CHM Help File Editor/Convertor

[sjoens]

Anyone know of a good easy to use CHM editor? Be nice to convert some of them to "working" PDFs.

If you can open the CHM file in Win10, you can Print to PDF but you loose hyperlinks.

Using this method some CHMs open with missing data or not at all.

Edited January 15, 2021 by sjoens

[lapasoa]

Please let us know what does has to do with Cakewalk and music.

[User 905133]

3 hours ago, lapasoa said:

Please let us know what does has to do with Cakewalk and music.

Many older programs and plug-ins that still work under Windows 10 have *.chm help files. For example:

     

Edited January 15, 2021 by User 905133
to add an image of a Cakewalk MIDI FX

[Mandolin Picker]

A "CHM" file is just a modified "ZIP" file. You can see everything in a CHM file by making a copy (so you don't mess up your original CHM file!), change the extension from CHM to ZIP and use a program such as WinZip or 7-Zip to open it up.  Here is a CHM help file opened in 7-zip I have been working on for a database I am writing.

The folder you are probably most interested in is HTML (CHM help files are really just small, self-contained web sites made from HTML files). Here is what my HTML file looks like.

The file labeled "Table of Contents.hhc" is also just an HTML file. It provides the table of contents that is displayed on the left side of the CHM file.

Also, forgot to mention, you can still download the HTML Help Workshop from Microsoft at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=21138

Hope that helps

 

Edited January 15, 2021 by Mandolin Picker
Added MS HTML Help Workshop download link

[sjoens]

Thanks MP. Exactly what I was looking for.? I tried to open one with a resource editor with no joy.

I didn't know that many plugins have help files and my search app EVERYTHING couldn't find them using the chm extension.

I hope the rest of you learned something. But in case not...

1. Some older help files won't open properly or at all in Windows 10.

2. I need a new hobby. ?

Edited January 16, 2021 by sjoens

[User 905133]

9 hours ago, sjoens said:

. . . my search app EVERYTHING couldn't find them using the chm extension.

. . . .

1. Some older help files won't open properly or at all in Windows 10.

Odd that it didn't work.  I used *.chm and got over 11,000 hits, including some from MS (9-2020) and Magix (10-2020) as well as Win98SE (4-1999).

I spot checked  about 50 and approx. 3-4% cannot be opened. In my case it looks like a few HDD recovery disk backups from years ago were not successfully copied.

 

[sjoens]

I got 335 & the list stopped at file names beginning with "j", so I had to go into Tools>Options>Indexes & click the Force Rebuild button.

Something that I have to do occasionally with Everything.

Now I get 978.