HTML Compiled Help within ASPX Application

[George Durzi]

I'm about to embark on building a compiled help (.chm) application for my
aspx web application. I wanted to know if anyone who has done this would
have any advice/tips to offer.

For example, I read that the compiled help file has to be downloaded to a
user's machine.. That seems kinda iffy to me depending on how big that file
gets. There shouldn't be more than 50 help pages, so I have no idea what
size it will end up as.

Any tips are appreciated. Thank You

[George Durzi]

so they have to actually say yes to installing the help file?
for some reason I thought it was seamless

"William F. Robertson, Jr." <wfrobertson@kpmg.com> wrote in message
news:%238lw7p1ODHA.3192@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...

> One thing to consider is a chm creates a LOT of text files. (actually

HTML,

> but you get my drift)
>
> You might want to consider zipping it and sending/downloading it that way,
> so they can install it where ever they care too.
>
> bill
>
>
> "George Durzi" <gdurzi@nospam_hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:e16trn1ODHA.3088@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...

> > I'm about to embark on building a compiled help (.chm) application for

my

> > aspx web application. I wanted to know if anyone who has done this would
> > have any advice/tips to offer.
> >
> > For example, I read that the compiled help file has to be downloaded to

a

> > user's machine.. That seems kinda iffy to me depending on how big that

> file

> > gets. There shouldn't be more than 50 help pages, so I have no idea what
> > size it will end up as.
> >
> > Any tips are appreciated. Thank You
> >
> >

>
>

[William F. Robertson, Jr.]

Yes, you shouldn't be able to force an install to a client machine. That
would be bad (virii and stuff).

The only other solution you have is to write a web interface for the help
files. That is what we are in the processing of looking into now.

bill


"George Durzi" <gdurzi@nospam_hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:#X7vOu1ODHA.3088@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...

> so they have to actually say yes to installing the help file?
> for some reason I thought it was seamless
>
> "William F. Robertson, Jr." <wfrobertson@kpmg.com> wrote in message
> news:%238lw7p1ODHA.3192@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...

> > One thing to consider is a chm creates a LOT of text files. (actually

> HTML,

> > but you get my drift)
> >
> > You might want to consider zipping it and sending/downloading it that

way,

> > so they can install it where ever they care too.
> >
> > bill
> >
> >
> > "George Durzi" <gdurzi@nospam_hotmail.com> wrote in message
> > news:e16trn1ODHA.3088@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...

> > > I'm about to embark on building a compiled help (.chm) application for

> my

> > > aspx web application. I wanted to know if anyone who has done this

would

> > > have any advice/tips to offer.
> > >
> > > For example, I read that the compiled help file has to be downloaded

to

> a

> > > user's machine.. That seems kinda iffy to me depending on how big that

> > file

> > > gets. There shouldn't be more than 50 help pages, so I have no idea

what

> > > size it will end up as.
> > >
> > > Any tips are appreciated. Thank You
> > >
> > >

> >
> >

>
>

[Pete Lees]

George,

> For example, I read that the compiled help file has to be downloaded to a
> user's machine.. That seems kinda iffy to me depending on how big that file
> gets. There shouldn't be more than 50 help pages, so I have no idea what
> size it will end up as.

This depends on the length of the help topics, the complexity of the
coding, the number of images, etc. For a help file resembling one of
Microsoft's, I'd expect a 50-topic help file to be in the region of
75-100 Kb.

The help compiler uses quite efficient compression methods, with the
result that your help file should be substantially smaller than the
combined size of the source files. However, you can usually increase
the compression rate by recompiling the help file with KeyTools, a
free program available from:

[url]http://www.keyworks.net/keytools.htm[/url]

--
Pete
[Microsoft Help MVP]