About F A R HTML

FAR contains dozens of time saving File, HTML and HTML Help related tools. FAR is used as both a mainstream authoring tool and as a collection of productivity tools by both web developer and HTML based help authors alike.
 

FAR HTML is the Swiss Army Pocket Knife of HTML, HTML Help 1.x and MS Help 2.x tools, and is 100% compatible with MS HTML Help 1.x & MS Help 2.x Workshops.
 

FAR does not attempt to supply a lame restrictive HTML editor. Instead create your content using your favourite editor (typically MS Frontpage or Macromedia Dreamweaver) and use FAR to manipulate and compile the HTML web.

• Download FAR now from http://helpware.net/FAR/

FAR Features

File Utilities

• First create a file list by drag & dropping a HTML help web or folder onto FAR.
• Drop file filters exclude FrontPage _vti folders and other unwanted files and folders.
• Quickly Find and Replace across 1000's of HTML files.
• Search is HTML Friendly understanding those unexpected line breaks and spaces found in HTML files.
• Advanced Search allows you to fine tune your search parameters to the nth degree.
• Encapsulate all files in the FAR list to a PKZIP/WinZip compatible zip file.
• View PKZip files.
• Copy all files in the FAR list to a new location while preserving the original directory structure. Also provides smart incremental backup feature.
• Create detailed reports or batch files from the FAR file list.
• Other multi-file utilities - Set file attributes, set file date/time, set file encoding, rename file, strip HTML tags.

MS HTML Help 1.x & MS Help 2.x

• Help Express - Select a folder, click a button and you have wrapped the folder content into a .CHM or .HxS help file.
• Help Wizard - Create HH and H2 help in a friendly wizard environment.
• Help Project Editors - Help authoring with full control over all HTML Help and MS Help 2 settings.
• TOC/Index Editors -  Advanced Table Of Contents and Index editors. Drag and drop entire branches (Move and Copy). Built in link checking. Quick test mode.
• Generate TOC and Index files using the folder & files found in a HTML Help Web. 
• CHM Help file Link checker. Also checks bookmarks and links to files in other CHM files.
• Access MS HTML Help's Code Wizard dialog.
• Explore the contents of a .Chm or .HxS help file.
• Compress Chm files.
• Extract & Remove items from a .Chm or .HxS help file.
• Compare two .Chm files or .HxS files for differences.
• Batch Compile HH and H2 projects.

• Supports MS Help 2 ANSI, Unicode and UTF-8 file format.
• MS Help 2 Utilities - provides Registration, Decompilation, and Conversion from MS HH 1.x projects.
• Detailed view of all Collections on the PC.
• MS Help 2 XML Data Island management.
• Help 2 Viewer - View Help collections using the inbuilt help file viewer. Contains handy debugging features.
• Export collection registration info to a H2Reg command script file.
• Author MS Help 2 without requiring Visual Studio .NET.

• Many other time saving tools.

What is HTML Help?

MS HTML HELP is the successor to MS WinHelp. MS products have moved from WinHelp to HTML HELP. WinHelp is RTF file based while HTML Help is HTML based. With HTML Help you can compress an entire web site into a single file with similar compression to a PKZip file while still being able to view, search and navigate its contents. It uses Internet Explorer 4/5/6 to display HTML content.

HTML Help windows come with some nice optional features including:

• Full-text Search pane
• Table Of Contents pane for easy navigation
• Index pane
• Favourites pane

Microsoft provides the MS HTML Help Workshop so that you can create and edit your own HTML Help system. Enter FAR. FAR was created by The Helpware Group to simplify the whole process of creating and editing HTML Help. Drop a web site onto FAR, click a few buttons and you have created a single .chm HTML Help file.

FAR also supports MS Help 2.x, the help system for Visual Studio .NET and Borland .NET software development programs. Unlike MS H2 Workshop FAR does not require you to install Visual Studio.

FAR Tour

FAR is a collection of file and HTML Help utilities for authors. If you need to quickly manipulate HTML files, or create and edit HTML based Help then FAR will save you lots of time. You can safely use FAR and MS Workshop side by side, unlike many other authoring tools. Lets look at some of FAR's features.

Find and Replace

FAR does HTML friendly find and replace across multiple files. 

First fill the FAR file list by dragging a folder from Windows Explorer onto the FAR main window. FAR will search for files in any sub folders. Alternatively you can perform a preliminary search using Windows Explorer Find then drop the dialog files into FAR. 

FAR allows you to set up drop filters so that any unwanted files and folders, such as FrontPage _vti folders, can be rejected.

FAR provides simple and advanced find and replace options. 

PKZIP Compatible Files

Since many of  FAR's features require a list of files it makes sense to provide a ZIP command so you can quickly archive your work. FAR can compress all the files in your file list into a PKZIP compatible file. FAR can also view and decompress PKZIP compatible files.

Copy Files

FAR can copy all selected files to another location while maintaining the directory structure. Try doing that with Windows Explorer. FAR copy can also operate in Smart Backup mode, where only changed files are copies and older files are incrementally backedup. By keeping older generations of files it means you will never lose past changes.

Reporting

FAR can create a customizable text file report using the filenames listed in the FAR file list. Create DOS batch (.bat) files quickly and easily just like you did the days of XTREE Gold -- boy that's showing my age.

Help Express

Use Help Express to quickly create MS Help. Just select the folder you want to compress containing HTML files. FAR will search for all HTML, images and media files and compress these into a single HTML Help .CHM or MS Help 2 .HxC file. Or, right click a folder in windows Explorer and select "Compile to HTML Help".

Help Wizard - Compressed Help

The Help Wizard provides more control over the Help creation process. You are guided step by step along the path of creating MS Help (1.x and 2.x).

• Create a Table of Contents using your web's directory structure.
• Edit your TOC in the FAR Editor.
• Create a basic Index file.
• Edit and compile your Help project to a .CHM or .HxS help file.

Make Uncompressed Help

Quickly and easily add a Table of Contents and Index to your website.

Note: Compressed HTML Help (single compressed .chm file) does not work on the web. FAR creates an Internet Explorer compatible ActiveX Table of Contents and Index as well as a plain HTML Table of Contents and Index. A Master Redirection File sniffs the browser and loads the appropriate Table of Contents and Index.

For an example see: http://helpware.net/FAR/help/redirect.htm

Help Project Editors

The FAR HTML Help Project Editor and the MS Help 2 Project Editor are for advanced users. Here is where you get full control over your project. All project settings are available, including several settings not available in MS Workshop.

FAR TOC & Index Editor

Edit your Help Table Of Contents & Index files with the FAR WYSIWYG TOC & Index Editor. You will never use MS Workshop Table of Contents Editor again. Features include:

• Link validation
• Drag and drop entire TOC branches
• Link preview window
• Use "Drag and Drop" to create new Table of Contents items.
• Unlike MS HH Workshop, FAR correctly includes merge file items in the Table of Contents, at the correct level

Other Features

Yes there's more, but I'll let you discover these for yourself.

Download FAR now from http://helpware.net/FAR/index.html