Copyright: Herd Software Development (c) 1996-97


Help to RTF	©1996-99 Herd Software Development
The helpfile printing wizard and source code generator

Help with the individual options in the wizard can be obtained at any time by pressing F1 from the individual Help to RTF dialogs.

General information

Help to RTF wizard dialogs

Licensing and order information


Help to RTF	©1996-99 Herd Software Development
The helpfile printing wizard and source code generator

Help with the individual options in the wizard can be obtained at any time by pressing F1 from the individual Help to RTF dialogs.

General information

Introduction to Help to RTF

Help to RTF basic operation

The history and purpose behind Help to RTF

Advanced tips for recompiling

Advanced tips for printing

Command line operation

Operating system dependency

Embedded window DLL support

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

Revision history

Help to RTF wizard dialogs

Licensing and order information


Help to RTF	©1996-99 Herd Software Development
The helpfile printing wizard and source code generator

Help with the individual options in the wizard can be obtained at any time by pressing F1 from the individual Help to RTF dialogs.

General information

Help to RTF wizard dialogs

Selecting your input file

Selecting an output format

Splitting large RTF files

Handling of segmented hypergraphics (SHGs)

Generating page breaks

Localization and plain-text output

Licensing and order information


Help to RTF	©1996-99 Herd Software Development
The helpfile printing wizard and source code generator

Help with the individual options in the wizard can be obtained at any time by pressing F1 from the individual Help to RTF dialogs.

General information

Help to RTF wizard dialogs

Licensing and order information

Help to RTF Network Edition

Licensing and ordering information

Other products from Herd Software


Introduction
 The history and purpose behind Help to RTF

A brief introduction to Windows Help

Windows Help, known by developers simply as WinHelp, is used by the Microsoft Windows operating system primarily to display help information in a structured, formatted and hyperlinked text format.  All major operating systems have their own hypertext help format.  WinHelp was first introduced with Windows 3.0 and greatly enhanced with Windows 3.1.  Every Windows installation from 3.0 onward includes the WinHelp viewer, and Microsoft has promised that new versions of Windows are likely to support the Windows 3.1 Help standard until at least the year 2000.

The newer Windows NT 3.51 and Windows 95 operating systems featured enhancements to Microsoft's original hypertext delivery system and provided a new, faster, more flexible 32 bit help engine known as WinHelp 4.0. Many existing tools capable of processing Windows 3.1s 16 bit help files are incompatible with the 32 bit helpfiles generated by Microsofts new HCRTF.EXE Help compiler. Help to RTF was one of the first tools capable of handling the new file format, and continues to provide state-of-the-art support for 32 bit Help.

Microsoft also developed an enhanced version of WinHelp known as Multimedia Viewer. Usually known simply as Viewer”, this hypertext system uses Help-like files with the extension .MVB, and this file format is most commonly used for distributing hypertext information distributed on CD.  Viewer is also supported, to an extent, by Help to RTF.  It can process Multimedia Viewer files for printing or document storage, usually with all the information youll ever need, but some more advanced document formatting and content conversion features are not available.

MediaView is yet another hypertext platform from Microsoft based on the same technology as WinHelp and Viewer and supports a whole new set of features. MediaView files are usually identified by .M13 or .M14 extensions, but sometimes they are renamed to .MVB. Help to RTF can process MediaView 1.3 files as well.

Multimedia Viewer files are warranted to provide version 2.0 conversion and pre-print processing support.  MediaView files designed for the version 1.3 viewer are also supported.  (MediaView files designed for use with MediaView 1.4, which usually have file extensions of .M14, are not officially supported.)

While Microsoft intended WinHelp to be used primarily for supporting applications with online help, WinHelp has since become an extremely popular platform for distributing all types of text information, from price lists and catalogs, historical documents in electronic form, reference works, promotional brochures-on-disk to periodicals in WinHelp format and even some utilities and stand-alone applications.  Authors tend to prefer its simplicity and flexibility to the much more complex Viewer and MediaView alternatives.

The text and image content of these files is often more useful in an alternative form, such as a printed document or collection of separate disk files and documents. Unlike HTML browsers, neither the 16 or 32 bit WinHelp viewers offer an easy method for separating the content from the page itself.  Thats where Help to RTF comes in.

Printing Help Files: Help to RTFs greatest strength

As powerful as the WinHelp engine is as a hypertext display engine, it lacks the ability to allow the printing of entire helpfiles. It only allows printing on a topic-by-topic basis.  The printed output provides few of the formatting and visual cues you have come to expect from quality documentation.  There are no page numbers, indexes, tables of contents or page references in standard WinHelp printouts.

This is especially troublesome for firms who rely on shareware as a distribution method. Most commercial programs include a printed handbook, but a shareware evaluation copy cant. If youre a serious user of a given piece of software, eventually youll want the same quality of documentation you would get from a store-bought software package.

The trend toward paperless delivery is growing  too, leaving more and more publishers with a difficult choice...either include documentation as a separate file and make the shareware or floppy disk archive that much larger, costlier to download or reproduce and more cumbersome to store on your system, or provide a way to make the helpfile, which is usually compiled in a compressed format, serve double duty as both online help and documentation. Most shareware developers choose the latter solution, and so did we.

The trend to paperless software distribution makes Help to RTF an ideal solution for developers and end users alike.  While we developed Help to RTF to satisfy our users needs, the response was so strong that we chose to offer Help to RTF to individual users for processing all their helpfiles, and to provide a network editon so that all users on a single domain can easily generate manual-quality printed documentation from a compiled helpfile for the cost of less than three Help to RTF licenses.

Recompilable Help projects: an added benefit for developers and serious users

While Microsoft no longer supports WinHelp or Multimedia Viewer, that hasnt stopped these hypertext platforms from growing faster and becoming more popular with authors and developers with each passing year. HTML Help is replacing the current WinHelp format, but developers and authors still support these platforms. Gigabytes upon gigabytes of new Help, Multimedia Viewer and MediaView titles are emerging every month.

There is an enormous quantity of data, text, reference, prose and periodical information available, and a great deal more coming.  HTML Help is unlikely to replace WinHelp in a big way until at least mid-1998.  But all this data has little long-term value if you cant do anything but stare at it on your screen.  And unfortunately, helpfiles and Viewer titles are compiled software, just like programs.  They are not editable documents and dont have the flexibility of .DOC and .TXT files.  If you want to combine several files into a larger database file, add support for further development tools, recompile a helpfile with support for full-text retrieval, or update and convert the document to HTML, youre stuck.  Without the proper tools, you cant even get at the contents of the .HLP or .MVB.

Help to RTF provides the lowest cost solution available for this problem. It provides not just the ability to generate more flexible RTF output for printing and document storage, but also allows you to generate a completely recompilable Help project, complete with all text, formatting, jumps, graphics, keywords, secondary windows and more, exactly as the original author intended them to appear.

