages that appear on your screen.

•	What happened and what you were doing when the problem occurred.

•	How you tried to solve the problem.

Blue Sky Software Technical Support Phone
619.551.5680

Dealer

Contact the Blue Sky Software Dealer/Distributor in the country where you bought your product.


Software Requirements
System Requirements

Hardware

There are no specific hardware requirements for Help-to-Word other than those required to run Windows 3.x, Windows 95, Windows NT 3.51 or later.

You need to have enough hard disk space to accommodate the document and temporary files needed to perform the conversion. A typical conversion requires a minimum of two to four times the size of the HLP file in available space.

Software

To run Help-to-Word you need to have the following installed.

•	Windows 3.x, Windows 95, Windows NT 3.51 or later.

•	Word for Windows 6.0 or later.


How to Use Help to Word
How to Use Help-to-Word

Starting Help-to-Word

1.	To start Help-to-Word in Windows 3.x or Windows NT, open the WinHelp Office program group then choose the Help-to-Word icon.

2.	To start Help-to-Word in Windows 95, from the Start menu, choose Programs, choose WinHelp Office, then choose the Help-to-Word icon, or

3.	Click the Help-to-Word icon in the WinHelp Office Start Bar.

Select a Help File

1.	Click Browse to open the Select Windows Help File dialog box.

2.	Navigate to the folder C:\winhelp\help-to-word, as in the preceding illustration.

3.	Click Wintools.hlp in the window at the left of the dialog.

4.	Click OK.

Help-to-Word displays your selection and its directory path in the field at the bottom of the Select Help File box. Also, a button labeled Convert appears in the upper right of the user interface.

Select the Destination Folder for Your Word File

The next step is to select a destination folder for the Word file Help-to-Word is about to generate.

1.	In the box labeled Selected Destination for Converted File, click Save As. The Windows Save As dialog box appears.

2.	Save the Word file in the same folder as that of the sample Help file, C:\Help-to-Word\Sample.

Select Options

Click the Options menu to display the list of Help-to-Word options.

Start the Conversion

1.	Verify that the desired Help file and destination directories are selected.

2.	Click Convert.

When the conversion is complete, Help-to-Word displays the Summary of Conversion box.

Open Your Newly Generated Word Document

1.	In the Summary of Conversion box, click OK.

2.	In the Help-to-Word user interface, click View Result.

Word for Windows is started with your new Word document, WINTOOLS.DOC, as the active document.

You can now edit this document, copy and paste text or graphics, print it, or perform any other word processing activity.

Note:

If it appears that nothing is happening when you choose the View Result button, you may already have Word running on your system. Press ALT+TAB until it is the active application.


Help-to-Word Options

Before beginning a conversion, you can customize some of the settings that determine how the resulting document will be formatted. The following options are available:

Index Entries
Inserts Index entries in the generated document based on the Help file's K-Keywords. Here you can also choose to automatically append the Index as soon as you load the document.

Topic Style & Order
Applies Heading Styles to topic titles based on either the CNT file structure or a default Word heading style. You can also select to automatically insert a Table of Contents as soon as you load the resulting Word file.

Page Setup
Allows you to set the page size and page numbers for the converted document. It also allows insertion of page breaks at the end of each topic during the conversion process.

Graphic
Allows you to specify whether to save graphics and linked information inside the document ("embedded") or to save graphics in separate files ("linked").

Text Color
Allows you to specify how colored text in your Help file appears in the post-conversion Word document.

Save User Settings
Once you have found a combination of options you like, you can tell Help-to-Word to remember them for future use.

AutoFormat Options

You can use Word's AutoFormat function for global formatting or you can elect to preserve your Help file's formatting in your new document.

Note:

To keep the changes made for each option for the next time you use Help-to-Word, make sure the "Save User Selection Upon Exit" selection under the Options menu is checked.

How to Use Help-to-Word


Index Entries

Automatically create Index entries during the conversion process

This option finds your Help file's K-Keywords words and inserts them into your Word document as Index entries. For example,

•	The K-Keyword Blue Sky becomes {XE "Blue Sky"} during conversion.

•	The indented Index entry Blue Sky, Help-to-Word; Blue Sky, RoboHELP becomes {XE "Blue Sky:Help-to-Word}{XE "Blue Sky:RoboHELP}. This example yields the following Index hierarchy:

Blue Sky

Help-to-Word

RoboHELP

If this selection is disabled, k-keywords will not be converted to Index entries.

Automatically append the Index to the converted documentation

This option automatically appends an Index to the end of your converted document. (This selection is available only if Automatically create Index entries during the conversion process is enabled.)

Note:

If the Index is not automatically created when you view your converted document, you may need to run the WORDFIX3.DOT file. See Troubleshooting for full details.

Return to Help-to-Word Options


Topic Style and Order

The controls in this dialog box allow you to choose how your documents' headings are generated when converted from Help, and whether to automatically insert a table of contents.

Topic title heading style and order based on CNT file

This selection will apply Heading styles and also change the topic order to match the CNT file structure.

Notes:

If the Help file doesn't have a corresponding CNT file, the Heading Style will be determined by the "Default Heading Style" selection. (See "Default Heading style for converted Help topic titles" below.)

