Updated: 12/29/2005
SWDev-Help
!!Help hints
- Adding another tab to Winhelp 4.0. I was wondering how to add a tab to the main winhelp window that has a logo on the tab (as well as text) and that links directly to a PDF document when you click on it.

If you don't have a convenient programmer in your back pocket, Paul is the person to contact (I could do it too, but I don't have the time right now). If you have a programmer you can impose upon, and who knows a bit about DLLs, there is a shell DLL on my site. Go to www.smountain.com and click Programming. Then download the "Extra Tab for WinHelp 4.0 Help Topics Dialog." If the programmer is using Visual Studio, it shouldn't be too hard for hime to take the example and convert it. [Report a dead link]

!!Help links
[Report a dead link]

Astrohelp
Word 6/7 based help editor. Freeware. http://www10.pair.com/vsap/ [Report a dead link]
http://www.helpmaster.de/hlp-wordbased-astrohelp.htm

Autodoc
Winhelp generation tool. [Report a dead link]
http://www.simtel.net/pub/win95/txtutl/

Cheetah 9 , 900kb , Rating: 4
Create RTF files to make HLP files. This works much better than previous versions. I would recommend it. You can even highlight a word and click a button to make that word an index keyword for that topic. Supports tables, bullet lists, numbered lists, font formatting, and more. You can include RTF commands, which means you can implement raw RTF commands if you know them. You can also have text blocks saved, called "tips". Double click on a tip and it is inserted into the current topic. [Report a dead link]
http://jansfreeware.com/jfprogramming.htm#cheetah

dHelp
Makes HLP, CHM, RTF, TXT, HTML help files using Delphi Sourcecode. Does not make standalone help files. [Report a dead link]
http://www.dream-com.com/

DotHlp , 4,900kb
Download a free trial version. Claims to be very easy to use and supports both HLP and CHM and decompiling. Features: add/remove buttons with one click, spell checker, compile only subsets of your project, save as a website of HTML pages, import/export RTF, TXT.

I found this difficult to use. You cannot import existing HTML files. I found the multi-level index keywords did not work right. [Report a dead link]
http://www.auricvisions.com/download.htm

Easyhelp
Makes HTML and HLP windows help files. [Report a dead link]
http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/index.htm

Eclipse Help 95 , eh95.exe, Rating: 4
WIn95. Fairly good, easy to use help editor. Has a few bugs which can be worked around. Freeware. Supports only 3 fonts. Also supports internet links, images. [Report a dead link]
www.greeneclipsesoftware.com

F1 Help
Help authoring tool. Generates help documentation for Delphi components. I think you can also manually add help topics using this. BETA version. [Report a dead link]
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Vista/5524/f1help. html

FAR , 1,500kb
Great help editor. You must create your HTML files first, then drag and drop them into FAR, which will help you make TOC and index files. Makes CHM files, also decompiles. Shareware. Supports the Find tab and Index entries and Index tab. Difficult to add multiple index entries for one topic. [Report a dead link]
http://www.helpware.net/FAR/aboutfar/aboutfar.htm

Hellp! , 960kb
Help authoring for Winword 97/2000. I think this supports only a HLP file. Supports almost any language that uses the Roman alphabet. Generate browse sequences automatically. Built-in support for the EWDLL.DLL for 256 colour pictures (EWDLL.DLL is readily available from the Free Software Foundation). Generation of additional menus and menu items on the Winhelp menu bar. Even omission of the whole menu bar. [Report a dead link]
http://www.guysoftware.com/helllp.html

Help Aid
Uses a text file with special codes to generate the required RTF files to feed to the help compiler. [Report a dead link]
http://zamora.home.mindspring.com/

Help Burger
Shareware help builder. Designed to be simple to use. Has Back and Forward buttons, like a browser, to move through previously visited topics. Trial version limited to 20 topics. [Report a dead link]
http://www.langdaledesigns.co.uk/index.htm

Help card
Make Winhelp files by creating help cards. [Report a dead link]
http://www.helpmaster.com/zip/helpcard.zip

Help Decompiler
Decompiles HLP files. [Report a dead link]
http://www.helpmaster.com/hlp-musthave.htm

Help file format
Describes the help file format. [Report a dead link]
http://www.helpmaster.com/hlp-developmentaids-helpfile.htm

Help pos
Changes the window position for precompiled help files. [Report a dead link]
http://www.helpmaster.com/hlp-developmentaids-helppos.htm

