FAR HTML Release Notes

See also FAR HTML Home Page | Version 4 Info | Purchase FAR

FAR 4.3.0.681 (Apr-27-2008)

FAR 4.3 is a recommended update for all users.

Main Window

• No more Authoring / File Utilities mode - The FAR File List is now always visible. The page tabs are still there but now only change the toolbar. User can now display both toolbars at once with no tabs.
• Fixed: Can now add drives items to the FAR File list. This was broken when we stopped ZIP file items from being added.
• Fixed: Files size > 2 GB were display as a negative number.

Batch Mode

• Fixed bug in Batch mode where uncompressed help would not build the specified section.

HTML Help Project Editor

• Added warning when enabling .CHI file creation.

Batch Decompile

• Now checks first if there are any CHMs or HxS in the file list before proceeding (before it processed all files then announced that no ITS files were found).

TOC Editor

• Updated file tree.js -- Now the DHTML TOC exported by TOC Editor is compatible with all browsers.
• Fix bug in DHTML JavaScript TOC generation. TOC item target was wrong in certain cases.
• Toc/Index Editor - Fix problem with alignment of controls on the CHM page (bottom of list box not accessible).
• TOC and Index Merge (.Merge) files - Used to automatically merge server TOC or Index files.
  - Now accessible via batch command - BatchMergeFile=
  - Can now be open .Merge files via the TOC/Index Editor (File > Open dialog)
  - Last beta required a Header and Footer. This version doesn't.
• TOC and Index Merge (.Merge) files. For Index files the Merge command also finds all duplicate items (same tree level, label, link, type) and merges them together.
• New 3rd party Editor support: NVu.exe free HTML Editor; MS Expression Web; MS Frontpage 2007;

Misc

• Registration dialog now takes 2 or 3 license strings.
• FAR now checks if a bad hhctrl.ocx was installed.
• Filter .ht* was picking up xxx.htm.other so have made the default filters more specific (.htm .html)
• Update: "Set File Encoding" command can now convert Unicode files that do not have a Unicode BOM signature.
• Fix: "Set File Encoding" command had problem where Code Page selection was not always used.
• Settings.ini, [MAIN]/DataDir= -- allows FAR settings to be stored with FAR.exe on a USB drive or memory stick.
• Shutdown now saves the current FAR list to _LastFARList.FAR (if unsaved).
• Deprecate "Command > Set Real Video Path" -- Now hidden by default but can be made visible
  using Settings.ini file.
• Code Update: All paths read from the registry now go through Win API ExpandEnvironmentStrings() to
  convert strings like %SYSTEMROOT%\System32\hhctrl.ocx --> C:\Windows\System32\hhctrl.ocx
• The Invalid Code Page dialog (seen in non-Batch mode when working with Unicode and foreign language files) now allows you to select an appropriate code page via a simple list of country locales (similar to Vista).

Uncompressed Help

• New: Add 'get link' link to the TOC pane. So you can get the absolute address of the current page.
  See example web site.
• Fix: Batch command "MakeUncompHelp=" sometimes prompt you to save the settings.

Batch Command

• New: Batch commands to fill the file list. File= and FileScan= . These commands take a simple file spec and bypass the drop filter. eg. fileScan=c:\path\*.ht*   will scan the c:\path folder (and sub-folders) for all files matching file spec *.ht*.
• Batch mode script files: Replace= text can split replace text over several lines using \ leading char.
• OpenFarList=mylist.far  -- Can now load a file list from a help project by specifying a .HHP or .HxC file name.
• New: ExportNav = file1, file2 -- Exports file1 to file2 (file types allowed: .hhc, .hhk, .toc, .hxt, .hxk).
• Fixed: FAR Batch mode does not prompt for CodePage when reading Unicode files (containing foreign language chars). In the past Batch mode would simply fail and report that the Code Page was not appropriate.
  Now you can specify the Code Page within a batch job (via your .INI or .FARRun file)
  EG. CodePage=65001.
• You can also specify the batch mode code page using the command line parameter /cp:n. eg. /cp:65001

Link Check

• Fixed Linkcheck under Japanese windows. Had errors parsing multi-byte char strings.
• Link check now correctly handles tags embedded in a comment. Last version it did not consider tags embedded in the comment string.

Find and Replace

• Adv Search $A$ commands: Find substring #n. n can now be 0 which means find last occurrence.
• Adv Search: Contains and Not Contains text can no longer match the start of the Start with text. This makes Contains and Not Contains more flexible -- See example here.

Copy Command

• New: Copy File dialog now has a "Flat Copy" option (see popup menu). When checked all folder files are copied to a single folder.

• New: The Copy File dialog now has a popup menu offering a way export your copy settings out to a .FarRun Batch script file.  Also creates a file Master.FarRun file in the same folder so that you can run all .FarRun files created in that folder.
• New: Added new Windows Explorer folder right-click menu item "Copy/Backup with FAR". This command recursively loads all folders files into FAR, using drop file filter "FAR Filter - Backup". Then displays the Copy Files dialog ready to copy/backup files to another location.

MS Help 2.x

• Fixed reading MS Help 2 ItsStorage files under VS 8 (Help Utils window, Help Explorer window): FAR could only read H2 ITS files (.hxs) on PCs with VS 7.x (or PCs containing older versions of DExplorer), however PCs containing only DExplore for VS 8.x failed because of a changes MS made to the registration of COM DLL msitss55.dll.
• Now display a message when trying to convert HH 1.x .CHM to MS Help 2 projects. VS 8.x no longer supports .CHM file conversion (.HHP conversion is still OK). This is because legally MS can't or wont release the documentation on the InfoTech Storage API.

Express Help dialog

• New: Added build templates. You can now use a standard .HHP file to load settings from and so control output.
   

FAR 4.2.0.650 (Jan-1-2007)

FAR 4.2 is a recommended update for all users. Various fixes and compatibility under Windows Vista.

Windows Vista

• General Vista compatibility issues:
  - Default Report file was c:\ (an illegal folder for Vista). Now users recommended personal folder.
  - Data files now stored by default to recommended locations (eg. License .ID files now in c:\ProgramData\Helpware).
• Display "Not Administrator Logon" warning for H2 Plug-in and writing to protected registry areas.

64 Bit Windows

• HH Project Editor now allows you to test with 32 or 64 bit hh.exe viewer. See "Command" menu.
  eg. Your 32 bit ActiveX controls such as Flash wont work with a CHM opened using the 64 bit hh.exe.
• Note: No other effort has been made with 64 bit compatibility. We will address issues as they are reported.

FAR Uncompressed Help

• Now generates additional file hh_goto.htm. This fixes problems with frames and loading topics using hh_start.htm command-line parameters. See hh_goto.
• Export to TOC now preserves individual tree node targets. Before it forced them all to "right" for correct frame operation.
• When generating JS or HTML uncompressed help all .HHC Merged TOC include statements will be automatically expanded (perform a TOC import), but only if the Merge Include file path is in the form "::path\file.hhc" -- ie. a relative path to a hhc file that starts with 2x colons.

