6.1.3 Evaluating Microsoft HTML Help
HTML Help from Microsoft does a thorough job, even though it is slow and has numerous defects. HTML Help works best on Windows 98/ME/2000/XP; less well on Windows 95 or Windows NT4, unless you install current HTML Help Workshop components and Internet Explorer version 4.x or later; and hardly at all on UNIX or Macintosh.
• Your users cannot access compiled HTML Help on a network drive; the CHM file must be local.
• HTML Help does not perform exactly as documented. Some features are missing, others have defects, and the software is no longer being maintained.
• HTML Help requires Internet Explorer 4.x or a later version. HTML Help uses most of the guts of Internet Explorer, which opens the user's system to numerous security hazards via ActiveX features.
• The compressed .chm files can be used only on Windows systems, not on Macintosh or UNIX, because the Java applet is poorly implemented. This is the main reason other Help-authoring-tool vendors use their own proprietary Java applets to provide a tri-pane window and search functionality, which you need for cross-platform applications.
• Pop-ups are just plain text: no font variations appear at all, not even bold or italic.
• Opening Context Sensitive Help the first time can be very slow.
On Windows 2000, Microsoft itself gets around the last two problems by using WinHelp for Context Sensitive Help and pop-ups, HTML Help for the rest. To ameliorate the pop-up problem you can obtain a freeware DLL called KeyHelp from Ralph Walden, the Microsoft creator (now retired) of WinHelp 4 and HTML Help:
However, you would have to install KeyHelp on every user's system.
See §8 Generating Microsoft HTML Help.
> 6 Producing on-line Help > 6.1 Weighing Help-system alternatives > 6.1.3 Evaluating Microsoft HTML Help