Must Have Software

The programs necessary for everyone (from our point of view, of course) dealing with creation compiled HTML helps are located in this section.

HTML Editors

To create a HTML help you will in most cases need a software for creating independent HTML files. You can use any text editor, but we recommend you to pay your attention to the specialized programs:

Macromedia HomeSite by Macromedia		Shareware ($99.00)
HomeSite, as the authors themselves say, provides a lean, code-only editor for web development. Advanced coding features enable you to instantly create and modify HTML, CFML, JSP, and XHTML tags, while enhanced productivity tools allow you to validate, reuse, navigate, and format code more easily. We liked the previous version of this program, Allaire HomeSite, better, but it might be just a matter of habit.

If you don't want to buy HomeSite, you can use these free-of-charge solutions which are also pretty good:

AceHTML 5 Freeware by Visicom Media		Freeware
We recommend this CODE-based HTML editor as a freeware substitute for Macromedia HomeSite. It has everything necessary for HTML pages creation: syntax coloring, syntax checker and validator, spell checker, HTML page preview and more.

DHE Editor by Lorenzi Davide		Freeware
This visual HTML editor allows you to create HTML pages (which, by the way, will be equally displayed in all browsers) even if you don't know HTML.

HTML Help Compillers

To get compiled HTML help from a set of HTML files you need to add a table of contents and an index to them, and after that compile them into a chm file with the help of a special software. The following freeware Microsoft utility makes this possible:

Microsoft HTML Help Workshop by Microsoft		Freeware
Create a new project, add your HTML files to it and then create a table of contents and an index. Then press the compilation button. Your HTML Help is ready!

Complete Solutions

To create documents in the compiled HTML help format you can also use special software packages. With their help you will be able to create your own help system from scratch. Note that in most cases it will not be compiled HTML help only, but also WinHelp and PDF help. Two links to the most successful packages are given below:

Help & Manual by EC Software		Shareware ($279.00)
Help & Manual is a stand-alone help authoring tool with an integrated WYSIWYG editor. It allows you to create all types of standard help files including HTML HELP Winhelp (.hlp), Browser based help, PDF user manuals, Stand-alone exe files and Print manuals.

Doc-O-Matic by toolsfactory GbR		Shareware ($399.00)
It's a perfect solution for a large online documentation system creation. Doc-O-Matic creates fully cross-linked documentation systems, including source code documentation, online help and user manuals in PDF, browser-based Help, HTML help, MS help 2, Windows help and RTF.

Other Tools

chm2web by A!K Research Labs		Shareware ($79.95)
Allows you to create a browser-based platform-independent Help with an expandable tree-like table of contents, index and full text search from an already created compiled HTML help. You can create both frame and frameless variants based on templates. Chm2web also has a build-in chm files decompiler.

htm2chm by Yaroslav Kirillov		Shareware ($19.95)
Allows you to convert separate HTML pages with images as well as whole websites (for example downloaded with offline browsers) into one CHM file for more convenient storing.

If you know any useful links that can be added to this section, please write to us and we are sure to publish them here.