MS Help 2

• H2Viewer now correctly locates Document Explore 2005.
• Collection Wizard - now allows you to specify multiple targets for H2Reg plug-in script.
• Collection Wizard - Default plug-in is now ms.vsipcc+ for VS 2005.
• Fix H2 help links. Now links to VS 8.0 online SDK content at the MSDN web site.

TOC & Index Editor

• New: "TOC > Import File Content" allows you to import items from other files.
• Toc Editor, Drag and Drop fix - Under Vista when dragging more than one items, items could be unrepentantly reordered.

Miscellaneous

• FAR now supports multiple Monitors when saving and restoring window position.
• Removed krm.dll (build in purchase option for KAGI). DLL was too unstable. Purchase is now always done from web site.
• Fix: Problems with double byte languages (Japanese in particular) and FAR Uncompressed help.
  Some double byte chars were being interpreted incorrectly as single byte chars.

 

FAR 4.1.0.649 (April-12-2006)

Recommended update for all users. This update is free for version 4.0 users. Also works with version 3.0 license keys - see "FAR Version 4 Info".

Items marked as [V4] require a Version 4 license. Other items will work using a Version 3 license.
 

Batch Decompile

• [V4] New: "Authoring > Batch Decompile" - Command will extract the content out of all Help files found in the FAR file list. For automated multiple file decompile. Supports HH 1.x and Help 2.x compiled help files.

CHM Link Checker

• New: Now verifies http, https and ftp links if you have a Internet connection.
• Fix: .HHC and .HHK file links now checked (as documentation states).
• Fix: We encode § as &§ -- but MS CHM compiler encodes § as § -- we now are going the MS way and link checker now handles filenames containing § char.

TOC Editor

• Fix: If the TOC item URL contained escaped chars (eg. &) then Preview/Edit/LinkCheck would report file not found. Now OK.
• Fix: Keyboard control for moving tree node items repaired.
• Fix: TOC Auto generate - In include bookmark mode it was not converting   to a space char so was not identifying empty bookmark strings correctly.
• Fix: Exporting to .HHK Index to JS and HTML format. Some complex Indexes export strangely. A folder with single popup item is now correctly compressed to a single Index item.

Uncompressed Help

• Fix: Redirect template file now uses window.location.replace() instead of window.location.href= which fixes a problem with the back button.
• Fix: "Build JavaScript Search" now correctly parses Double Byte language files such as Chinese and Japanese.
• Fix: Right frame file name needed to be entered with Unix slashes to work. FAR now always writes a Unix path and does not rely on what is in the dialog field.
• Faster: Uncompressed help: If the Index contains several thousand items then typing text in the entry field is very very slow as each change is searched for in the list. This JS code (embedded in FAR.exe and exported to hh_index.htm) has now been optimized for speed. On our 3.4 GHz test machine 7000 items saw no delays.
• Fix and document "JS TOC Background color" setting on the first page. If no TOC color was previously chosen this was ignored.
• Fix: JS redirect code fix - Firefox did not like document.all as a way to detect JS compatible browser.
  Fix: Search.js code fix - off by one error caused the first word not to highlight.
  Fix: Search filename edit field is now remembered correctly.
  New Cbx: "Redirect to Frames if opening single TOC, Index or Search file, (for JS and HTML only)"
• New: FrameSet files (and redirect file) can now except parameters using bookmarks to set the frame files.
  EG. hh_start#books.htm+hh_search.htm - More info.
• Started extracting raw HTML source from FAR.EXE. FrameSet and Redirect html files now live in the \Extras folder.

Search

• New: Adv Search - added time stamp commands $DT$[format], $DT$[now], $D-$, $D-$[now] (date only).

Reports

• New: Can now store large complex masks in separate files - @file:path, @fileCRLF:path.
• New: Can now scrap parts of the file list files. We use it collate parts of report files into a single .CSV file.

Batch Mode

• New: Batch command MakeUncompHelp='.' is now allowed (ie. '.' for current directory)

• New batch commands:
  - MakeHxT= -- generate MS Help 2 TOC using FAR file list.
  - MakeHxK= -- generate MS help 2 Index using FAR file list.
  - JSSearch= -- generate JavaScript Search file using FAR file list (Build JS Search dialog).
  - MakeUncompHelp= -- generate Uncompressed Help files (Make Uncompressed Help dialog).

• New: Batch commands MakeHHC, MakeHHK -- These commands can now create MS Help 2 .hxt and .hxk files if you supply filenames with .hxt and hxk file extensions.
• Fix: MakeHHP - now adds all list files to the .HHP [FILES] list. Was adding only HTML type files.

Help Authoring

• H2: Added ms.vsipcc+ to export choices. MS recommend plug into this instead of ms.vscc+ for VS 2005.

• HH: Improved: HH 1.x Compilation - Better environment checks:
  - Detects and reports HHA.DLL (MS HH 1.x Compiler) crashes.
  - Detects and reports if 3rd parties have installed older versions of HHA.DLL.

Other

• Fix: Windows Vista. FAR HTML Help tools now work under Vista build 5270 (Dec CTP).

• Fix: Window paint bug fixed. If the Windows task bar is docked top or left then some FAR windows did not paint properly.
• Fix: Drag and drop used to add content of Zip files into the FAR file list. This no longer happens.
• Fix: Skip itss.dll check if Windows 5.2 or greater - win64 systems use witss.dll. Kills annoying popup.
• Fix: Help Wizard - Import from main file list gave access error.
• Fix: Main window displayed StrRO instead of [ReadOnly] in the title bar of the TOC + Index editor.

 

FAR 4.0.0.621 (May-05-2005)

Please see "FAR Version 4 Info" for upgrade information.

Items marked as [V4] require a Version 4 license. Other items will work using a Version 3 license.

Uncompressed Help

• [V4] New: FAR Uncompressed help now generates pure JavaScript TOC and Index controls. No ActiveX or server side code is required. This is a must-have given Microsoft's decision to block all HTML Help ActiveX (hhctrl.ocx) controls from working on the web.
• [V4] New: FAR now includes a pure JavaScript Search Engine. This very portable search engine can deliver fast search services to any web site on a CD, DVD, Internet, Intranet or even a USB thumb drive. In fact anywhere a JavaScript enabled browser can go. You generate the search UI using the Uncompressed Help dialog or the new "Authoring > Build JavaScript Search dialog", This new dialog is used to generate the "searchdata.js" search database file and to test the search engine. No ActiveX or server side code is required. You have complete control over what goes into the search engine data file and what the search UI layout looks like.
      The FAR JS Search code has not been obfuscated in any way and we encourage you to make changes to it. Remember that the code is copyright and owned by us. Please respect it as you would any 3rd party executable.
• New: Frame page settings "Frame Divider width", "Frame Divider Color".
• New: Command to insert free Google search code into your search pane to provide search for your particular domain.
• Minor change: Can now have just Index or just search. Before Contents Navigation tab was always required.

