FreshHelp .chm help generator.
FreshHelp is a small package, aimed to create help files in .chm format from HTML, LaTeX or text files with MiniMagAsm formatting.
You can download the official release, download the latest development package (requires anonymous login) or visit the source repository and browse the files online.
1. Command line syntax
FreshHelp is console program. The syntax of the command line is following:
FreshHelp ?OPTIONS? FILE1 ?FILE2 ?FILE2 ....?
Any count of files can be processed. The files can be mixed HTML files or MiniMagAsm formatted text file.
The possible options are:
-i index_filename
Set a name for the generated index file. If missing, "index.hhk" will be used.
-t toc_filename
Set a name for the generated table of contents file. If missing "toc.hhc" will be used.
2. Help file content
The content of the help file is generated from the content of the HTML files specified in the command line and from the MiniMagAsm formatted files, converted to HTML.
FreshHelp will convert to HTML all files with extension ".txt", specified on the command line and will write them to the disk with extension, changed to ".htm"
All files refered by the HTML and .txt files (images, .css files, etc.) will be compiled to the .chm file as well.
3. Help file table of contents
The table of contents is created based on the heading structure of the documents specified in the
command line.
<h1>
is the highest level of the TOC tree. <h6>
is the lowest level.
4. Index file generation
The help index is generated from the anchor tags of the HTML files. FreshHelp will use
only the bookmark <a> tags - i.e. anchor tags with id
or name
attributes defined.
The word added to the index is the value of the parameter 'id' or 'name', not the content
between <a> and </a> tags.
Example:
<a id="keyword">random text</a>
<a name="keyword">random text</a>
In MiniMagAsm the keyword is defined with internal bookmark construction at the begining of the line:
[#keyword] Random text.
Actually "keyword" can contain more than one word. All of them will be included as one item in the index file of the generated .chm file.
5. Project file
FreshHelp will create project file with name "project.hhp" containing the list of the HTML files and needed options.
6. Compilation of the .chm
After execution, FreshHelp will create all needed files in the current directory. Compile the file "project.hhp" with following command:
chmcmd project.hhp
The compiler will produce the file "result.chm". You can use chmcmd.exe in Windows and in chmcmd in Linux.
The project.hhp file is compatible with MS "HTML Help workshop" as well.
Last modified on: 13.01.2016 19:03:08