If the Topic Style and Order do not appear as you expected when you view your converted document, you may need to run the WORDFIX3.DOT file. See Troubleshooting for full details.

Return to Help-to-Word Options


Topic Style and Order Example:
Topic Style and Order Examples

When this option is enabled, Help-to-Word reorders Help topics and the hierarchy of their heading styles (as they appear in the converted document) to reflect the CNT file structure.

If your Help file has the following layout:

Contents

Topic 1

Topic 2

Topic 3

…and the CNT file has the following structure:

The Heading styles and order in the converted DOC file will look like this:

Contents (Heading 1)

Topic 3 (Heading 2)

Topic 2 (Heading 2)

Topic 1 (Heading 3)

Note:

Any topics in the Help file that are not defined in the CNT file will get the Default Heading Style and will be inserted after all topics defined in the CNT file.

Default Heading Style

Help-to-Word provides its own document template, H2D200.DOT, which it applies to each document it generates. You can apply a different template if you wish.

The Default Heading Style option allows you specify a heading style to be applied to,

•	All converted topics not defined in the CNT file (if the Topic title heading style and topic order based on CNT file option is enabled.)

•	All converted topics (if the Topic title heading style and topic order based on CNT file option is disabled.)

The default Heading selection is "Heading 2."

The available Heading style are:

"Normal"	"Heading 1"

"Heading 2"	"Heading 3"

"Heading 4"	"Heading 5"

"Heading 6"	"Heading 7"

"Heading 8	"Heading 9"

Automatically create a Table of Contents

This option is available only if,

•	Topic title heading style and topic order based on CNT is enabled, and

•	The selected Default Heading Style is not Normal.

When enabled, this selection automatically inserts a Table of Contents in the converted document. The Table of Contents is based on your Help file's Topic titles and is generated the first time you open the converted document in Word.

Topic Style and Order


Page Setup

This dialog contains controls that allow you to specify formatting parameters of your converted document files.

Automatically insert page numbers in the converted documentation
Enable this option to automatically insert page numbers in your document. Page Numbers are printed in the lower left corner on even numbered pages and in the lower right corner on odd numbered pages.

Insert page breaks at the end of each converted Help topic
If this option is enabled, the page break that separate topics in your Help file are included in your converted document. If you plan to print your document and many of your topics are short, disabling this option economizes on paper.

Page size of resulting file
This selection allows you to specify the paper size for your converted document. The default setting for this option is Letter 8 ½ by 11 in. Your selection here will appear in Word's Documentation Properties when you open the document.

Note:

If the page setup does not appear as you expected when you view your converted document, you may need to run the WORDFIX3.DOT file. See Troubleshooting for full details.

Return to Help-to-Word Options


Graphics

Save graphics inside document file
If this option is enabled, graphics stored in the Help file are embedded in the resulting Word document, i.e., they are merged into the document file. This simplifies file management but potentially makes documents excessively large.

If this option is disabled, Help graphics are saved as files separate from, but linked to, the document file. This results in more files to keep track of, but keeps your documents smaller if the original Help file has a large number of graphics.

Notes:

If you plan to convert a Help file with a large number of graphics, disable this option. Word for Windows sometimes has problems with very large files.

If the graphics do not appear as you expected when you view your converted document, you may need to run the WORDFIX3.DOT file. See Troubleshooting for full details.

Return to Help-to-Word Options


Text Colors

Help, by its nature allows more flexibility than hard copy documentation in terms of color. For example, Help hotspots are almost always a different color from the rest of the file's text. This dialog contains controls that allow you to choose how Help-to-Word translates colored text found in Help files to Word.

Text Color for Hotspot Text

This control lets you specify how your Help file's hotspot text will appear in your document.

Set hotspot text to green in output document
When this option is enabled, all hotspots text in your document file will be set to green during the conversion process. Coloring all hotspot text green regardless of original color in the Help file allows you to easily find and update the hotspot text in your Word document.

Keep the original hotspot text color
If you select this radio button, hotspot text in the DOC file reflects the color of hotspot text in the Help file.

Change hotspot text color to black
Enable this option to convert Help hotspots of any color to black in the resulting Word document.

Text Color for Other Text

This control lets you specify how your Help file's non-hotspot text will appear in your document.

Keep the original text color
If this option is enabled, text of any color in your Help file (other than hotspot text) will retain its original Help file color in the resulting Word document.

Change text color to black
If this options is enabled, all non-hotspot text in your Help file, regardless of color, will appear in black in your document.

Note:

If the text colors do not appear as you expected when you view your converted document, you may need to run the WORDFIX3.DOT file. See Troubleshooting for full details.

Return to Help-to-Word Options


Save User Selections Upon Exit

Once you've made your choices of conversion options, you can choose to have Help-to-Word "remember" them for use in future operations.

To enable this option,

1.	Click Options in Help-to-Word's menu bar.

2.	Click Save User Selections Upon Exit and verify that a check mark appears next to the option in the menu.

Disable this selection if you don't want to save new settings for options you've changed. To disable, repeat the above procedure and verify that there is no check mark next to the option in the menu.