HTML Help 1.x

• [V4] New: File > Compare ITS file. FAR can now compare a web (directory structure) with the contents of a .CHM of .HxS file. This identifies files that are not compiled into the ITS file. Very useful when cleaning up source file folders of unused files.
• Fix: FAR now does better job of preserving .HHP file project file sections
  [WINDOWS], [MERGE FILES], [ALIAS], [MAP], [TEXT POPUPS], [INFOTYPES], [SUBSETS]
  In some situations (Wizards and Save As) some of this information was lost.

MS Help 2.x

• [V4] New: The MS Help 2 Project editor now has a new "Collection Wizard" to help you create your collection level files. Creating collection level glue files is now very easy. It also outputs H2Reg file registration script, and allows you to quickly test your collection and provides you with a shipping list.
• [V4] New: There is a new "XML Markup" page tab in the MS H2 Utilities window. This allows you to quickly find/add/remove/replace XML data island markup across thousands of files very quickly.
• Added new H2Reg section [Merge_Namespace] into MS H2 Export / MS H2 Import dialogs.
• Fix: Wizard dialog - path error when loading existing project with empty HxF File list.
• Fix: FAR H2 Viewer could not always find DExplore.exe because the path in the registry became wrapped in quotes for VS 7.1.
• Fix: FAR H2 Viewer Search Highlighting is fixed.
• Updated: FAR H2 Viewer Text-To-Speech supports more features. More voices. Browser Stop will now also stop the speech.
• FAR is ms.vscc.2005 ready (code was often hardwired to ms.vscc or ms.vscc.2003 collections).  Now more future proof.

HH Utilities Window

• [V4] New: FAR version 3 could show you file differences between 2 ITS (.chm/.HxS) help files down to the internal file boundary level. FAR version 4 allows you to hook up 3rd party file difference program so you can see differences down to the character level.
  Version 4 also has new compare file options: Ignore Case / Ignore CR LF chars / Ignore Multi-spaces / DOS "\" = Unix "/".
  Also added a Refresh command to reload files once comparison options were changed.
• New: Can now Compare 2 Help files via MS Explorer context menu. So you can compare 2 CHMs by right-clicking them in Explorer.

TOC/Index Editor

• [V4] New TOC/Index File menu commands "Export to DHTML TOC" and "Import DHTML TOC". This allows you to export and import NDoc 3.x DHTML style TOCs. FAR generates the same DHTML code used by NDoc 3.x. Effectively you can edit NDoc DHTML TOC files.
• Rewrite of the TOC control multi-select and drag & drop code. Works much more smoothly.
• New: "Allow Redirection" button added to Preview page toolbar. This allows you to catch files before they automatically redirect you to another file.
• Fix: Preview page now loads HTML topics containing Frames and IFrames correctly and displays the correct URL etc.
  EG. RoboHelp HTML has hidden a IFrame so the URL would often incorrectly say "About:Blank".
• New: Added "Options > Test in Preview Page", This allowing you to test TOC/Index files in the FAR Preview page instead of in Internet Explorer window and thus bypass the annoying Windows XP SP2 security warnings.
• New: TOC Meta file - If editing Fred.HHC (or Fred.HHK) you can add a Meta file Fred.HHC.ini (or Fred.HHK.ini) containing an alternative location to preview your files from. This helps a few customers who like to parse their HTML source to another location. INI file Example: [main]
     PreviewDir=G:\Help  OR  PreviewDir=http://helpware.net/FAR/help/
• Toc/Index/HHC/HxC editors now display "[ReadOnly]" in title bar if current file is read-only. They also prompt the user when saving over a read-only file. So now more version control friendly.
• FAR does a better job at automatically generating TOC structure by examining the HTML header levels and bookmarks. These settings are still situated in the Preferences dialog.
• New: Preferences > HTML Help tab options allows you to skip folders when generating a TOC or Index files.
• HHK Index Editor - Now warns you if you save a .HHK index file containing undefined (empty) links. We found that these empty links can really screw up the final compiled Index (MS bug not ours).

Far File list (main window)

• [V4] New: "File > FAR File List". Now you can save a .FAR file list and later use that file list to report on what has changed in your directory structure. We use this to keep snapshots of special folders and drives we need to monitor for changes.
• [V4] New: "Commands > FTP Copy Files". Now you can add files to FAR, sort by date then upload selected files to your FTP server directly from within FAR.  Also available as Batch command for unattended upload.
• [V4] New: Added "Command > Delete Selected Files". You can now delete files in the FAR file list directly from hard Disk (not just from the FAR file list). This command although a little dangerous has saved us a lot of time. File list files must be selected first and you will always be prompted before deleting.
• New: New drop file Filter popup menu provides fast access to file filters from the status bar and Filter panel. Also filter panels now displays the name of the current drop file filter.
• New: Option to show Relative or Full directory path. Relative path take up much less room in the file list. Ctrl+C copies the relative path of the selected files if in relative path display mode.
• New: File list now displays associated program icons next to each file name.
• New: File list now has a Date Modified column (same as Explorer). So can now sort list by date.
  There is also a new "Edit > Refresh F5" command to update File date and File size info displayed.
• Sorting Match and Replace columns now moves you quickly to the top item (if current selected item is != a match). Makes moving changes to the top of the list and viewing them much faster.
• Fix: XP Explorer search results can contain a list of files from inside ZIP files. These files if dropped onto FAR would cause the calculation of the base folder to fail. FAR now ignores files inside ZIP files (we wish XP Explorer would!).
• New: File list right-click popup menu now includes commands to: Show "File Properties", "Open with FAR", "Open with..." (same as Explorer context command) and "Open Container Folder". Also added "File Properties" to the main File menu.
• Minor change: FAR no longer adds the file list of a .HHP file to the FAR file list automatically when opening a .hhp project. This is still available by setting LoadFileListOnHelpProjOpen=YES in the Settings.ini file (default is now =No).
• Most file commands (eg. Copy / Set File Date / Set file Encoding etc) now sets the Match column to indicate what happened during the file operation. Thus you can now sort the match column to see exactly what files were affected during a file operation.
• Global File Filter default - Added .png files. This can be modified in Preferences dialog anyway.
• "File > Save" has a new checkbox "Save extra Info" to include file size/date/replace/match column info when saving to .FAR file. Date is stores stored as UTC (2x 32 bit DWords) (ie. GMT) so that the .FAR is portable across time zones.
• Fix: FAR now uses UTC (2x 32 bit DWords) time when handling file dates. The 64bit date provides greater accuracy and FAR now displays exactly the same date and time as displayed by windows.