The RTF file format is a documented file format that uses an industry-standard text tagging syntax (RTF tagging is a little like HTML tagging), so the RTF source documents extracted from helpfiles can be reused and modified in just about any fashion you wish.


 Help to RTF basic operation

Help to RTF provides a wizard-style interface that guides you step-by-step through the process of extracting source data from Help, Viewer and MediaView titles.  You can safely accept the defaults and ignore any options you don't understand if all you need is basic print conversion.  Generating an RTF output file with a table of contents and index that you can print from virtually any quality word processor is just this easy:

Generating manual-quality word processor document output:

•	Start HLP2RTF.EXE or HLPRTF32.EXE.

•	Click the Continue button on the first screen.

•	Select your help file. If you dont know, where to search, use the Scan button.

•	Click the Continue button.

•	Select the Prepare for printing option.  Help to RTFs default processing options should provide all the formatting needed in the output document. You should not need to change any options unless you know the selected file needs special treatment.

•	Click the Continue button on each successive screen, stepping through all the wizard screens in sequence until Help to RTF informs you that the conversion process is beginning.

•	After the conversion process is complete, click the Display button.  The default word processor on your system associated with files ending in RTF will be launched.  In most cases this will be WordPerfect, Works or Microsoft Word. (Windows 95 users without full-featured word processors may have WordPad automatically selected as the default application for RTF files.)

Generating recompilable Help project with all RTF, HPJ, BMP, WMF, SHG etc. source files:

•	Create an empty directory with File Manager or Explorer

•	Copy the helpfile or Multimedia Viewer title to be converted into this new directory

•	Start HLP2RTF.EXE or HLPRTF32.EXE

•	Select the helpfile to be decompiled.
Note: decompilation of helpfiles into recompilable source documents may constitute a violation of copyright.  If you have any question about your legal right to decompile a given title, contact the publisher in regard to permissions extended to legal licensees of the helpfile.

•	Select the Prepare for re-compilation option.

•	Click the Continue button until the conversion process begins.  The source files from the decompiled .HLP, .MVB or .M13 file will be located in the temporary directory you selected.

If you are not interested in working with helpfile source documents and code directly, you can ignore the recompilation options.


Additional Informations on Recompilation
 Advanced tips for recompiling

Help to RTF can extract images, RTF source code, .HPJ compiler configuration files, baggage” files and all other data contained in a compiled helpfile, resulting in a fully recompilable Help project from virtually any given .HLP file which is not protected by encryption or anti-decompile technology  (Less than half of one percent of all helpfiles are decompile-protected.)

But while its recompile accuracy is usually a full 100 percent when compared to the original compiled file, be aware that the source files generated by Help to RTF will not and can never be identical to the source code originally used to create the .HLP file.  Some types of information simply are not preserved when a helpfile or Multimedia Viewer title is compiled, and whatever isnt included in a compiled file cannot possibly be extracted by a decompiler.  No decompiler could ever fully reproduce the authors source files exactly as they appeared prior to compiling.

In most cases this will not be a problem. When Help to RTF decompiles a helpfile, none of the most critical data is omitted.  Images, baggage, compiler information, keywords, text and formatting information is all preserved in the decompiled files.  But its important to know what cant be reproduced by Help to RTF.

Firstly, styles used by the RTF generation software are not stored within the compiled .HLP itself, so modification of RTF source documents in a word processor or authoring tool will generally require a little extra effort.

Secondly, topic ID strings (#” footnote entries) and jump/popup context strings (hidden link text) in the source files are not preserved by the compiler.  Instead they are converted to unique values referred to as hash codes”. Hash codes are text representations of 32 bit data values that look to the average person like random series of characters.  These cryptic-looking strings of text usually represent longer strings, but conversion of the compiled, converted strings back to text cannot be done accurately since the same hash code could represent more than one possible string of characters.  The best any program could do is make educated guesses about the original string, and even the best possible code for doing this is unlikely to produce better than a 25 to 35 percent hit” ratio for any given set of helpfiles.

If Help to RTF cannot deduce a unique topic ID string to correspond with a given hash code, it will make a best-guess attempt to recreate a string that has the same corresponding hash code. However, the resulting text string may look very different from the string originally created by the author.

This apparent alteration of context strings in the compile/decompile process should have no effect on a recompiled helpfile. After recompiling a file with HC31.EXE or HCRTF.EXE, the resulting jumps and popups will be identical, even when there is an ”interfile jump” to or from another help file.

Topic ID strings embedded in .SHG files (Segmented Hypergraphics, a  Help- and Viewer-specific graphics format) are immune to this type of data loss.  Topic ID strings stored in .SHG files are preserved in a compiled .HLP and Help to RTF can make use of these ID strings where they are available, attempting to match topic IDs in the RTF source with topic IDs in the .SHGs.

Help to RTF will optionally split large .HLP files into several RTF files.  In some cases large helpfiles produce massive RTF source documents which might otherwise be impossible to load into word processors on average home PCs.

Note once again that helpfiles are usually protected by copyright laws.  Under no circumstance does Herd Software Development endorse or encourage violation of copyright through indiscriminate decompilation of copyright-protected Help and Viewer files.  Modification of a decompiled helpfile without the permission of the copyright holder may constitute such a violation.


Additional Informations on Printing
 Advanced tips for printing

Help to RTF is not capable of printing helpfiles by itself. It is possible to print the complete contents of a compiled helpfile without preprocessing, but the hard copy output is generally far less useful than hard copy from a document formatted specifically for printing. This is why Help to RTF offers pre-print conversion options in addition to its decompilation options.

Microsofts RTF (Rich Text Format) file format is a supported document format in virtually all quality word processors.  RTF is the document format used for generating source text for helpfiles, and it is also the format Help to RTF uses as the output format for print-enhanced documents.

You will need an RTF capable word processor to print the RTF files generated by Help to RTF.  Microsoft Word, Microsoft Works, Corel or Novell WordPerfect, Borland Ami Pro, The Free Microsoft Word 97 Viewer and Windows 95s built-in WordPad word processor are all capable of loading and printing RTF files.

When Help to RTF prepares RTF files for printing it leaves out several types of data which are generally needed only for the creation of compiled helpfiles.  Heres a brief list of what is omitted in pre-print preparation:

•	Help-specific footnotes are ignored, jumps are not marked and invisible text will not be recreated.

•	Bitmaps will be included as part of the RTF file wherever possible.

·	Each RTF file will contain a header designed to provide page numbering in the printout. Note that helpfiles processed into several RTF files will generate page numbers on a file-by-file basis, so the page numbers will not be unique unless you specifically request the generation of a single RTF file.