Return to Help-to-Word Options


Troubleshooting

Below are some messages you may encounter, along with suggestions on how to proceed.

"Some features from the HLP file appear different in the DOC file."

Microsoft does not publish the internal format of WinHelp files, thus some options may not be able to be converted or may look different in the converted DOC file. Most of the time, the DOC file will be very close to the HLP file it came from. Keep in mind that you can affect the appearance of your document by attaching a different template.

"One or more of Help-to-Word's options do not work."

If you have used Microsoft's SCANPROC virus protection, you will need to run WORDFIX3.DOT in order to realize Help-to-Word's full functionality. (WORDFIX3.DOT is provided with Help-to-Word in the HLP2WORD subdirectory).

How to run WORDFIX3.DOT

"Cannot open temp file #x."

You may not have enough hard disk space to accommodate the document and temporary files needed to perform the conversion. A typical conversion requires a minimum of two to four times the size of the HLP file in available space. Remove some files from your hard drive to free up some space, then try the conversion again.

Note:

The TEMP environment variable (located in AUTOEXEC.BAT) determines which disk needs to have the free space (if you have more than one hard drive). If you do not have a TEMP variable, Help-to-Word stores its temporary files on the drive containing the Windows directory.

"When I scroll through my document, Word occasionally General Protection Faults (GPFs) or my screen freezes."

The converted document file may be too big or have too many graphics for the amount of memory on your computer system or for Word for Windows to handle.

•	From the Tools menu, choose Options, choose the View tab, then Show - Picture Placeholders.

•	Split the document into smaller documents. An easy way to do this is to place the scroll bar in the center of the document, highlight a line, choose CTRL+SHIFT+END, then choose Cut and paste the information into a new document.

"I am not able to convert one of the HLP files on my system."

Not every Help file can be converted. A file may have an HLP extension but not be a Windows Help file or it may be corrupted. To determine this, try to run the file by choosing it in File Manager. Please contact Blue Sky Software Technical Support if you are unable to convert a specific HLP file.

"My new Table of Contents doesn't have entries corresponding to the books in my Help file's Contents Tab."

Only Help topics become Table of Contents entries in your converted document. Since Help topics must be pages rather than books in your Contents Tab, only pages have corresponding entries in your document's Table of Contents. You can easily remedy this condition by typing the headings corresponding to your Contents Tab's books into your document's Table of Contents and applying an appropriate heading style.


Applying a Different Template

Help-to-Word applies its own template, H2D200.DOT to every document it generates. You can however, change a documents template and so change the available formatting parameters. To change a Word document's template,

1.	In the File menu, select Templates… the Templates and Add-ins dialog appears.

2.	Click the Attach… button. The Attach Template dialog appears.

3.	Navigate to the template you wish to attach to the current document.

4.	Click on the name of the desired template to highlight it.

5.	Click Open. The Attach Template dialog disappears.

6.	Click Ok in the Templates and Add-ins dialog.

You now have all of the styles in the newly attached template available for formatting your document.

Return to Topic Style and Order


How to Run WORDFIX3.DOT

1.	In Windows Explorer or My Computer, navigate to the HLP2WORD folder,

2.	Find WORDFIX3.DOT and double click on it. A screen appears warning you about the possible effects of macros in WORDFIX3.DOT.

3.	Click No. Help-to-Word's Word Protection Tool Fix dialog appears.

4.	Click Yes.

A message appears informing you when the protection procedure is complete.

Return to Troubleshooting


AutoFormat Options

The AutoFormat Options dialog box provides two formatting options for your new Word document:

•	Apply Microsoft Word's AutoFormat command

•	Preserve the formatting from the Help project

The option you select depends on what you want the resulting document to look like…

I want the document to look like a conventional user's manual.

In this case, the AutoFormat option scans your Help file and attaches traditional document styles to the project, such as Headings, Body Text, list styles and numbered list styles. A benefit of this method is that the document is created with styles attached to blocks of text. Consequently, you can make global style changes as you normally do in Word, that is, by changing a style and then reselecting it in the style list or by attaching a different template. Caveat: if you've used uncommon formatting in your Help file, Word may not know what style to apply to it and may choose differently than you would have. In this event you can, of course, reassign any style you wish.

I want a printed document that looks the same as my Help file.

In this case, choose to Preserve the formatting from the Help project. The advantage of this method is that if you have carefully chosen fonts and styles for your Help project, you'll see the same look in the printed documentation. Caveat: this method hard-codes text formatting into the document. You will not be able to make global changes to the text (though you will be able to make global changes to the Heading styles). However, since you want your document to look like your Help file, this probably is irrelevant.

I'm not sure which style I'd like.

The procedure takes only a short time, so try both options. Run with AutoFormat enabled and inspect the result. Then repeat the operation with Preserve the formatting from the Help project enabled and compare the two results to decide which is best for your particular needs.

Tip:

The fastest way to do this is to simply close the current document file, and reopen the RTF file by selecting it from the File menu's most recently opened list. The AutoFormat Options dialog reappears. Repeat the operation using the alternate selection.

Return to Help-to-Word Options