Find and Replace

• New: FAR Search supports wild char * (already supports ?) which matches any string of chars. Use ^* to find an actual * char. eg. Find "<xml*>" will match "<xml whatever>"
• Several new search commands:
  - $L$[filename] include contents of a file command.
  - $X+$, $X-$, $X*$, $X?$, $X@$ MS Help 2 XML data Islands matching commands.
  - $O-$, $O1$, $O2$ original match string commands.

FAR Batch Mode

• Batch mode is much improved. Supports relative paths where possible.
• Added CopyTo, BackupTo, FtpCopyTo commands.

Other Changes

• [V4] New: FAR can now save settings to an INI file on disk (as well to the registry as before). This is handy if FAR travels with you between computers via a portable hard drive. Saving settings to registry is still slightly faster on slower machines.
• New: Unicode files - Now prompts user to pick a valid codepage when converting Unicode<->ANSI fails.
  Also "Commands > Set File Encoding" can now specify an ANSI Code Page to use. So no longer dependant on the current Windows code page being set correctly when setting the file encoding.
• New: Icon button in Title Bar of all Modeless window allows fast access the Ctrl+F12 "Go To Windows" dialog.
• Copy dialog now remembers the path for a particular base folder.
• Reports: Improvements to reporting from file list. A few new options.
  - A file called abc.xml can have an associated meta file abc.xml.meta to supply extra info such as title and meta info.
  - Added reporting tag %fHtmlMeta:xxx% -- grabs yyy from <meta name="xxx" content="yyy"> from a HTML or Meta file.
  - Added reporting %dirseg:n% -- displays a directory path segment. eg. %dirseg:1% displays "utils" of c:\utils\a\file.htm
• Setting.ini (read-only file read once when FAR loads) contains ability to switch on and off several exotic settings. We also ship settings(default).ini for reference since we never overwrites a users Settings.ini file.
• Many other minor fixes and improvements.

FAR 3.5.4.564 (Sept-16-2003)

• Fixed a shutdown exception error effecting some WinXP and 2003 users.
• If Theme related shutdown problems persist you can force FAR to ignore its 3rd party Theme code by adding a dummy file "FAR.NoThemes" to the same folder as FAR.EXE.
• Added some new Advanced Search commands for a customer:
  * $L+$ -- Makes tag and tag attributes lowercase.  ($L$ does just the tag)
  * $L*$ -- Makes the complete match string lowercase.
  * $F.$ -- Represents the File name with no path or ext.  ($F$ represents just the file name)
  * $F*$ -- Represents the full path and File name.

FAR 3.5.1.557 (Sept-5-2003)

• Minor update for MS Help 2 authors only.
  Fixed a fault where the H2 Viewer window caused access violations on some PCs.

FAR 3.5.0.555 (Aug-31-2003)

Summary of Major Changes:

• Copy Files Command:
  Added: Smart Copy and Backup Mode allows you to backup incrementally to a single destination folder. Files unchanged are not copied, while destination files are backed up to filename[0001].ext, filename[0002].ext etc. before being overwritten.
• TOC Generation:
  When generating TOC you can scan for all bookmarks (as before) but now FAR will also find the associated <h1> <h2> etc header level and generate TOC structure for the Bookmark items. This only works if there is good Header structure in the HTML file. (See Pref dialog).
• Make Uncompressed help dialog -- More options. Now has a range of custom tab images.

Find & Replace:

• Advanced Find & Replace - $A$ Sub Strings dialog
  - The delete text split into Start / End for greater control.
  - Can now specify "User Original String as Substring" setting.
• Fix: Replace $A$ substrings: replace would strip double spaces and CR LFs from Substring.
• Fix: Find and Replace was prompting for invalid $R$ even if Replace text was not specified.
• To find a ? char you can prefix it with ^ char. So ? is wild while Find: ^? finds a real ?.
• Added $T$ command to set the doc title - EG. set the Title to the first matching text found in a document.

HTML Help 1.x

• Add Hebrew & Arabic languages to the HH Project editor language list, and language list now remembers obscure entries.
• When generating TOC (HH Proj Editor & Uncomp Help) keep a backup copy of the old file as (filename~).
• Fine tune Compiler window - Added find next error command button.

MS Help 2.x:

• All links to VSHIK documentation now adapts to ms.vscc and ms.vshik.2003, whichever is installed.
• Tweak H2 Import:
  - Open, Save menu options
  - Now saves all plug-in info. Can now make exact copies of collections.
  - Fix: Was not always expanding ..\..\xxx type paths correctly.
  - Import dialog launches the open dialog automatically if the selected Collection's folder contains a H2Reg script.
  - Code is now exactly the same as used by H2Reg.exe.
• Utilities window
  - Added h2reg import options to main menu
  - Added Filters column to the NS/Collection list.
• Registration dialog
  - Can now edit and remove filters from within this dialog.
  - Can now import Title, Plug-in and Filter from a h2reg cmd script file.
  - Can now multi-select titles list items (effects edit and remove cmds).
  - Plug-in page
    * now display a tree view showing nested plug-ins.
    * No longer double prompts on remove plug-in.
    * Can now remove nested plug-ins.
• Before performing Auto-Register now asks "unregister first?" as this gives cleanest registration BUT wipes all titles etc attached to the namespace.
• H2 Viewer
  - We loaded the Home Page on File Open - Now opens Default page (Home page if no default set).
  - Sync button now handles paths containing %20 (spaces).
  - Remove any FAR temporary NS created on viewer close.
  - Fix: Sometimes home page world not appear on loading a Namespace.
  - Optimized filter changes - now a tad faster.
  - Filter Editor now displays filter definitions with empty query strings. I was previously blocking these for simplicity.

File Utilities:

• Can now hide the single folder drop dialog (See preferences dialog to re-enable).
• Main form - File list columns positions are now remembered.
• Fix for Japanese Windows - Find and Replace
  * Disable auto-complete feature on input fields for DBCS MS Windows
  * Now matches strings correctly when "Ignore Case" checked.
• Fix: We now always sort folders using a trailing slash. This gives a better folder column sort.
• Fix: Set attribute command - can now cancel out of long loop of setting file attribs.
• Fix: Copy file - No longer locks up the application while it copies many files.

