Build A Basic Windows® Help File

Note: This is not a primer on writing techniques, but a "how to" paper on the construction of a help file. The term "build" is used on purpose and throughout, to make the point that "writing" a help file is like writing any other document. Grammar and punctuation aside, you must communicate with you reader.

How do I build a help file? And can I build a help file without buying a lot of expensive tools, or learning some obscure program language? Yes! All you need is a word processor capable of saving or converting formatted text to a Rich Text Format (*.rtf) document, and a compiler. Microsoft makes both the Windows 3.1x and the Windows 95/NT compilers available on the Web.

Note: To compile a help file, you will also need a help project file (*.hpj) in addition to the *.rtf document. For a Windows 95/NT, the WinHelp SDK automates the project file process. For Windows 3.1x you can use a freeware tool like "Windows Help Project File Editor" to automate the process, or use an ASCII text editor and manually create a project file. To manual create a project file see "Create A Basic Windows® 3.1x Project File." For a discussion and downloading of WinHelp tools and compilers see the Windows® Help File Tools, Utilities & Compilers.

Scenario: Build a basic help file for an application with a toolbar; file, edit and help menus; and four major controls on the user interface.

Step one, what's the plan? Turn off the computer, and pick up an old fashion pencil and pad. Okay, now here is the answer to the first test question: help files are made up of topics, one topic separated from another by a hard page break. (MSWord - Insert menu, Break menu item, Page Break option.) So how many topics, grouped how, are needed? A hint, the first topic should be the "Contents Page." The second topic might well be an "Overview" of how the application works, and how the end user gets started using it. Then you might have a separate topic for each button on the toolbar, and each menu item, or a topic for the toolbar as a whole, and a topic for each menu. To keep this simple, we will use the second option. Each of the four controls on the user interface requires a separate topic. So our help file will have nine topics to start: Contents, Overview, Toolbar, File Menu, Edit Menu, Help Menu; and four control topics. [The proceeding has been an over-simplification in the extreme. Take some time and think out how best to help an end user whose scratching his/her head wondering what to do next.]

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