6.1.1 Considering Help-system features
Most users expect three navigation elements in a Help system:
• Table of Contents (TOC), preferably in an expanding and collapsing tree form, that tracks your position in the Help system
• Index (IX), with multiple levels and See/See Also capabilities
• Full-Text Search (FTS) that gets you directly to each occurrence of a word or phrase.
You could use generic HTML for a Help system as is, especially with framesets (see §12.12 Using framesets). JavaScript-based TOC templates are available on the Web, and an index is not hard to create. But the search engine is harder. So it is a good idea to consider the existing alternatives for Help systems.
For HTML-based Help systems, Mif2Go can produce any specialized form of HTML you need, including those that work with proprietary DLLs.
If you have the eHelp (RoboHelp) license that permits you to redistribute the appropriate eHelp DLL, you can use Mif2Go to produce WinHelp 2000. You generate WinHelp, then add the eHelp data to the WinHelp project file before you compile; see §7.1.10 Integrating WinHelp from RoboHelp. Also, you can generate HTML Help as a precursor to using RoboHelp to generate WebHelp; see §6.1.4 Evaluating WebHelp.
If you need something similar to WebHelp or Web Works Help, try generating OmniHelp; see §6.1.5 Evaluating OmniHelp. Otherwise you would have to roll your own, which you could do with Mif2Go frameset support; see §12.12 Using framesets. OmniHelp provides a simpler and faster solution.
If you need Microsoft Help 2, you can generate HTML Help with Mif2Go and then use FAR to convert the resulting .chm file to .hxs, H2Reg to register the Help system, and Ndoc for reference information:
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