General:

• Add "Open Containing Folder" command to Main window popup menu + Batch Compile popup menu.
• In the Uncompress window show a checkbox on the button type tabs.
• Fix: Fix problem with batch mode. If no /B or /BB batch switches it was still appending to _batchlog.txt
• TOC editor - Now warns when a child item is added to Merge (include) item.
• Fix code function that was did not always extract the Title from a HTML doc.
• Fix problem with Find and Replace - Was writing a test file every time it saved a file to disk. Test file was also missing the target folder completely and writing to the root folder. Now writes without test and reports any write errors. Faster and more reliable.
• Fix: Express help: Now Prompts when overwriting TOC and Index files. Also now preserves hhc/hhk/hhc filename case. Thanks Don.
• Fix: TOC Editor- When "Encode All Special Label Chars" is enabled only the first few chars in the line would be encoded. EG. للللللللل --> &Agrave;&Agrave;للللللل
• Update: Find Files Date dialog - Now sets the match field on the selected FAR list files as well.
• Report dialog - When inserting a new code string the cursor is now moved after the new code (was before).
• Fix: Zipping to root of drive was causing a error.
• Fix: Batch mode now shows progress dialog when scanning for files.
• Make Uncompressed help dialog no longer writes "codebase=" code line into ActiveX code. Nobody wants MS HH download dialog and no need in this situation.
• Fix: HH TOC Editor - Can now load malformed TOCs Includes those mangled by 3rd party applications.
• TOC Editor: "Export to HTML" now works for all TOC/Index files.
• New: Reports: %inc:offset% - Example: %inc:2000% will increment numbering as %inc% did except with a number offset of 2000.
• New: Reports: A specifier made up of all uppercase letters will force the output to all uppercase. Example: %FPATH% produces C:\WINDOWS\FILE.DLL not C:\Windows\File.dll.
• Fix Exception on FAR shutdown if non-admin logon.
• Registered WebZip users now never see nag screen on Startup, Zip, Unzip, Express HH, H2 Viewer.
• FAR now finds HHW.EXE more precisely.
• Update KeyWorks HH 1.x compiler Help.
• Fix Batch compile - Total error count was not being reset to zero at the start of batch compile.
• New: Hex Dump dialog - Now shows raw byte data in Hexadecimal, Decimal and Octal.

FAR 3.3.2.521 (July-20-2002)

3.3.2 is a special download from the Spidersoft.com site.

Registered WebZip users never see a FAR unregistered nag screen
on FAR Startup, Zip, Unzip, Express HH, H2 Viewer.

FAR 3.3.1.520 (July-18-2002)

3.3.1 is a minor maintenance release. Next release will probably be when MS Help 2 is released in 2003.

H2 Viewer

• Fix: Now displays filters of child (plug-in) collections.

H2 Utilities window

• Change: Default double-click action on NS list item is to open registration window. Was open viewer.
• Fix: Remove annoying popups that occur when clicking on list items with missing collection files.
• Update: Registration window - Add/Edit Title dialog - width is now resizable and auto-opens the HxS Open dialog.

General

• Update: Fix up special $M$ search command - Works a little better now. Wrote some more help. A work in progress.
• New: View > Find Duplicates > Find Suspect Filenames - Finds filenames in the list containing bad chars like spc,%,#.
• Fix: Make Report Toolbar button just a drop down (not split button) because of some weird windows XP things with sizing.
• Fix: TOC Editor - Preview page - Make sure RoboHTML.EXE, HHW.EXE, FrontPG.EXE, Word.exe are always in the list of HTML Editors (if installed on the PC). In the past it was sometimes hard find their location.
• Fix: The general Folder Picker dialog now comes up much faster. Same with the Add Files dialog.

FAR 3.3.0.505 (July-9-2002)

Summary of Major Changes:

• New: All HH and H2 compile windows can now access MS HH Compiler Error help.
  (Many thanks to Cheri and Ralph at Keyworks.net for making HH 1.x error info available)
• New: Batch Compile window. Compiles several help projects as a batch run and directs all output to a single log file. Can also drag and drop project files onto this window.
• New: H2 Project Editor: HxC Collection-level editing - Can now create a list of H2 projects that can be registered and compiled as a batch job.
• New: HxS files can now be explored just the same as CHMs. HH Utilities window/Help Explorer window - can now view the internal file structure of MS Help 2 compiled files.
• Fix: Can now safely drop files onto FAR even if the Authoring page is selected.

File Utilities.

• New: View > Invert Selection - This command inverts the file selection.
• New: View > Find Duplicates - Will find duplicate files in your help web.
• New: Command > Set File Date & Time - Can now set the Create Date as well as the Modify Date.
• Update: Can now cancel most long processes including file validation, sorting and zipping.
• Update: Advanced Find and Replace - Increase max defn count 50 -> 200.
• Fix: Searching large binary files was very hard to cancel.
• Fix: If you closed the main window, you now get prompted if there are unsaved changes in any of the FAR TOC or project Editors.
• Fix: Exporting to HTML TOC and Index - Now save paths with Unix slashes to be compatible with Netscape. Before you had to do this manually but FAR now forces Unix slashes for you.

Find and Replace.

• Find & Replace Quiz dialog - Added Popup Options menu.
  - Current filename easier to see and copy.
  - Move "Show Low ASCII" check box to the popup menu.
  - New options - Open file, Open as Text.
  Note: If you modify the current file via an external program you will now get an option to save/not save/reload when it is time for FAR to update (save) the current file to disk.
• Advanced Search dialog
  - New setting: Can now specify "Not Containing" text as well as "Containing" text. Makes it easier to tune/restrict the search.
  - Also added "Not Containing" option to the Define Substring dialog.

TOC/Index Editor.

• Fix: Preview Page > Edit - Could not edit filenames containing spaces (fixed bug introduced in 3.2).
• New: Request for a "Reset" button next to the Icon Select drop down - Reverts to default icon.

MS Help 2:

• H2 Register Plug-in - We now touch the parent HxC file date so that the H2 API reacts and remerges the collections files when next viewed.
• H2 Utilities - HxConv Page can now pipe DOS output to a text box (good if the DOS box flashes by too quickly).
• H2 Utilities - Hx Merge Utility Page now provides a HxM file editor.
• H2 Utilities - New menu command "H2Reg Export". Create registration script that can be used by the H2Reg utility program. See H2Reg Home Page: http://helpware.net/mshelp2/h2reg.htm
• Preferences dialog > MS Help2 page - Option "Write All" is now available for both the Collection and Project level file save (so now 2 checkboxes instead of 1).
• New: H2 Utilities - NS Page. New controls and links give easier access to local collection files and info.
• H2 Utilities - Register window.
  - Can now unplug a child collection that is missing from disk or unregistered.
  - Remove auto-complete style from the Namespace entry field - more trouble than it was worth.
  - Add buttons to the Title page (Nicer than right click menu).
• H2 Viewer
  - Fix Index: Was updating on the List change event instead of the Click event.
    Still have problem with Control Arrow keys not working.
  - Open dialog - Keep selected item in view when resizing.
• New: Can now examine the contents of a H2 compiled HxS files using the HH Utilities or Help File Explorer windows.
• New: Can now compare 2 HxS files using the HH Utilities window (just as you could with 2 CHM files).
• Removed demo h2 plugin project. Now on web at http://helpware.net/mshelp2/h2tutorial.htm

HH Utilities window.