•	Help to RTF attempts to include as many custom controls or embedded window bitmaps as possible whenever a helpfile or Multimedia Viewer title makes use of these special extensions, but it will not print out every image in a dynamic (content-changeable) embedding or every frame of an animation.  Only the first image seen when the topic is loaded will be converted for print, since you cant practically animate a printed document without the enormous waste of paper required for flip-book style animation conversion.

The generation of page numbers, indices and tables of contents will require Microsoft Word to be used as the word processor from which the printout is made. Help to RTF generates page reference and index field control codes which are specific to Word.  Newer import filters from other word processors such as WordPerfect and Lotus Pro may support these features as part of their MS Word compatibility software but this is by no means guaranteed.

Help to RTF includes a small template document for word, HLP2RTF.DOT, whose purpose is to force Word to update these fields properly.  Updating index and contents fields can be a time-consuming process and you only need to do it once per document, right before printing it.  After loading your extracted RTF document into Word, it is recommended that you save the document as a Word .DOC file and detach the HLP2RTF.DOT template from this document to accelerate future editing and field updates.


 Command line operation

Automating Help to RTF

Once you become comfortable with Help to RTF and find that your options rarely change from one session to another, you may want to use Help to RTF as an automated helpfile print processor.  If you set up Help to RTF as a shortcut or Program Manager icon, dropping helpfiles onto the icon or sending them to Help to RTF will automatically process the file without opening the Help to RTF wizard dialog.

Help to RTF can also work from a Windows command line using the helpfile name as the parameter.

Additional command line parameters

One other command line parameter exists for Help to RTF.  If -v is inserted into the command line before the helpfiles name  (e.g. hlp2rtf.exe -v suprware.hlp), the default application on your system associated with .RTF files will be launched when Help to RTF is finished processing as an additional timesaver.


Operating System Dependence
 Operating system dependency

The shareware distribution archive of Help to RTF includes two versions:

Filename	Platform and unique features

HLP2RTF.EXE	Windows 3.1 16 bit version. This version is usable on all known Intel-based (IBM-compatible) Windows platforms from Windows 3.1 through to Windows NT 4.0.

This version is optimized to produce the smallest possible footprint on your hard disk, but internal 16 bit addressing places some limits on the size of helpfiles which can be converted due to the potential sizes of keyword tables, topic ID tables and other Help-specific information. These tables are scanned only when creating recompilable output.

Output intended for printing is limited only in the number of bitmaps and fonts produced from the source helpfile.  You should not face file size limitations with the vast majority of helpfiles, and these can be further lessened by insuring that images are saved as separate disk files.

There are no limits in bitmap sizes.

If you try to convert a file too large for HLP2RTF.EXE to handle, it will prompt you to use the Win32 version.

HLPRTF32.EXE	Windows 32 bit version. This version uses 32 bit addressing technology to handle exceptionally large helpfiles and overcome the limitations of the 16 bit version.  Naturally it requires the presence of the appropriate 32 bit Windows extensions on the users system, i.e. Windows 3.1 with Win32s installed (16Mb of memory is recommended for Win32s-equipped PCs), Windows NT or Windows 95.

The shareware edition does not convert all the keyword entries from the help file into the RTF files. This is the only limitation to the shareware version.
This restriction does not apply to the registered version.

Other operating systems and capabilities

At present Help to RTF is only compatible with Microsoft versions of the Windows operating system.  A DOS version of Help to RTF is also available but it is limited to small help files.

A version of Help to RTF designed as a Microsoft Word plug-in document conversion filter (.CNV file) is also available as part of Help Access Library, and this version could be enhanced for special needs or situations to include Help to RTF functionality and features.  Inquire to Herd Software Development for rates and specifications.

If you have a need for Help to RTF functionality on other operating systems (e.g., UNIX or Macintosh) please contact us in regard to your requirements.


 Embedded window DLL support

The embedded window DLL support option is to be used entirely at your own risk. While the vast majority of conversions will be uneventful, there is an ever-present risk when converting embedding data to printable graphic images. Depending on the behavior of a given DLL, attempting to convert embedded window displays to graphical data could result in Windows instability and could even crash your operating system.  It is strongly recommended that all open programs be closed prior to using this conversion option.  Neither Herd Software Development nor its distributors and agents will accept any responsibility for any loss or inconvenience caused by incompatibility between Help to RTF and an embedded window DLL.

When Microsoft first developed Help, they couldnt possibly have imagined the uses to which it would be put, and even the Help viewers developers have expressed astonishment at the creativity which authors have applied to Help.  It was designed almost exclusively as a documentation presentation system, but it became the de facto standard for hypertext delivery of all types, and continues in 1997 to be the first choice for Windows hypertext even with the onrush of HTML.

Today there are literally dozens of unique and useful extensions available to Help authors. These tools and gadgets permit Windows Help to include everything from editable forms (our own HSFORM technology is a world leader in Help forms capability) to animation (our ThinHelp package is a respected industry standard for image display in Help). They can even allow the insertion of complete programs as part of Helps topic window.  In most cases embedded windows are used to generate high resolution or high quality graphic images and tab or button effects.

These unique features are made possible through the use of embedded window technology, and the resulting effects are alternately referred to as either embedded windows or custom controls.

Helpfiles created using these technologies require that the DLL which produces the embedding be available and ready to run when WINHELP.EXE opens the file for display.

When you select the pre-print processing support option for embedded windows and custom controls from Help to RTFs wizard”, it will check the helpfile for references to custom embeddings. It will also try to find and load the DLLs required to produce these embeddings into memory during the decompilation process.  If it is successful, and it usually is, the pre-print output will contain a BMP format image virtually identical to the image you would see if the helpfile was open and the embedding control was enabled.

Once Help to RTF has attempted to generate the image, it releases the DLL responsible for the image from Windows memory to conserve resources.  If Help to RTF is successful in converting the embedded window into a bitmap image, you will see the embedded window image when you load your RTF document into your word processor.

Please be aware that many embedded window DLLs behave in such a way that Help to RTF will not be able to reproduce what the DLL is designed to show you onscreen.  In fact, some embedded window DLLs are specifically designed to prevent you from printing what they display.

Points to consider when selecting embedded window support:

•	The DLL responsible for the embedding must be located either in Windows path or in the directory containing the helpfile.

•	The DLL in question must not currently be in use by Windows Help. If the helpfile you are attempting to convert is open on your desktop, you must close it first.  (Under Windows NT you can bypass this restriction by starting HLP2RTF.EXE in a separate memory environment. You cannot cheat” this restriction simply by making copies of the helpfile and DLLs.)  If the DLL was developed in a particularly dirty” fashion and leaves traces of itself in your computers memory after the helpfile is closed, you may need to restart Windows before performing the conversion.

