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Subject:Turning WinHelp into Mac help? From:Jeff Jungblut <jeffmj -at- CRASH -dot- CTS -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 16 Dec 1993 11:14:06 PST
I have been given the task of porting a Windows help file to the Macintosh.
This is a fairly large help file (about 700 topics totalling 950K) so
recoding the whole thing in a Mac help system isn't really an option, given
that I'm also working on other projects and have little time left for this.
I need your assistance in locating a program that will help me do this
conversion quickly and easily.
I have been working with the latest version of QuickHelp from Altura
Software which takes the RTF source files I created for Windows help and
compile them on the Mac. A runtime program on the Mac then interprets the
compiled file and presents the user with a near replica of the Windows help
file. This may sound too good to be true, and it is -- I've evaluated two
versions of QuickHelp and both had serious bugs that prevent my help file
from working correctly on the Mac. The bugs include problems like incorrect
line and paragraph spacing, causing text to overprint on the screen; bitmap
hot spots not working anywhere; and macros that execute when they shouldn't.
I know these aren't problems with my help source files because they compile
and execute flawlessly under Windows, and I'm not doing anything fancy like
calling Windows DLL routines or defining elaborate macros.
If you know of any other system that can do what QuickHelp was advertised to
do (but one that works), or you know of another route I should be taking
with this, I'd appreciate hearing from you. I'm giving Altura one more
chance to come through with a QuickHelp version that works with my source
files before I give up on them and spend the company's money somewhere else.
Cost isn't a concern because it would cost more money for the company to pay
me to recode the file in some other Mac hypertext system than it would cost
to purchase a program that does what QuickHelp should do. However,
FrameReader/FrameViewer isn't an option because the company doesn't want to
license a copy of it for every copy of the product we distribute to our end
users.
Thanks much for any assistance.
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Jeff Jungblut Tecnhical Documentation Group
jeffmj -at- crash -dot- cts -dot- com Jostens Learning Corporation, San Diego
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