• Load last option added to Files menu
• LinkCheck options are now in a dialog that is displayed when link checking is started.
• LinkCheck options - Can now enter a path to the source files. The HTML report now links to the source files.
• Add Verdana Style to the HTML report DOC
• Added Tool bar buttons to the window.
• Now supports MS Help 2 HxS files (but no link checking for HxS files yet).

General changes.

• When listing HTML files also list *.ASP file (requested change).
• FAR Batch Mode
  - Log file now defaults to same folder as Batch command INI file, or Windows Temp folder if folder is readonly.
  - Can now stop log from showing at the end of run - See /L:,2 switch.
  - Fix: Was prompting user to validate file list Y/N during batch mode.
   
• Many other small fixes and improvements.

FAR 3.2.0 (April-11-2002)

Summary of Major Changes:

• Compatible with new MS Help 2 Beta (VSHIK) release.
• Fix bug in TOC/Index Editor introduced in 3.1 that screws Japanese TOCs. Section of code is now double-byte friendly.
• Improvements to File commands.

MS Help 2.x Beta support

• Update to be compatible with new VSHIK release.
• H2 Utilites > H2 Register dialog: New Plug-in and Filters pages.
• Utilities dialog: New page to support HxMerge.exe.
• Fix error in writing collection level HxT & HxK file headers.
  <!DOCTYPE HelpTOC> and <!DOCTYPE HelpIndex> was omitted.
• Example file added: \Helpware\FAR\extra\TestPlugIn.zip, Contains an example collection you can register and plug into MS.VSCC. See the readme.txt file for instructions (a work in progress).
• Update Hx Icon graphics. Now compatible with latest Beta.
• Added green links to H2 dialogs - link directly to VSHIK help.
• Update Explorer file associations for H2 files. .chm, .hhp -- "Convert to H2 with FAR", .HxS -- "Decompile with FAR"
• H2 Project window - Validates Nav page fields on exit. Less chance of problems.
• Fix: HxConv.exe file params are now wrapped in quotes so it works with paths containing spaces.
• FAR H2 Viewer:
  - Show Open dialog on opening viewer window, and pre-selects last Namespace.
  - Use first TOC URL as Home/Default page, if not defined in the Collection (same as VS.NET DExplore).
  - Added Next & Prev buttons to Go Menu & Toolbar to quickly browse the TOC.
  - Put Sync command into Go Menu.
  - Added Text-To-Speech command (uses MS Agent)
  - File menu command to open current Namespace in VS.NET help viewer (DExplore.exe).
  - Change some hot keys which were clashing with the Browser control.
• Remove FAR's folder limitation on H2 Stop Word file.
• H2 Utilities > H2 Register > Add H2 Help Title dialog: New fields so you can specify the media locations.

TOC/Index Editor

• Fix: Ctrl+F2 keypress was slipping through to main window (bug introduced in 3.1).
• Fix: Fix for Europeans stuffed TOC and Index files under Japanese/Chinese windows (bug introduced in 3.1). Section of code is now double-byte friendly.
• New: Add checkbox to HxT and HxK Properties page. You can now manually switch to/from a collection level file (which simply means omit or add the DTD header declaration. Note: Collection level (uncompressed) files don't have a DTD file reference.
• Edit button (Preview page) now has dropdown with icons so you can choose an editor.
• Icon dropdown list (Hx? files) now shows 0 based numbers, same as in the .Hx? file.
• Must now always enter the editor via the file open dialog like other windows.

File Commands - Update

• Copy Files: Option to preserve file attributes. Can now copy just selected files. Now get overwrite popup if a destination file already exists. Optionally opens the destination folder when copy completes.
• Set File Date/Time: Can now work on selected files. General tidy up of code and dialog.
• Set File Encoding: New dialog to set the file encoding (ANSI, Unicode, UTF-8) just the same as NotePad SaveAs does (win2k/xp), except FAR can do many files at a time. Also FAR now display the encoding of the selected file in the status bar.
• Set File Attributes: New dialog allows you to set the "Readonly, Hidden, SystemFile, Archive" file attributes.
• Zip File List: Save dialog now has a check box [x]"Zip only selected files".
• Find Files dated: Added Time entry fields. Now both the After Date/Time and the Before Date/Time settings are optional. Resultant matching files are now selected in the main file list (ready for copy, zip, reporting etc).
• Fix: Bug found in Zip. In some situations no files would be zipped.

General

• UI looks nicer under Windows XP. Command in View menu can toggle XP theme painting on and off.
• New: Simple Hex Dump window - Right-click a file list item and select "View as Hex Dump".
• Various optimizations, bug fixes and tidy ups.
• Fix: Help Express dialog - If invalid Home page and user canceled then would GPF.
• New: Option "Check Bookmarks" - in past version it always validated bookmarks.
• Main windows remember past path better.

FAR 3.1.0 (Mar-03-2002)

Summary of Major Improvements:

• HH Utilities window - Can now access Workshops "HTML Help ActiveX Control" code Wizard.
• Improved MS Help 2 support - H2 Viewer window. Added Filter support.
• Split the main window User Interface into File Utilities and Authoring commands (can disable in Preferences).
• Fixed ZIP support (broken in V3.0).

User Interface Change.

• Main window now contains 2 pages, one for File Utilities and one for Authoring. File Utilities are hidden in Authoring mode. Use "View > Show File Utilities" to flip between pages. Or show the page Tabs, "View > Mode Tabs", to change pages.
• Preference Dialog - "Can Hide File Utilities" check box, can be unchecked to hide the new 2 page interface.

MS Help 2.x.

• H2 Help Viewer window:
  - Now available from the main command menu.
  - Added Nav tabs.
  - Added Favorites.
  - Added a Filter Edit dialog.
  - Full-text search: Cancel dialog lets you cancel a lengthy search.
• The MSDN H2 Viewer (DExplore) is automatically added to the default viewers list (Preferences dialog) if found.
• H2 Project Editor window:
  - Now has a H2 Viewer dropdown so you can quickly change h2 viewer for a project. Used to have to change the global in prefs.
  - Added basic Attributes support.
  Note: Attributes files (HxA) only seem work if added to the collection level project file like MS do.
  - Fix a bug in the HxC (project file) file format, where HxA (attrib files), HxV (virtual topic file) info was being saved in the wrong order causing H2 compiles to fail. Now saves in order defined in HxC DTD file.
• H2 Utilities window: Remove Compile command - Leaves Decompile more prominent. Compile is best done in the project window.
• Express Help dialog - When creating a new H2 project file, you now get prompted for the file type ANSI, Unicode, UTF-8 Unicode (as done in the Wizard and H2 Project Editor.

MS HTML Help 1.x.