Help tree
With HelpTree you can create problem solving Helptrees. Ideal for help desks, material selection, structured decision taking. Search in tree, modify color and background, record decision taking steps, labels to jump to any node in the tree. Combo's for quick selection of : labels, helptree files and history records. The integral editor can also function as a notepad replacement for large files. Password: 1207pm. [Report a dead link]
www.jansfreeware.com/jftools.htm

Help Workshop , HelpWS.exe, 1,559kb
Help Workshop for Win 95/98. Requires MS help compiler. [Report a dead link]

HelpScribble , helpscr, Rating: 5, Editor's Pick
Win 9x. FREE. Win help editor with spell checker. Shareware but fully functional. Many features. Supports editing window size, browsing order, image maps, spell checker, many fonts, user-defined font styles, images, more. [Report a dead link]
www.jgsoft.com

HelpWriter Pro v5 , 6,400kb
Windows help file writer. Supports HLP files. [Report a dead link]
http://www.cyotek.com

Helpy , helpy.zip, 357kb
Win95. Help file generator using Word 97. Freeware. http://xteq.com/products/. Also http://www.helpmaster.de/zip/helpy10.zip. [Report a dead link]
http://www.nonags.com/nonags/prog32.html

Hlp2Rtf
Converts HLP files to RTF for editing and recompiling. Shareware version has limit on the number of keywords (for the index) it will convert. [Report a dead link]

HTML 2 HLP 2 RTF
Converts from HTML to HLP or RTF. [Report a dead link]
http://www.confluent.fr/javadoc/indexe.html

HTML 2 PDF (Htmldoc)
Freeware [Report a dead link]
http://www.easysw.com/htmldoc/

HtmlHelp ePublisher , Htmlhelp, 1,200kb , Rating: 4
Free for personal use. For win 9x. Makes MS HTML Help CHM format along with HLP format. Add special effects like transitions, buttons, more. Interface looks pretty simple and easy to use. This looks very good. The topic list shows for each topic: Title, filename, icon, background image, bg color, keywords, related topics. What this does is uses a WYSIWIG HTML editor, like Frontpage, to make CHM files and compile them. Has: Popup Text - Expandable Sections - Shortcut Buttons - Page Transitions - Secondary Windows - Typing Text - Disable Right-Click Menu - Customize Help buttons in Help toolbar. Enables use of several undocumented HTMLHelp features not available in Microsoft HTMLHelp Workshop V1.3.

Supports footers, but not sub keywords (like "color, blue"). This uses HTML code with extra markup codes, so your final HTML files will not be valid HTML. Also, sample help file seemed buggy. Cannot use existing HTML files. Also: Dave Central [Report a dead link]
http://www.htmlhelp-epublisher.co.uk/

Keytools
Decompiles CHM or ITS files and recreates the HHP project file. Also finds all HTML and Winhelp components so you can check their versions. [Report a dead link]
http://www.keyworks.net/keytools.htm

MS HTML Help , hhupd.exe
Win 9x. Microsoft HTML help compiler makes .CHM files. Requires Win 98 or IE 4.0 installed. [Report a dead link]
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?URL=/library/ tools/htmlhelp/chm/hh1start.htm

Oasis SE , 200kb
Freeware version of a Help authoring program. A little buggy. stephanf@adept.co.za [Report a dead link]
http://www.adept.co.za/~oasisdev

RTF2HELP
RTF2HLP is a freeware tool that converts directly a Microsoft® Word RTF document to a Windows Help file. The main advantage of RTF2HLP is that it converts documents without the need of any extra project files. [Report a dead link]
http://www.ariacom.com/rtf2hlp/

RTFGen , 112kb
Freeware. Make CHM and HLP help files for Windows using a text file with specially marked text. [Report a dead link]
http://www.luhsd.k12.ca.us/lhs/general_information/rtfgen/ rtfgen.html

Shalom Help Maker
Shalom Help Maker (SHM) is an easy to use Windows help file editor that supports images, popup windows, links to other pages, web pages and E-mail addresses, and has automatic updating of links when pages are rearranged, listing of unused bitmaps and popup pages, listing of links to the present page... and lots more. SHM makes HLP files, not CHM files. Unlike other help file creators Shalom Help Maker works like any ordinary editor and therefore has practically no learning curve. BETA

Topics are organized on numbered tabs, which makes it hard to keep track of them. [Report a dead link]
http://www.danish-shareware.dk/soft/shelpm/