•	Embedded window technology can be difficult to predict or control if you are not the actual developer of the embedded window software itself. As mentioned previously, Help to RTF cannot produce accurate representations of all embedded window controls. However, we can promise you that it has been tested and found to be compatible with our own THNHLP.DLL, THNBMP.DLL, HSFORM.DLL, LZANI.DLL, JPANI.DLL and GRHLP.DLL.  HLP_CTRL.DLLs embedded buttons are also known to be fully compatible with Help to RTF.  Earlier versions of Olson Softwares OSHTOOLS.DLL will produce blank white regions.  More recent versions have implemented print support.

Other known embedded window DLLs which will not produce printable output include:

EW256BMP.DLL (embedded window bitmaps)
ARSENAL.DLL (embedded window bitmaps)
HLPUTIL2.DLL (embedded resources)
EWDLL.DLL (embedded window bitmaps)
HLP256.DLL (watermarks)
D2HTOOLS.DLL (watermarks)
HDKANIMx.DLL (watermarks and possibly some custom controls)

Embedded windows DLLs that cannot print their contents from Windows Help are not likely to produce a printable result with Help to RTF, so if you need to know in advance if an interesting-looking embedding will print, try Printing the topic from Helps File menu.

DLLs known to be crash-prone with Help to RTF include:

BTHAxxxx.DLL (Bennet-Tec Help Animator)


Frequently asked questions
 FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

⇒	How can I process a file stored on a CD without copying it to my hard disk?

⇒	What do I need to do to set up a temp” directory?

⇒	Does the registered version extract all keywords in a helpfile?

⇒	What does the warning File created by HCRTF, handling incomplete” mean?

⇒	Is there any way to get Help to RTF to generate smaller RTF output files?

⇒	Where can I find a tool for compiling a new helpfile from Help to RTFs output?

⇒	What produces the Word cannot read the header/footer of the document” error message?

⇒	Which versions of Microsoft Word are supported?

⇒	Why does Help to RTF fail with some helpfiles?

How can I process a file stored on a CD without copying it to my hard disk?

•	Select the output directory using the controls in the Help to RTF dialog. The output directory must be located on a non-write-protected disk such as a hard disk, Zip, Jaz or other medium.

•	Enter the full filename into the edit field, for example D:\DIR\PATH\FILE.HLP”

This will force Help to RTF to read from the CD and write its output to another disk.

What do I need to do to set up a temp” directory?

The \TEMP\ directory is usually set up for you when you install Windows on your machine. If you have since changed the \TEMP\ directory assignment or are unsure whether you have a temporary directory, then here is how to find out:

•	Make sure the TEMP= environment variable (See AUTOEXEC.BAT) contains a complete path to a directory, for example TEMP=C:\TEMP.

•	Check your hard disk to make sure the directory specified in the TEMP variable still exists.

•	Be extra-careful to insure that the TEMP directory is not the root directory of a hard disk or partition (e.g.  TEMP=D:\).  Root directories make exceptionally poor choices for temporary file storage.  They can only handle a limited number of files, and if they are used for temporary file storage they are likely to result in failures by other programs or, at the very least, a messy hard disk that will be difficult to prune.

Does the registered version extract all keywords in a helpfile?

In a word: yes.  In two words: yes, absolutely.  In three words: well, you get the idea....  The indexes in print-ready output from the registered version will be just as complete as the keyword search indexes in the helpfiles you process.

What does the warning File created by HCRTF, handling incomplete” mean?

Help to RTF cannot handle all of the new types of author-generated data included in Windows 95 helpfiles. This is especially important when decompiling Help for recompilation or study.  Pre-print preparation is not affected by this limitation.

Is there any way to get Help to RTF to generate smaller RTF output files?

Yes.  In fact, there are two ways.

First, select Extract graphics as separate files” from Help to RTF during processing.  Once the RTF file has been produced, theres another trick you can try to reduce the size of the document.  Load the RTF into MS Word and save it as a Word .DOC format file.  In most cases youll get a reduction in file size (not to mention much faster loading the next time you edit or view the output file).  But be aware that these reductions are incremental.  The best reductions in file size will come when you manually remove sections of the output which you know you dont want to print or view again.

Where can I find a tool for compiling a new helpfile from Help to RTFs output?

The tool you need is the Windows Help compiler.  HC31, HCSP, HCRTF or HCW compilers are available from Microsoft, Borland and others with the purchase of one of their development tools.  You can download the 16 bit Help compiler from ftp://microsoft.com as WHAT6.EXE.

What produces the Word cannot read the header/footer of the document” error message

A bug in Microsoft Word 6.0 prevents it from reading certain kinds of headline data stored within RTF files.  Curiously, Word itself is usually responsible for producing this stubborn data in the first place. The quickest cure is to save modified versions of your text in Word for Windows (.DOC) format.

Which versions of Microsoft Word are supported?

From Version 2.11 onward, Help to RTF supports all known versions of Word for Windows from 2.0 up to Word 97.

Why does Help to RTF fail with some helpfiles

Help to RTF has been in a continuous state of upgrading and optimization for nearly two years now, and the number of possible bugs and incompatibilities has dwindled considerably. While problems are always possible, the newer the version of Help to RTF the less likely errors will occur.  If you do happen to encounter an incompatible help file, let us know...but be aware that if the file has been deliberately prepared to prevent decompilation or printing, we wont support your request for assistance. To do so would violate the original authors rights.

•	First make sure youre using the absolute latest version of Help to RTF from http://www.herdsoft.com  The newest version may already have solved your problem.

•	Some problems may only occur in the 16 or in the 32 bit version.  Try both versions before assuming that Help to RTF cant do that”.

•	If possible we'd appreciate receiving a copy of the incompatible file via Internet MIME email attachment, but be aware that we will not knowingly violate the copyright of an author who does not intend for their work to be decompiled.

Do not send us descriptions  of what happened unless you can also provide the helpfile.  An error description without a copy of the critical help file (or, if the helpfile cannot be transmitted by email or on disk, an Internet URL location where it can be downloeaded).  Error or crash reports are of no value in solving problems unless the file which caused the problem is also available to us for study.


Selecting your input file

This screen behaves much like a standard Windows File|Open dialog.  Here are some tips for using the controls:

Filename

By default, the dialog will display .HLP, .MVB (Multimedia Viewer) and .M13 (MediaView 1.3) files.  Sometimes .HLP files are renamed with unusual extensions to serve special purposes, but since these files are usually renamed to prevent decompilation or conversion, Help to RTF does not permit you to open files with nonstandard extensions.

The Scan button

This button allows you to scan your entire system, one drive or partition at a time, for files to convert.  All files on the drive are displayed according to their title and copyright.

The Convert button

This button is provided here for convenience, and should be considered an "expert" feature.  It starts the conversion process instantly and saves converted data to the same directory as the helpfile you selected.

Tip: If you do not want to clutter the selected file's directory, copy the file to a new, empty directory first and reselect it from the file selector before continuing.