• Fix: Logic error in HTML Help Advanced editor. Window Type Field: Default navigation field was not restored after a save. Now ok.
• Fix: HH Project editor would sometimes show an access violation on File create or load. This was because Window Type pages are sometimes hidden and FAR would try and select the last page used.
• Fix: CHM Explorer - can now right-click hh.dat file in Explorer and view in FAR.
• The Add Web files command (Project Editor and Wizard) - Can now select the folder to scan for web files (but only if the project folder contains sub directories).
• HH 1.x Utils window
  * Now remembers last page
  * New: Now has HH ActiveX Script Wizard (same as in Workshop)
  * Can now close the current CHM
  * Added menu hints
  * Option (checkbox) to automatically load the last CHM file.

Find & Replace.

• New: Find String (or Advanced Find: Start with/End with/Contains text) can now contain "?" chars to match any character. So "file?.htm" will match text "file1.htm", "filev.htm" but not "file.htm". When trying to match spaces you may need to switch "Ignore Spaces" off.

TOC/Index Editor.

• Fix: TOC/Index editor was destroying some labels containing Umlauts when saving. This area is much improved. FAR now Escapes/UnEscapes labels correctly so now you see real text not escape codes in the TOC editor. Chars «¨¬§©ھ/–—… should not be Escaped as HH TOC pane wont display them encoded. So we leave these as they are.
• New: You can stop FAR TOC Editor from encoding certain special characters and umlauts by declaring them in settings.ini (stored in the far.exe run folder).
• Fix: Preview Page - Sync command. Now strips off Bookmarks before
  looking for a TOC node to sync to.
• TOC/Index Editor (MS H2) - Now preserve .DTD header line in .Hx? files. EG. If you load a .HxT file with no .DTD reference then none will be saved.
• Fix: If you load a TOC/Index file while validate Links is enabled the file now loads and all bad links nodes are expanded into view. Before they would remain hidden in unexpanded tree nodes.
• Fix: HHK Index Editing - Now preserves redundant double Name info
  
  <LI> <OBJECT type="text/sitemap">
  <param name="Name" value="www1">
  <param name="Name" value="www1">
  <param name="Local" value="www1.htm">
  </OBJECT>
  
  Past version would strip out the double name on load, and always saved double name on save. Now it preserves the info in case the user is using Information Types (unlikely as broken technology). On HHK file load, if duplicates are found and you will be ask whether you want to strip out this redundant information (Normalize index). There is also a menu item "TOC > Special > Auto-Normalize HHK Files" - Enable this to auto normalize on file load (same as past). Uncheck to be prompted whenever file load finds HHK redundant duplicate information. ** Most people can ignore this fix - You will just see your file size decrease slightly -- good for huge HHK files. **

Batch Mode.

• New: Batch Mode command - LinkCheckChm=
  You can now check the links of one or more CHM files in FAR batch mode.
• Added more support for Link Check commands in batch mode.
• Batch jobs - Default directory is now the current folder.
  EG. Performing FAR.EXE /L:mylog.txt /BB:jobs.ini
  from folder d:\batchjobs will look for log and jobs.ini in that folder.
  EG. Performing FAR.EXE /L:mylog.txt /BB:d:\xxx\jobs.ini
  will use folder d:\xxx for the log file folder.
  In the past full paths were always required.

Other.

• Fix: File Add dialog - Clear List check box was broken (only Clear List in main menu worked).
• Fix: Fixed Zip support. FAR 3.0 shipped 2 XCEED zip dlls - xcdzip321.dll and xcdunz321.dll.  This should be renamed to  xcdzip32.dll and xcdunz32.dll. The component vendor shipped us *321.dll by accident.  Fixed in FAR 3.0.10 and greater.
• New: Make Compressed Help window -- Can now add a close button, edit button colors, browse GIF files as well as JPG.
• Tidy colors for WinXP. Update colors slightly for non-XP.
• Fix some control placements under large fonts.
• Fix: Access Violation - when H2 Viewer + Toc editor both up and you shutdown.
• New: File Drop filter dialog now contains a master Filter On/Off Checkbox. Faster to toggle Filtering on/off.

FAR 3.0.2 (Oct-25-2001)

A third party component included in FAR 3.0 broke FAR under NT4. FAR 3.0.2 is now stable & tested under NT4 SP6.

• Fix: Toc/Index Editor - "Validate" toolbar button had stopped working.
• Fix: Toc/Index Editor - "Open as text" in File page had stopped working.
• Fix: Toc/Index Editor -  was prompting "reload file?" when loading a new file via Explorer.
• Fix: Open CHM - Now sets current directory = CHM folder so that merged CHMs work.
• Fix: HH Project Editor - clear drop downs before refilling.
• Fix: Project Editors - Change page hot keys (Shift+Up, Shift+Dn) to Shift+Ctrl+.. to avoid list select clash.
• New: All editors - Reload toolbar button now has drop down list like their main menu.
• New: Toc/Index Editor - The sort feature can now do Numeric sorts and custom Locale sorting.

FAR 3.0.0 (Oct-04-2001)

New Features for V3.0.

• Now supports Windows XP new controls.
• Now supports MS Help 2 - Download MS H2 Preview from http://www.helpware.net/mshelp2/download.htm
• New Help Wizard makes creating HTML Help 1.x / MS Help 2.x a snap.

Issues with V3.0

• The current H2 SDK Preview build 2.0.9064.0 has many bugs.
• H2 SDK causes serious problems if registering collections with Namespaces or FileIDs containing spaces.
• Expect to see a few problems with the H2 part of  FAR 3.0.  As soon as the official Beta is release we will release a new version of FAR to match.

Fixed - Drop Filter

• If you dropped files from a Explorer Search window, which may contain a mixed group of files from different folder, then FAR was getting the Base folder incorrect. This would stuff commands like copy and zip. Now ok.
• If you dropped files directly from say a _vti folder. FAR would not filter these files (filter enabled). Now ok.

New Features

• MS Help 2 Project Editor.
• MS Help 2 Viewer. Test H2 collections with built-in viewer.
  Command-line option to open a collection "FAR.EXE ms-help://namespace"
• MS Help 2 Utilities dialog (Register, decompile, convert HH 1.x projects)
• MS Help 2 support added to Express Help, Wizard windows and TOC & Index editor.
• FAR Search and MS Help 2 features now supports Unicode.
• Reports Dialog - Can now report on selected files.
• Go To window - Quick access to all FAR windows (Ctrl+F12)
• Express Help window now follows on to either the Help Wizard or the Advanced Project Editor window.
• Uncompressed Help feature is now a separate window.

Other Changes Include...

• Fix: HH Project window can now find HHW.EXE (workshop) reliably.
• New: Explorer context menu commands - "Open with FAR" now supports HxC, HxT, HxK, HxS
• Fix: Check web for updates. This background thread starved the application of CPU time.

• Fix: Explorer context menu - "Open With..." (WinME/2K/XP) menu item were blank.

