The Windows Help Compiler requires you prepare a project text file and optionally a map text file. If you are like me, you don't like to go into and out of your text editor to make these files, you also grumble every time you have to play games with Windows to run the compiler itself or get to the compiled help file. This is a simple little shell to assist in compiling a help file.
This program may be freely distributed provided that it is not modified in any way, that this file (README.CSO) be included in the distribution, and that there be no fees charged for this program or it's use without CSO consent. CSO provides no warranty, what so ever, for this product and recommends that this program as well as any other programs obtained via BBS be run only after backing up your disk(s).
INSTALLING the HELP COMPILER SHELL
The HELP COMPILER SHELL is a Visual Basic program and requires VBRUN100.DLL. If you don't have this file you can download it from virtually any BBS.
Included in this ZIP are four files, HPJ.EXE, COMMDLG.DLL, CMDIALOG.VBX , and README.CSO. If you've gotten this far you know about README.CSO. HPJ.EXE is the primary execution file. It need not be in you computers path or opened from it's directory.
It is recommended that you examine your WINDOWS and WINDOWS/SYSTEM directories to determine if the files COMMDLG.DLL and CMDIALOG.VBX exist therein. If those files already exist, try to run this program from a different directory than the one where HPJ.EXE resides. If the program runs, delete the COMMDLG.DLL and CMDIALOG.VBX files included in this ZIP. If these files do not exist in your WINDOWS or WINDOWS/SYSTEM directories, move them to the WINDOWS/SYSTEM directory. If these files already exist, and the program fails to run (this shouldn't happen but who knows what Microsoft might do in the future), you have two options.
1) Rename the COMMDLG.DLL and CMDIALOG.VBX in your WINDOWS or WINDOWS/SYSTEM directories then replace them with the COMMDLG.DLL and CMDIALOG.VBX in this ZIP. If at this point, you have problems opening common dialogs in any of your other programs, move these files to a separate directory where HPJ.EXE is located, then rename the files changed earlier back to COMMDLG.DLL and CMDIALOG.VBX, then follow the instructions in option 2.
2) Copy the COMMDLG.DLL and CMDIALOG.VBX files included in this ZIP to the directory where HPJ.EXE is located. Always start HPJ.EXE from the directory where HPJ.EXE is located (VB looks in the current directory for support files before checking your computers path).
USING the HELP COMPILER SHELL
The Help Compiler Shell does only a few things. It opens, edits, and saves Help Compiler project files and map files. It runs the Help Compiler and your compiled Help files if you enter proper paths. It also automates a few of your compiling tasks and reports the compile status. It's basically intuitive if you are reasonably Windows literate, and I don't imagine you would be compiling help files if you weren't, so I won't waste your time explaining further.
