6.1.2 Evaluating Microsoft Windows Help (WinHelp)

So far, WinHelp works on all flavors of Microsoft Windows. With Mif2Go you can generate both WinHelp 3 and WinHelp 4. WinHelp does not work on any system other than Microsoft Windows, except through a Windows emulator.

WinHelp is fading away like a Cheshire cat'

Be aware that the current 32-bit WinHelp engine might not be included in Microsoft Vista, and according to Microsoft, you will not be able to distribute the engine with your WinHelp system. Instead, every Vista user of your WinHelp system will have to download a Vista-compatible WinHelp engine from Microsoft:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917607

Other WinHelp drawbacks

Other WinHelp drawbacks are more an issue of appearance than of performance. WinHelp 4 does not support mouseovers, and supports Flash movies only with difficulty. Text formatting is limited (especially for tables), you cannot customize index sort order, and there is no tri-pane display.

WinHelp advantages

WinHelp provides the fast response needed for Context Sensitive Help (CSH). You can use WinHelp for initial CSH calls, and WinHelp can, in turn, link to HTML Help or OmniHelp for further information. Also, WinHelp produces decent pop-ups.

See §7 Generating WinHelp.

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