How to compile Help files

To compile your help project select Action | Build Help. This produces a .hlp Help file which is stored in the Ouput folder that you specified in the Project tab. A .hrh header file, used to integrate the Help into an application, is also produced. This file is also normally stored in the Output folder, but to select an alternative location use Advanced | Select Separate Headers Folder, see How to select separate headers folders .

Previewing a Help file is useful if you can't view your Help file in the application that it was designed for. It allows you to check the file for basic formatting and layout errors.

You can preview a compiled Help project using Action | View Help from the menu. This compiles the project and then displays all the topics with their associated images.

You can display the topics in one .rtf file by selecting the file to be previewed in the RTF tab and clicking the Preview File button.

In both instances an .xml file containing the topics is created in the Temporary folder and displayed in Internet Explorer.

Note that none of the settings in your customisation file are applied to a preview.