HelpScribble

If you can scribble, you can author help files

HelpScribble is a program to create Windows Help files, without the need of a word processor.

To find out what is new in this version, check out the version history.

To install it, simply unzip HelpScr.zip and run Setup.exe
If due to some unimaginable reason, you would not like HelpScribble, you can uninstall it from the Control Panel or by running Setup.exe again.

HelpScribble itself requires Windows 95/98/NT4, but the created help files will work with Windows 3.1 and Windows 95/98/NT4.

Help compiler

You will also need a help compiler to build the .hlp file from your text. This is because Microsoft (who invented the .hlp file format) likes keeping the .hlp file format secret. Some unofficial sources exist, but using the Microsoft's help compiler is the best way to ensure full compatibility.
In other words: it is not my fault.

HelpScribble can work together with HC.EXE, HC31.EXE and HCP.EXE for creating Windows 3.1 help files (which work with Win95 too) and HCRTF.EXE for creating Windows 95 help files. Note that HC and HC31 are old DOS programs and suffer from the 640K barrier. This means that they will report and "out of memory" error message pretty soon when your project starts to grow. HCP and HCRTF do not have this limitation.
Chances are high that you already have one of those. They ship with most popular development tools for Windows, like the one from Microsoft and Inprise (Borland). If so, HelpScribble will automatically find and use them.

If you do not have a functioning help compiler yet, you can download HC.zip (320 kB) here. This file includes both HCP and HCRTF. Unzip the file into your HelpScribble folder (or wherever you want). Pick Project|Options in HelpScribble and click the Find Help Compilers button.

If you want to take full advantage of the new HTML Help format, you will need to download the Microsoft HTML Help Workshop to compile the files exported by HelpScribble into a single .chm file.

See also:
HelpScribble version history
HelpScribble download links
What HelpScribble's users say
The author's home page

This page was last updated on September 23rd
Copyright (C) 1996-1999, by Jan Goyvaerts.