Re: Converting Windows Help Files to OS/2

[Michael Priestley <mpriestley -at- VNET -dot- IBM -dot- COM>]

>Alexander Von_obert <avobert -at- twh -dot- msn -dot- sub -dot- org> writes:

>BTW: Last year at CeBIT I searched the IBM OS/2 booth about someone who could
> tell me about a few good authoring tools for OS/2 help. The most constructive
> answer I got: "Good question..."

Bad answer.  IPF Editor from Perez and HyperWise from IBM are the two I know
about off-hand.  Though to be honest, I think it's easier to tag them by hand.
The tagging language is pretty intuitive, and well-documented.  No harder
than HTML.

I've already sent Brett my summary of RTF-to-IPF conversion utilities.
Though someone else has already recommended the Smart toolset for conversions,
which was the pick of the bunch in the summary as well.

>You will find
>that OS/2 help (IPF) is quite limited compared to Winhelp, e.g. in the
>typographical fields.

This comes as a bit of a surprise.  In addition to the search, IPF has:

 - hierarchical TOC
 - built-in indexing
 - cross-book indexing (eg Master Index object on OS/2 desktop)
 - selectable printing (entire doc, selected sections, or current panel)
 - whole library searches (search all INF files on system)
 - context-sensitive help is sesitive at control level (eg help for currently
   selected entry field, button, or menu item)
 - multiple INF and HLP files open at same time
 - independently resizable windows
 - in-text cross-linking (and not just with glossary terms)
 - imagemap hypergraphic linking
 - an extremely customizable, programmable interface (the Warp tutorial is
   written in IPF, believe it or not).

I'm not very familiar with RTF, though.  Has it added these features?

Still an OS/2 bigot,


Michael Priestley
mpriestley -at- vnet -dot- ibm -dot- com
Disclaimer: speaking on my own behalf, not IBM's.