Selecting an output format

Prepare print-ready document

This converts the selected helpfile into an RTF output file which includes all the extra formatting needed to produce manual-quality documents.  The screen snippet at right shows how a part of this document might appear in Normal view in Microsoft Word.

Prepare recompilable source code

This option generates output files which are functionally equivalent to the source documents created by the file's author.  When recompiled, these files should produce a new file which looks and behaves exactly like the original .HLP, .MVB or .M13 file.

The screen snippet to the right of this radio button shows how the document might appear in Normal view in Microsoft Word.  Much of the unusual tagging and formatting shown here is intended only for developers of compiled hypertext documents and is incompatible with standard word processing.

Understanding different types of RTF documents

In case you're not familiar with .RTF files, you might like to know that in terms of printing and word processing, they are identical to standard word processor documents and support most word processing features.

When you process Help, Multimedia Viewer and MediaView files using Help to RTF, you can create two different types of RTF output documents, but be aware that the RTF output you get with a print-ready document is not the same as the output you get when preparing recompilable source code.  Help to RTF adds extra formatting to a print-ready document to give it a manual-like appearance and feel when printed.  Recompilable source code won't be nearly as useful in printed form.

Generally speaking, unless you're a developer wishing to explore the file's source code, the print-ready option is the only option you will ever need.


Splitting large RTF files

Whether you wish to split large RTF files into several smaller files is up to you.  It has no effect on the output document whether you are generating recompilable source code or print-ready documents.  Here are the issues to be considered:

Processor speed and system memory

The less RAM you have and the slower the processor on the system, the greater the speed increase in loading documents composed of several smaller files.  RTF files take much longer to load than standard .DOC format word processing documents.  If you expect to load the file once, print it and erase it forever, then a bit of a wait while the file loads might not be a major problem.  But if you want to perform extensive editing on a large output file prior to printing, then it will be to your advantage to break this file up into parts and merge it into one document only when you're finished editing.

How large is the file you are converting?

There is no easy way to determine how large an RTF file you will generate from a given compiled file.  A 500KB helpfile might generate a print-ready output file as small as 100KB depending on how it was created, or it could produce a document as large as 10MB if it used a lot of graphics and was compiled using data compression options.

On average, though, you can expect to generate two to three bytes of data for every byte of size in the original compiled file.

Issues relating to split files

When generating print-ready documents, Help to RTF tries to start new files at the point at which a specific topic ends so you have complete sections to work with in each output file.  The sizes of the split files can vary depending on whether images are embedded in the RTF or saved to disk as separate embeddable files.  Generally speaking Help to RTF tries to insure that split output files are small enough to be comfortably edited on systems with as little as 4MB of memory.

When generating recompilable source code, keep in mind that Help to RTF won't split the document up in mid-topic, but also remember that if you merge the RTF into another project you will need to reference more than one .RTF document in the project setup or .HPJ file in order to insure all source text and image references are included in the new project.


Segmented hypergraphics (SHGs)

This part of the wizard is only seen when you process a file for recompile compatibility.

On this screen you will almost always want to extract SHG files complete with the hotspot data, since this is important for insuring a fully recompilable project.

However, you may want to have the source images available for editing or examination, and you may not want to use SHED.EXE or your hypergraphics editor to extract the images from the SHGs.  In this case, you can perform two conversions, one to produce SHG files and the other to produce BMPs and WMFs, so that you have fully editable source images from the project in addition to the original hotspot data

Debunking a myth about decompiled SHGs

You may have heard that decompiled SHGs include different types of hotspot data from the decompiled RTF source.  When using a high-quality decompiler such as Help to RTF this incompatibility simply will not occur.

You may have noticed differences between SHG context strings and the corresponding context strings in decompiled RTF source when using other decompilers.  Help to RTF won't produce this type of inconsistency, since any SHG hotspots which have corresponding context strings in the RTF source document will be matched and reproduced accurately when Help to RTF processes the compiled file.


Generating page breaks

This part of the wizard is only seen when you process a file for printing.  Whether or not you wish to create page breaks is a matter of personal taste, but here are a few tips to help you make a more intelligent choice:

If the individual topics in the compiled file are long, and seem to be structured like chapters, you'll probably want to create page breaks.

If you know that the file uses headings for most or all topics, and the topics are mostly short ones, you can often get away with using no page breaks.  The headings will be referenced by page number in the table of contents, making even hundreds of small topics easy to locate in a printed document.

If you know that the file uses few or no headings and includes many small topics, you will usually want to create page breaks.  These will be useful as visual guides when modifying the file prior to printing.  You can simply replace dozens of unneeded page breaks with headings prior to printing to prevent unneeded paper waste and reduce printing time.

If you discover after creating the document that your selection was unsuitable for the file you processed, you can simply erase the output file and try again using the other option.


Index generation

This part of the wizard is only seen when you process a file for printing.  This option, intended exclusively for use with Word for Windows, produces a manual-style index at the end of the document similar in format to the example shown on the dialog.

This index consists of all keywords created by the author of the original file.  You can see this list of keywords by opening the original file and pressing the Search button.

Some helpfiles include minimal keyword lists or no keywords at all, so don't be alarmed if your output document doesn't include an index or the index is only one or two words.  In cases like these you can safely erase the index from the document prior to printing.

Editing the document prior to printing should not have an effect on the page numbering in the index, since the index uses special fields in the document which should update automatically.  However, as added insurance you may wish to save and reopen an edited document prior to printing to insure correct index page number references.


Table of Context generation
Table of contents

This part of the wizard is only seen when you process a file for printing.  This option, intended exclusively for use with Word for Windows, produces a manual-style table of contents similar in format to the one shown on the dialog.

The table of contents uses the formatting styles of the output document itself as a guide to indents and subheadings.  Naturally you can change these prior to printing if you would prefer a different appearance, but be careful not to modify the field references used by the table of contents entries when applying different formatting styles.

Like the indexing feature, the table of contents should update dynamically when you modify the document.  To be on the safe side, save and reload your edited document prior to printing to insure proper page references.


Jumps
Jump text formatting

This part of the wizard is only seen when you process a file for printing.  When selected, this provides a visual reference to hotspot or "jump text" in the document itself using the strikethrough formatting shown on the wizard dialog sample images.

Generally speaking, this option should be selected only if you or a group of Help to RTF users are the prime users of the printed document.  Strikethrough text is usually meant to be ignored by the user, and distribution of a document with a large number of "struck edits" may produce confusion among users or be interpreted as sloppy documentation.

Since most quality helpfiles and Viewer titles reference hotspotted text as keywords which can be included in the index, you should not need this option very often if ever.


BmpInRtf
Storage of extracted images

This part of the wizard is only seen when you process a file for printing.  There are a number of issues to be considered when selecting this option.  Here are the most important.

