Re: Has anyone ever hear of an .shg file?

[Penelope Perkins <pperkins -at- SYNERGEX -dot- COM>]

Jeff,

It's a kind of graphic on which you can specify "hot spots" (links). You
don't mention what app your online help file was created in, but I
recall using .shg graphics in HDK (a winhelp development app made by
Virtual Media Technology group). I think HDK included a SHED utility to
edit them in. I copied the info below from:
http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/mxr/gfx/faqs/FileFormats.faq

Penelope

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Penelope Perkins                     pperkins -at- synergex -dot- com
Technical Writer                     http://www.synergex.com
Synergex                             Sacramento, California


Subject: SHG - Segmented Hyper-Graphic
         Type: Bitmap
    Extension: SHG
      Version:
  Compression: None, RLE
  Color Depth:
   Maintainer: Microsoft Corporation
Specification: ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/developr/drg/Multimedia/SHED.ZIP

SHG is a file format used by Microsoft in the WinHelp on-line help
facility
found in Windows 3.1. This format is used to save a Microsoft Bitmap
(BMP) or
Windows Metafile (WMF) graphic and store the coordinates of specific
areas of
the bitmap known as "hotspots".  When the bitmap is displayed and the
user
selects a hotspot, WinHelp jumps to another part of the help
documentation
via a hyper-text link macro stored in the SHG file.

Another file format used with SHG files is the Multiple-Resolution
Bitmap
(MRB) format. MRB files contain one or more SHG images, each rendered at
a
different resolution. Several SHG files are typically created using the
SHED.EXE utility and then fed into the MRB compiler to create a single
MRB
file. When WinHelp reads the MRB file it chooses which bitmap most
closely
matches the resolution of the display.

SHG is currently officially undocumented by Microsoft, but a rather
questionable specification may be found at:

  ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/developr/drg/Multimedia/SHED.ZIP

Information on SHG and MRB may be found in the following journal
article:

  .mrb and .shg File Formats, Windows/DOS Developer's Journal, Pete
Davis,
    February 1994 (Vol 5, No 4), pp. 37-46.

Questions about these formats may also be directed to Section 16
(WinHelp/Tools) of forum WINSDK on CompuServe.



Jeff Hooker wrote:
>
> Delurking for what might be a dumb, but very practical, question.
>
> I've inherited a large on-line help system chock full of .shg files
> (some variation of bitmap, it appears) that I'd like to pull into an
> image-editing program and update. The hitch: none of my graphics
> programs have ever heard of a .shg file and neither have I.
>
> Comments?
>
> Jeff Hooker.
>

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