README file for the evaluation copy of the "Indy" indexing system. Copyright (C) 1993 by Interface Technologies, Inc. Version 1.00, released 7/16/93 Summary: ------- This distribution contains an evaluation copy of the Indy indexing system. The index file (api32wh.idx) completely indexes every word in the Win32 32-bit API help file (api32wh.hlp). The program makes it extremely easy to find any piece of information in the help file instantly: Just type in the words of interest and click the Search button. You will see a list of all of the matching help topics. You can double click on any topic to pull up its page in the Windows Help system. You are free to copy and distribute this evaluation copy without charge. See below for restrictions. Introduction: ------------ The Indy indexing system indexes Windows Help files. You will find that these indexes give you a new and extremely useful way of looking at help files. For example, if you are a programmer using the 32-bit API for Windows or Windows NT, then you know that it can be very hard to find the information that you need because the help file is so big. The Win32 help file (api32wh.hlp) contains over 8,000 individual help topics, and over 750,000 words. Only a very small subset of those words appear in the WinHelp "Search" dialog. Indy provides an index that contains every word in the help file. If you are interested in environment strings, simply type "environment strings" at the prompt and press or select 'Search'. Indy will show you a list of every help topic that contains both of those words. Double click on a topic to see its page in the Windows Help system. If you want to know about security tokens, type "security token". If you want to know how to reboot Windows NT, type "reboot". Every related help topic containing the words that you are interested in will appear. Simply double click on the topic name in the list to open that page in the help file. Never before have you been able to search a help file in this way. This distibution consists of a single ZIP file that contains the following files: README.TXT This README file INDY32.EXE 32-bit executable for Windows NT running on i386 systems. Compiled with the March 93 beta. INDY16.EXE 16-bit executable for Windows 3.1 machines, or NT machines that are not i386 compatible. API32WH.IDX The index database for the Win32 API help file named api32wh.hlp. This index was compiled from the help file released with the SDK on the March 93 beta copy of Windows NT. This is an evaluation copy of the program. You are free to use and copy the program as you see fit for personal, non-commercial uses. If you distribute the program to others, we ask only that you do so without charge, that you distribute the complete and original ZIP file containing all four files, and that you make no modifications to the package. We originally created this program for internal use at Interface Technologies. We are releasing this particular index file because we found it to be extremely useful when working with the 32-bit API. We hope that you find it useful as well, and that you enjoy using it. We also sell a professional edition of this product. The introductory price of $39.95 is valid through August 31, 1993. With Indy Pro you get an advanced MDI version of the program, as well as indexes to all of the help files needed by Windows programmers: MFC 1.0 and 2.0, the 16- and 32-bit APIs, and the C/C++ runtime libraries. You will not believe how useful these indexes are, especially if you are in the process of learning the APIs or MFC. To order the professional edition, contact Interface Technologies at: Interface Technologies, Inc. Wake Forest, NC 1-800-224-4965 indy@iftech.com We accept Visa and Mastercard. We can provide you with an index for almost any help file that you need. Interface Technologies also creates extremely useful on-line indexes for books and other technical references and resources. These indexes make it very easy for your readers to find information instantly, and enhance the reader's perception of the quality of your work. If you are an author or a publisher, please contact us for more information on these reasonably priced products. We hope that you you find this evaluation copy useful. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, we look forward to hearing from you. Instructions for using this evaluation copy of Indy: --------------------------------------------------- 1) Unzip the distribution file (indy.zip) in its own directory. 2) Use the search function in the File Manager to find the file named api32wh.hlp provided by Microsoft in your SDK. For example, the file can be found in \mstools\help on the March 93 Beta CD-ROM for Windows NT. Make sure that the directory containing this file is in your PATH environment variable. If not, change the PATH variable and reboot the machine. 3) Double-click on either the indy32 or indy16 executable. The 32-bit version is intended for NT machines that use the i386 architecture. Windows 3.1 users, or users running NT on other architectures, should use the 16-bit version. 4) Type words relevant to the topic of interest into the input area and either press or select 'Search'. For example, if you are interested in security tokens, type "security token". Indy will find all help topics that contain both of those words. Add more words to narrow the search. Use fewer words to broaden the search. You can also use the "*" character at the end of a word as a wild card. For example, "help*" matches "help", "helps", "helper", etc. In the previous example you might enter "security token*" to catch pages containing both "token" and "tokens". 5) Indy will show you the titles of all of the help topics that contain the words that you entered. Double click on a topic of interest. Indy will automatically pull up the Help file at that topic. If it cannot find the help file, see step 2. You will need to reboot the machine for any changes in the path to take effect. 6) In some rare cases, Indy cannot find the topic selected because the title of the help topic and the title in the search dialog are different. In these cases, use the search dialog in WinHelp as usual to select the topic.