If you are generating a document intended for conversion to .DOC format for redistribution, it is generally a good idea to include images as part of the document.

When preparing a file for printing, this option is generally unimportant if you have 24Mb of memory or more on your system, but it can be extremely important if you have less than this.  Here's why.

Images in documents can take up enormous amounts of memory in a document and dramatically slow down the load speed (particularly if the RTF output is not converted to .DOC format) when the file is loaded from disk.

The file itself can also grow considerably in its total space requirement when graphics are saved as part of the output RTF file, especially if the same images are used repeatedly throughout the file.  For example, if bitmaps are used as indicators or bullets in the file, only one copy of the image is required for all references in the document if the images are saved as separate files.  However, if the images are embedded in the output file as part of the document, dozens of identical copies of the same image may need to be included in the output document.  Embedding the images directly into the RTF makes management easier from a visual standpoint, but if total space requirement for the document is an issue, then saving images as separate files is more efficient.

Images saved to disk are assigned unique names which have no relationship to the original name of the image when the file was developed.  There is no way to determine this name when preparing a Help or Viewer file for printing.  If this could result in confusion in a situation where several people are working on a document, it will probably be safer to embed the images directly into the document.


Complete
Localization and plain-text output

This part of the wizard is only seen when you process a file for recompile compatibility.

About the localization option

This option was added so that helpfiles can be decompiled in a format designed to simplify data management where several sets of source text are required for localization.  It's not an option you'll need for most of your processing requirements, but as you'll see in a moment it can be useful even if you don't need localization or databasing.

When you select this option, a file with a .TXT extension is generated in the output directory which lists all topic titles, assigns unique numbers to each formatting type used in the helpfile, and shows the locations of all new topics.

Two types of tags are used: Txt#nnnnn= and Key#nnnnn= where n is a digit between 0 and 9.  Txt tags identify text format types, while Key tags identify keyword footnotes.  New topic lines can also be treated as a tag or delimiter.

How to replace the formatting tags for generating true plain-text output

If your editor or word processor supports single-character wildcards in search-and-replace operations, then replacing all of these tags is as simple as replacing all "Txt#?????=", "Key#?????=" and "------------------- New topic -------------------" strings with empty strings.  The resulting output may have some extraneous line breaks and new topic identifiers but will otherwise be a complete flat ASCII representation of the helpfile's text content.

Also note that the paragraphs in the output do not include line breaks at the 256th character as is normal with Microsoft RTF output, and that individual lines may be much longer unless broken up by differences in formatting.

How to use the Txt and Key tags to manage decompiled data

The Txt and Key tags can be used as delimiters when importing the data into databases.  They can also be used as search codes in your word processor to mark the starting points for search-and-replace application of new formatting styles. New topic lines can be replaced with page breaks or used as end-of-record markers.


 Revision history

20.01.2001 Version 2.14beta1

•	Fixed a compatibility issue with windows 2000

23.03.1999 Version 2.13beta1

•	Added Support for StarOffice 5.0

•	Added a Linux Commandline Version

04.07.1997 Version 2.12

•	Added Support for Corel Word Perfect 6.1

•	Added Support for Free Microsoft Word Viewer 97 (Downloadable for free from http://www.microsoft.com

•	Fixed a bug causing GPFs when a help file included more ALink definitions than KLink definitions.

•	The language selection program LANGUAGE.EXE has been renamed to SPRACHE.EXE for Windows 3.1x compatibility reasons.

•	Corrected a problem causing erroneous formatting when several paragraph formatting styles were used within one table cell.

21.03.1997 Version 2.11

•	Fixed several minor incompatibilities to a few help files.

•	Fixed problem when running Help to RTF on machines with HiColor (16 bit) color resolution.

•	The 32 bit version now provides the same embedded window DLL support as the 16 bit version.

•	Fixed an incompatibility with an embedded window DLL included with Microsoft Word 6.0.

•	Added an uninstall option to the demonstration version

•	Added a tool to select the language by the user.

•	Now supports Spanish with online help and install dialogs.

•	Revised order forms, payment now accepted via VISA (worldwide) and VISA/MasterCard/Amex/Discovery (PsL) in addition to direct mail and CompuServe GO SWREG.

•	Frequently asked Questions” (FAQ) topic added to help file

•	Corrected erroneous color table assignment

•	Corrected problem with generation of paragraph borders

•	Modified HLP2RTF.DOT for Word for Windows 97 compatibility.

•	Copyright and file title are now placed into the document information when pre-print processing is selected.

31.10.1996 Version 2.10

Solved the following problems with formatting of RTF output code:

•	Compatibility with Star Division StarOffice software

•	Coding of font tables did not previously conform to the RTF standard

•	Severe problems occurred when including bitmaps in the RTF code

•	Registered version displayed errornous created by unregistered version” title for helpfiles that did not support a title.

11.10.1996 Version 2.09

Discovered an incompatibility with one HCRTF.EXE-generated helpfile; changed handling of Phrase decompression to support this anomaly.

25.8.1996 Version 2.08

Added support for Windows 95 multimedia and embedding extensions:

•	{button} statements now handled correctly

•	{mci} statements now handled correctly

•	{bmxt} (transparent bitmaps) now handled correctly

•	ALink entries now acknowledged and properly handled.

Resources and helpfile localized for full English language support by Cub Lea <cublea@cyberstore.ca.>

14.8.1996 Version 2.07

Fixed a problem the 16 bit version had communicating with embedded window DLLs.

Fixed a problem with cross-references to other helpfiles (interfile links) using the pre-print conversion option.

Word processor memory requirements can now be optimized by storing bitmaps intended for pre-print output as separate disk files outside of the RTF file.  Images are referenced via an import specification. This also greatly reduces the size of the created RTF file and reduces the effort required to edit images. It also decreases total disk space requirements since externally-stored images require only one copy on disk whereas images embedded in the RTF require a unique embedded image for each reference, even if the same image is referenced several hundred times in the same helpfile. Embedded window graphics also receive the same write-once treatment.  Filenames for extracted images are generated from a CRC-like value of the image file.

DLLs that are not available on the path but referenced by an entry in WINHELP.INI or VIEWER.INI are now found and loaded when needed for generating embedding images.

Fixed problem with occasional Word 6.0 mistreatment of footnote references.

15.4.1996 Version 2.05

Solved problem with author-defined embedded window command strings ( {ewl...} statements)

Solved a problem with some Windows 95-Format Help-Files causing GPF.

27.3.1996 Version 2.04

V2.03 was unusable on non-German machines.

Fixed a problem when transferring TrueColor bitmaps from the helpfiles into the RTF output files.  Occasionally MS Word was unable to read the image.

22.3.1996 Version 2.03

Fixed problems with metric sizes of some graphics.

