Creating helpfiles, what to use?

[maeron]

Hi,
I'm developing a software for both Win Xp and Win 7 and have a load of problem when trying to create a helpfile.

If I use the old fashioned CHM file format (using WinCHM) i can open the helpfile but with the classic "This program cannot display the webpage" (Its NOT the enable button It just wont work (not even on XP).

And if I use the new microsoft way and use Innovasys Helpstudio Lite and create a hxs file I get Invalid commandline OR "You are attemting to open a file of type Microsoft help ...... (hxs)
If you still want to open the file, click open with.....

Im using Visual Studio 2008 and have the 2008 SDK installed but I need to creta a help file that everyone can use independent of the operating system.

What software shall I use to crete the helpfiles and what kind of helpfiles shall I use?

/M

[mariocatch]

A lot of major corporations use doxygen:
www.doxygen.org/

[maeron]

Installed it but I am more of a wysiwyg kind of person. Didn't really understand how I can use doxygen to create helpfiles

/M

[mariocatch]

If you're using Visual Studio, this is built in for you btw.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc302121.aspx

Use XML tags for your comments and you can generate a help file directly from the IDE.

[maeron]

Yes a documentation yes, but I want to make a helpfile, like HOWTO use this feature in the program and so on

[mariocatch]

I'm not sure I understand the difference... Your documentation IS a help file. Are you writing a help file for users or other engineers of your code?

If it's for users, then you should make a word doc, visio doc, powerpoint, etc... If it's for other programmers/engineers of your library/code, then use the MSDN type documentation, which is the link I gave you.

[maeron]

Its for the basic users of the software.

[S_M_A]

This might help http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...02(VS.85).aspx

[mariocatch]

If it's for basic users, just write a wiki page, or a word doc. There's no software that takes code and translates it into user friendly how-to's for regular end users of your application.

[zips]

Back in the good old days Delphi provided good support for developing high quality, context-sensitive (F1) help for the software end user (i.e., customers). I used HDK from Virtual Media in Australia to generate the help, which linked perfectly at runtime to the Delphi-produced exe. Sadly, Microsoft has never shown the slightest aptitude for this developer concept. The best I can do with Visual Studio is to create extensive, very verbose 'tooltips' (with the text updated to explain concepts in the current user's data state) for everything.

[S_M_A]

Sadly, Microsoft has never shown the slightest aptitude for this developer concept. The best I can do with Visual Studio is to create extensive, very verbose 'tooltips' (with the text updated to explain concepts in the current user's data state) for everything.

Eh... as far as I remember I used the MS help compiler back when MSVC 1.52 was hot stuff. Today other tools are of course provided. One entry from the link in my previous post http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...69(VS.85).aspx

[maeron]

I Moved the helpfile to c:\windows\help so now it works