There are many authoring tools and related products available for creating online Help files on Windows. All of the authoring tools for RTF-based Help files use the Microsoft Help compiler to compile a set of source files into a finished Help file.
The source files for any Help system typically include:
Topic files (RTF), which contain the text of your Help system as well as footnote codes and commands that serve to identify the topics and provide navigation and other features
Graphics files, typically bitmaps (BMP), which are associated with specific topics
A project file (HPJ), which does not become part of the finished Help system but contains instructions for the compiler, some of which can affect the appearance and functionality of the Help windows you specify
A contents file (CNT), which is not compiled into the finished Help file but is deployed along with the Help file as part of the overall Help system
The contents file provides the entries that populate the Contents tab of the Help Topics dialog box and other information that can affect the overall behavior of the Help system.
If you are using one of the full-featured Help authoring tools, you can follow its instructions for creating the necessary source files and compiling them.
If you are using the Microsoft Help Workshop that comes with the Microsoft SDK, you can use the tool to create your project file and contents file and to compile the finished Help file. However, you will need to author your Help topics directly in Microsoft Word. The online Help for the Microsoft Help Workshop provides much information on Help authoring, including instructions on how to use the various footnote codes recognized by the Help compiler, the WinHelp macros, and the WinHelp API.
For your convenience, the text of a sample project file is provided in one of the topics of the PBUSR115.HLP file that is installed with PowerBuilder. To access it:
Open PowerBuilder Help and click the User button.
Navigate to the Sample Help Project File topic from the Contents tab in the Help Topics dialog box, under User-defined Help.
Copy the Help topic to the Windows clipboard.
Open a text editor such as Notepad and paste the clipboard text into a blank document.
Save the document in text format as PBUSR115.HPJ.
You need to edit your project file to reflect the details of your Help development environment, such as source file names and directory path names. You can do this in a text editor, or open the project file in Help Workshop or another Help authoring tool and edit it there.