Fixed incompatibility of 32 bit version with Win32s. (32 bit version now runs in Windows 3.1/3.11 providing Win32s is installed).

20.3.1996 Version 2.02

Now supports the Contents= entry when generating recompilable output.

Fixed a bug in the generation of hash codes for recompilable output.

18.3.1996 Version 2.01

Added registration key feature.

12.3.1996 Version 2.00

•	Completely revised user interface.

•	Now generates an index and table of contents when converting for print.

•	Now generates page references for jumps and popups as field codes in the RTF.

•	Batch mode implemented

•	Scan function now available to search entire drive for helpfiles.

•	Now uses the helpfile title for the page heading when generating pre-print output.

•	Now extracts icon files when creating a recompileable project.

•	Fixed some incompatibilities.

18.2.1996 Version 1.14

Fixed an Incompatibility with some bitmaps found in WinHelp 4.0 (Windows 95) helpfiles. Fixed a bug in a Windows 95-specific decompression routines that only occurred in the 16 bit version of Help to RTF. Fixed an Incompatibility to Windows 95 files that used the Phrase Compression” option at compile time.

15.2.1996 Version 1.13

Added support for the rarely used {bmxwd ...} statement for printing helpfiles designed for CD distribution. Helpfiles using these statements formerly caused GPF in most cases.

Added support for bitmaps in Windows 3.0 helpfiles.

Splitting of output RTF files into several smaller RTF files is now optional to permit output from large files to be handled more comfortably on machines with plenty of memory.  It is now possible to create one large RTF file from a given source file.

The paragraph height default is changed to minimum” instead of exact” when converting for print.  It was discovered that some graphics could not be displayed because of paragraph height improprieties.

31.1.1996 Version 1.12

Now includes support for embedded window Help DLLs. Help to RTF tries to make the best guess about the appearance of the embedding (images and controls) when generating graphic output for print-ready RTF.

28.1.1996 Version 1.11

Fixed a Bug in Help to RTF that sometimes caused a GPF or Division by Zero-Error when converting Help-Files from HCRTF for Printing. It was caused due to bitmaps that had a metric size of zero.

Default paper size set to A4 for Germany to support the majority of current Help to RTF clientele. A special combination of compression technologies found in one helpfile is now supported. Macro jumps are no longer formatted as strike-through when converting for print.

27.1.1996 Version 1.10

When generating pre-print output, bitmaps and WMF files are now stored in a temporary directory and deleted after conversion. When converting for printing, only the RTF file remains after processing.

22.1.1996 Version 1.09

Image sizes are now correct when converting for printing with embedded images in the RTF.

21.1.1996 Version 1.08

Restored HC30.EXE-compiled Help compatibility which was lost when adding Multimedia Viewer support. Also corrected handling of keyword strings and end-of-file marks in decompiled Windows 3.0 Help. Some types of data from Windows 30 Help are still unavailable, e.g. [MAP] entries, but further support is unlikely due to the obsolescence of the HC30 helpfile format.

20.1.1996 Version 1.07

Progress dialog can now be iconized and closed via the system menu. Erroneous headline statement problem corrected. Program now beeps when conversion is complete. Border tags in rtf are now recreated Word 6.0-compatible. Options from file selector dialog are now stored in HLP2RTF.INI. Progress Indicator no longer stops before reaching 100%.

16.1.1996 Version 1.05

First hybrid German/English release.

10.1.1996 Version 1.04

HLP2RTF can now create page breaks after every topic when generating RTF files intended for printing. Table creation is no longer necessary for generation of printable output, so the 16 bit version is now able to handle any helpfile selected for pre-print output.

9.1.1996 Version 1.03

Added support for the .MVB file format for Multimedia Viewer 2.0 and the ,M13 file format used in MediaView 1.3.

7.1.1996 Version 1.02

Added support for graphic compression types 0x0006,0x0306 and 0x0008 that could not be converted to .BMP or .WMF files by earlier versions.

Compiled HLP2RTF optimized for file size.

5.1.1996 Version 1.01

Fixed bug in handling of WinHelp 4.0 (32 bit Help) files.  Some files (e.g. HCW.HLP) caused the program to hang displaying an Extracting Baggage” message.

3.1.1996 Version 1.00

First public release. First version with WinHelp 4.0 Support.

Betas

Several distributions of beta versions to selected Herd Software clientele. Distributed 16 bit version via FIDO-Net WINDOWS.PROG.GER.


 Help to RTF Network Edition

What is Help to RTF Network Edition?

The network edition of Help to RTF is a special fixed-price edition of Help to RTF offering an inexpensive solution to company-wide documentation conversion needs.  A single US$100.00 license permits the use of Help to RTF as a helpfile print pre-processor and decompiler across an entire domain in a network.  Whether youve got a team of three documentation specialists needing access to a Help decompiler or a hundred employees needing printable output from helpfiles, a single registration price covers the entire domain.

The best documentation bargain anywhere

Think of the savings possible when Help to RTF is implemented as a company- or department-wide solution for documentation:

•	each employee can generate custom manuals containing only the information they need, meaning fewer print sharing headaches and reduced paper usage

•	employees needing only a hypertext reference can avoid printing completely

•	reduced costs when purchasing site licenses for other software...employees can print their own manuals directly from the helpfile and only if they feel the need (site license costs can rise dramatically when manuals must be purchased for each user)

•	lower energy and shipping costs when purchasing site licensed software since you can print manuals using paper in stock


Shareware licensing information
 Shareware License Information

Shareware version notice

Help to RTF is not and has never been free software. You are permitted to evaluate it for a period not exceeding 30 days to determine its fitness, after which you must either register it or delete it.

The Help to RTF shareware evaluation archive may be freely redistributed as long as the original distribution archive is not altered.  All components must be included and nothing may be added, altered or removed.

Differences between shareware version and registered editions

The shareware version limits the number of keywords extracted from helpfiles. There are no other functional differences between the shareware and registered versions.

Warranty of fitness

Help to RTF uses file access technologies which are neither documented nor supported by Microsoft, the developers of the Help, Multimedia Viewer and MediaView file formats. We cannot guarantee that the program will be able to convert every Help or Viewer file.  It will not print or decompile helpfiles created using encryption technologies, decompile protection or RTF formatting techniques that are not supported by the Help compiler itself.

Help to RTF underwent rigorous pre-release testing prior to version 2.00, and has been considerably enhanced and improved since then.  You should discover few if any problems or incompatibilities in this software.  If you do manage to discover a file incompatible with Help to RTF, please send it to us for examination. If this file was not specifically engineered with protection against text extraction or decompilation, then we will attempt to insure that the next release of Help to RTF is capable of overcoming this incompatibility.

Registration and licensing options

Upon receipt of your registration for Help to RTF, you will be sent the most recent version of Help to RTF either on disk or by email.  Your registered software will include a registration key that removes all registration reminders found in the shareware version of Help to RTF and enables complete extraction of keywords.

