Copyright: Copyright 1993 Cris Williams


HelpMaker 1.02

There have been many macros and style sheets developed for Ami Pro to assist the user in creating RTF files used for creating Windows help files.  Being the average macro developer, I decided to undertake a project of developing something a little more to my taste.  Many of the others are very good ones.  HelpMaker just seems to suit me a little better.  I hope you enjoy it.  If there are any suggestions or requests for additions, please direct all questions to Cris Williams.

Getting Started

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Getting Started

This application expects you to know the specifics of developing Windows help files.  It doesn't go into detail about procedures and rules of help file authoring.  There are several sources of information that can be obtained via Compuserve.  Go to the WINSDK forum and browse through the WinHelp library for different files that relate to help file authoring.

I would first suggest that you use the menu to define some default settings.  Select HelpMaker/RTF Docs/Define RTF Path to specify where you want to store your RTF files.  Then, do the same for Project Editor and Help Compiler.

HelpMaker 1.02

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SmartIcons

New

Open

Save

Topic

Jump

Popup Mark

Popup Text

Search Word

Macro Footnote

Macro Hotspot

Blue Background

White Background

Help Project Editor

Help Compiler

HelpMaker help

Exit


New

Creates a new untitled document using _HELPMKR.STY.  This style sheet should be in your styles directory and is packaged with HelpMaker.

Open

Save

Topic

Jump

Popup Mark

Popup Text

Search Word

Macro Footnote

Macro Hotspot

Blue Background

White Background

Help Project Editor

Help Compiler

HelpMaker help

Exit


Open

Opens a saved RTF file.

New

Save

Topic

Jump

Popup Mark

Popup Text

Search Word

Macro Footnote

Macro Hotspot

Blue Background

White Background

Help Project Editor

Help Compiler

HelpMaker help

Exit


Save

Saves the current document to an RTF file in the defined RTF path.

New

Open

Topic

Jump

Popup Mark

Popup Text

Search Word

Macro Footnote

Macro Hotspot

Blue Background

White Background

Help Project Editor

Help Compiler

HelpMaker help

Exit


Topic

Creates necessary footnotes for the topic text of a panel.  Place your cursor on the same line with the topic, then click on this icon.  After creating the footnotes, it prompts you for the panel number.

New

Open

Save

Jump

Popup Mark

Popup Text

Search Word

Macro Footnote

Macro Hotspot

Blue Background

White Background

Help Project Editor

Help Compiler

HelpMaker help

Exit


Jump

Creates cross references jump spots.  This function is more designed to work with a vertical list of jumps.  It will simply prompt you if you want to make the next line a jump spot or not.

New

Open

Save

Topic

Popup Mark

Popup Text

Search Word

Macro Footnote

Macro Hotspot

Blue Background

White Background

Help Project Editor

Help Compiler

HelpMaker help

Exit


Popup Mark

Creates a popup mark that will be associated with the text on another page.  Just shade a word from left to right and click on this icon.

New

Open

Save

Topic

Jump

Popup Text

Search Word

Macro Footnote

Macro Hotspot

Blue Background

White Background

Help Project Editor

Help Compiler

HelpMaker help

Exit


Popup Text

Creates footnotes necessary for linking text to the mark using the Popup Mark icon.

New

Open

Save

Topic

Jump

Popup Mark

Search Word

Macro Footnote

Macro Hotspot

Blue Background

White Background

Help Project Editor

Help Compiler

HelpMaker help

Exit


Search Word

Adds words to the search list in a WinHelp window.  Just place the cursor anywhere on the page of the topic, then click this icon.

New

Open

Save

Topic

Jump

Popup Mark

Popup Text

Macro Footnote

Macro Hotspot

Blue Background

White Background

Help Project Editor

Help Compiler

HelpMaker help

Exit


Macro Footnote

Creates a footnote with a WinHelp macro.  Some of these are easy, some will require a more extensive knowledge of developing help files.

New

Open

Save

Topic

Jump

Popup Mark

Popup Text

Search Word

Macro Hotspot

Blue Background

White Background

Help Project Editor

Help Compiler

HelpMaker help

Exit


Macro Hotspot

Creates a footnote with a WinHelp macro at a specified place.  Just shade some text and click the icon.

New

Open

Save

Topic

Jump

Popup Mark

Popup Text

Search Word

Macro Footnote

Blue Background

White Background

Help Project Editor

Help Compiler

HelpMaker help

Exit


Blue Background

On my particular system, the sequences of keystrokes that this function will send results in setting the page color in Ami Pro to dark blue.  It's helpful if developing a help file with a background color other than white.  This may not work the same on your system.  You can edit the macro to contain the appropriate keystrokes to accomplish this on your system.

New

Open

Save

Topic

Jump

Popup Mark

Popup Text

Search Word

Macro Footnote

Macro Hotspot

White Background

Help Project Editor

Help Compiler

HelpMaker help

Exit


White Background

Same as Blue Background, except this function sets the page color back to white.

New

Open

Save

Topic

Jump

Popup Mark

Popup Text

Search Word

Macro Footnote

Macro Hotspot

Help Project Editor

Help Compiler

HelpMaker help

Exit


Help Project Editor

Executes the specified Help Project Editor.

New

Open

Save

Topic

Jump

Popup Mark

Popup Text

Search Word

Macro Footnote

Macro Hotspot

Blue Background

White Background

Help Compiler

HelpMaker help

Exit


Help Compiler

Executes the specified Help File Compiler.

New

Open

Save

Topic

Jump

Popup Mark

Popup Text

Search Word

Macro Footnote

Macro Hotspot

Blue Background

White Background

Help Project Editor

HelpMaker help

Exit


HelpMaker help

Obviously, this icon produces this help window.

New

Open

Save

Topic

Jump

Popup Mark

Popup Text

Search Word

Macro Footnote

Macro Hotspot

Blue Background

White Background

Help Project Editor

Help Compiler

Exit


Exit

Exits HelpMaker.

New

Open

Save

Topic

Jump

Popup Mark

Popup Text

Search Word

Macro Footnote

Macro Hotspot

Blue Background

White Background

Help Project Editor

Help Compiler

HelpMaker help


Compuserve

75300,2704

Internet

cris_williams@crd.lotus.com