Your registered, licensed software may be used on only one computer per license. It is not redistributable unless you own a developers license (no longer available).

Your registration key will allow you to instantly register all updates to Version 2 distributions (V2.00 to 2.99 inclusive) of Help to RTF.

License Type	Description	Price
Single user license	permits Help to RTF to be used on one computer per license.	25  40 US $
Network license	Site license for use on any number of machines belonging to one domain in a network.	50  80 US $
Special licenses

Inquiries in regard to special licensing arrangements for operating systems or distribution requirements not listed above should be directed via fax, mail or Internet email to Herd Software Development.

Linux Versions

A command-line oriented Version of Help to RTF for linux is available for download from http://www.herdsoft.com. The Windows Version of Help to RTF is compatible to the free windows emulator WINE Version 990314 available from http://www.winehq.com.

Ask our support info@hersoft.com for more informations.

Contacting the developers

Send questions or orders to:

Germany:

	Herd Software Entwicklung Order Form Dipl. Ing. Bernd Herd Rudolf-Virchow-Str. 8 68642 Bürstadt Germany Tel.: +49-6206-707775 Fax.: +49-6206-707776 EMail-Adressen: InterNet: info@herdsoft.com Word wide Web: http://www.herdsoft.com
USA/Canada:

Ordering only:
Public (software) Library (use the order form)

See also:

Other products from Herd Software Development


 Select Language utility

The select language utility defines both the language to choose for subsequent cinversions and the word processor which will be used to print the converted files.

Choosing the Language

The language selected affects both the language used in the Help to RTF wizard dialogs and the language for strings added to the help file by Help to RTF itself, such as "Table of Contents", "Index" and so on.

Choosing the Word processor

Some word processing applications cannot process some of the enhanced RTF control strings use by Help to RTF. To make shure your RTF-Files will be readable by your word processor, select the word processing application youll use to print the documents here.

See also:

Limitations when printing with StarOffice 5.0

Using the free Microsoft Word 97 Viewer

Help to RTF for Linux


 Limitations when printing with StarOffice 5.0

StarOffice is a mayor Microsoft Word competitor. It has several advantages:

•	Its free for private use

•	Its cheaper for professional use

•	Its available for Linux

However its capabilities of importing RTF files are somewhat limited:

•	StarOffice cannot import Table of contents entries, Index entries and page references

•	StarOffice is often unable to import an RTF-File it has created itself. Save Filesin StarOffice format once youve done changes to them!

•	StarOffice doesnt understand the right-justified use of bitmaps in RTF. In case of a right-justfied control string it crashes.

See also:

Using the free Microsoft Word 97 Viewer

Help to RTF for Linux


 Help to RTF for Linux

Help to RTF can be used with the free linux operating system in two ways:

•	Help to RTF for windows is compatible to the free windows emulator "wine" available from http://www.winehq.com.

•	A free command-line version for Linux of Help to RTF is available that can be used without installing a windows emulator. The resulting help files may be printed with StarOffice 5.0 for Linux. Download the linux version from http://www.herdsoft.com/ftp/downloads.html#hlp2rtf


 Using the Free Microsoft Word 97 Viewer

In case you do not own Microsoft Word you might want to get the free Microsoft Word 97 Viewer Application. This Free program is able to print handbooks using all the features offered by Help to RTF without buying an additional word processing application.

See:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/support/mslfiles/WDVW9716.EXE
Microsoft Word Viewer 97 for Windows 16-bit Operating Systems, is a freeware product that allows you to view and print Microsoft Word 97 documents on 16-bit Windows operating systems. Like previous versions of Word Viewer, this version can also open documents created with all previous versions of Word for Windows and version 4.x and later of Microsoft Word for Macintosh. (2321131 bytes, published 06/20/97)

http://www.microsoft.com/download/support/mslfiles/WDVW9732.EXE
Microsoft Word Viewer 97, the newest member of the Word Viewer family, is a freeware product that allows you to view and print Microsoft Word 97 documents. Like previous versions of Word Viewer, the latest version can also open documents created with all previous versions of Word for Windows and version 4.x and later of Microsoft Word for Macintosh. (3952016 bytes, published 05/13/97)


Other Products by Herd Software Development
Other Products from Herd Software Development

You may want to take a look onto other shareware distributed programs available from our team:

Compuserve FileName	Compuserve Forum	Description	Price	Language
LZAPI.ZIP	WINSDK	Your Doorway to the Archive: A set of redistributable DLLs giving your applications access to compressed archives in formats ZIP,ARC,LZH,ARJ,RAR,ZOO and TAR Available for 16-Bit and 32-Bit Windows development	99 US $	English
THINHELP.ZIP	HYPERTEXT	LZH- and JPEG compressed pictures in WinHelp (.HLP) and Media Viewer (.MVB) files. Allows for photographic-like use of WinHelp multimedia Applications including Transparent images and photographic background images.	169 US $	English
ASETUP.ZIP	GERWIN	Multilungual german /english/french installation program with C-source, fast LZH decompressor, self-installing EXE capability, easy to use	Public Domain	English + German
HEXE.LZH	GERWIN	German edition of the ASetup Drag & Drop Workshop	200 DM	German
WITCH.LZH	HYPERTEXT	English edition of the ASetup Drag & Drop Workshop	150 US $	English
HLP2RTF.ZIP	PCPROG	Help file to RTF converter - Allows to Converrt a help file or Media Veiwer file into a recompilable HPJ project - or to Convert it for printing including all the bitmaps	40 US $	English
NEUBOX.ZIP	GERWIN	Custom Controls for database applications.  - Column listbox with user editable fields, sizeable headings, sort etc., fast filling up to 32000 lines - columned ComboBox  - Edit control with overwrite mode and many many more...	499 DM	German
GRBTN.ZIP	GERWIN	Custom Controls to design dialog boxes - Easy to use Tabbed Dialogs. Allows to use Tabbed Dialogs changing only the resources without changing the source codes of your program. - Easy to use picture buttons - Statusbar automization for dialog boxes and many many more...	150 DM	German
DAVINCI.ZIP	GERWIN	Graphic Import/Export library. Imports graphics as device independend bitmaps and metafiles: - Import: BMP/WMF/TIF/JPG/PCX/DXF/GIF - Export BMP/WMF/TIF/JPG - Transparently allows to use Aldus / Microsoft import filter programs (.FLT) - Includes powerfull set of graphic support gunctions like dithering, rotating...	150 DM	German
LHALIB14.ZIP	WINSDK	3,5 KByte LHA decompression DLL for setup applications with assembly language source	Public Domain	English

You might also like to visit our WWW-Pages at

http://www.herdsoft.com

Most tools listed above can be downloaded from these pages.