• Optimized: CHM Explorer window CHM load time. Large files load faster.
• Optimized: Toc/Index Editor - File Load is faster.

• HHP Project Editor - New file list. Can now Sort file list by Dir/Ext/Name/Size.

• When a project file is loaded, all files are validated. Now a cancel dialog appears after x seconds so you can cancel the validation loop.
• Can now cancel the generate TOC process.
• Fixed: Find and Replace was actually ignoring files with no file extension. Closely related was a message reporting drive was readonly when if was ok.
• New: Adv Find and Replace - new tab - Move Link/file command added. Help updated.
• New: Adv Find and Replace - new command $L$ can convert all HTML tags to lowercase. Useful when moving to from HTML --> XHTML or XML.
• New: Convert between H2.x and HH 1.x TOC/Index files by using "File > SaveAs". Unlike H2 SDK, FAR attempts to map Icon Indexes during conversion. Save dialog supports ANSI, Unicode save options.
• Fixed: TOC Editor -When deleting thousands of items it was very slow. Now fast.
• New: Batch commands DIR= and DIRScan= can be set to "." which means  the directory of the INI file.
• Many other minor fixes...

FAR 2.8.1 (Feb-07-2001)

Minor update: 

• FAR.EXE is now compressed with  a latter version of UPX exe compressor.
  Older versions were being seen incorrectly by some virus protection programs as a virus. FAR does not have a virus. If the error bothers you then uninstall your current FAR and install 2.8.1.

FAR 2.8.0 (Feb-03-2001)

General

• Fix - Win2K intermittent startup errors.

• Fix - All dialogs now work under Windows Large Fonts

• New - FAR now takes command line parameters "/O filename" so you can make single instance shortcuts to FAR from other programs and edit HHC, HHK and CHM files.
  EG. HomeSite would be a FAR command line "/O %CURRENT%"

• New - FAR main windows are now modeless so you can easily swap 
  between say the HHP editor and TOC editor with out closing windows first.

• Fix - Restoring a window that was previously maximized sometimes failed.

• Fix - FAR now considers .ASP a HTML file (for those doing uncompress help on the web).
• Fix - Explorer context menus under Windows 2000 & ME now work better.
  Also under Win 2000 & ME you can now make FAR the default program for 
  .hhc, .hhk, .hhp files (or not). Default is not.
• Batch mode - All advanced search options are now available under batch mode.
• Fix - Registry settings - Import from file. Was loading file settings but not displaying them on screen. When FAR closed it would save its settings and overwrite some new settings. Now fixed.
• Status bar now displays info on selection count and files size

Toc/Index Editor

• Fix - TOC items can now contain ><& type chars. Strings are now escaped.
• Fix - Validate links command checks HHK items correctly. Links to other KeyWords are validated.
• Fix - Ctrl+Drag was used to Copy items but Ctrl+Click is already used multi-select. So now Shift+Drag is used.
• Hot keys to move TOC items is now back to original Ctrl+Alt+Arrows keys. 

FAR 2.7.0 (Oct-21-2000)

General

• New - Preferences dialog: Can now Export / Import user settings to older type INI file.
• New - You can now edit the Replace text in the Prompt dialog which appears during Find and Replace.
• Fix - "Add Web Files" command uses the Global drop filter temporarily, however the drop filter was not always restored correctly afterwards.
• Using UPX EXE compressor reduced FAR.EXE file size from 2,247K to 680K. No degradation in load speed or performance. This is a must have free utility.
• When you do multiple drops onto FAR it no longer checks for duplicates. Too slow when dealing with 1000's of files. User beware.

HHP Editing/Compiling

• Compiler now warns if target CHM is RO before compiling. To help version control systems.
• Fix - A quoted string containing a comer EG. "some title, some more" was being broken into two parts causing problems.

Advanced Find and Replace Dialog

• Window now sizable.
• Added online help for the dialog.
• Move the advanced options into a Tabbed notebook.
• New - $R$[filename] command. Add Script or CSS file statement to multiple-files in multiple-folders and FAR will insert the correct relative path into each file.
• New - $O$ command. FAR will replace this by original match string.

TOC / Index Editor

• New - Can now set several TOC icons at once using the Icon dropdown and tree control multi-select.
• New - Drag mode allows both Link only & Link and label drops (now 4 tree insert modes)
• New - Edit menu with keyboard commands: Cut (move), Copy and Paste. 
• New - Normalize Index. Reduce Popup folders with single popup items to a single Index entry.
• New - Can now abort Sort since >1,000 items or more can be slow.
• Fix - Access violation when drag and drop mode=Link Only and target is not a valid node.
• Fix - Access violation when click edit in preview page when page is not available.
• Fix - Normalization of TOC items would lose a branch if orphan contained children.
• Drag files onto Tree control now results in focus change to tree for keyboard users.
• Several new keyboard shortcuts including:
  * F11 to shift focus between Tree and main control on the Tabbed notebook control.
  * Ctrl+F11 to shift focus between Tree and Tabbed notebook control.
  * Alt+Ctrl+ F11 to insert selected items from the current file list into the tree control.
  * F12 to detach/reattach preview page.
  * Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2, Ctrl+3, Ctrl+4 anywhere to select a drag & drop mode.
  * F6, F7, F8 - Sets Index entry type without moving focus.
  * Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V (cut, copy, paste) shortcuts for tree control items.
• HHK edit - now has separate popup item and popup list items checkbox.
• General improvements for the HHK editor. 

FAR 2.6.0 (Sept-3-2000)

General

• New installer adds 250K to the download size but improves the installation and de-installation experience. Default install folder is now \program files\helpware\far.
• Fix - Explorer context menus no longer depend on workshop being previously installed. Workshop is still required to compile hhp files.
• Fix - When adding Web files to the FAR list, the memory and visible list were sometimes out of sync. 
• Main window file list will no longer accept duplicate files added to it.
• Faster, better sorting of FAR file list.
• Zip, Chm, Chw, Its file context menus now available in Explorer.
• Now creates context menus and file associations only once on installation.
• Add option in preferences to Add/Remove file associations.
  Zip and folder context menus can now be removed from Explorer.
• Add option in preferences to disable auto web check for new FAR version.

Find and Replace

• Fix - If user cancels search, then as before we discard the changes made to the current file in memory. Now we also roll back the on screen counters to correctly show that the actual replacements that were written to disk.
• New - Now has logging option. See Preferences dialog and status bar.
• Statusbar - Can see Filter and Log info - Hint shows current settings - click to open relevant settings dialog.

Command line batch mode

• Fix - Batch search is now independent from UI "Search All" checkbox settings.
• Fix - Batch command "Dir" was doing same as "DirScan".

Examine CHM - New window

• Explorer - Chm file right-click context menu. "Examine with FAR".
• Chm Link Checker
  * Now part of Examine Chm dialog
  * Now knows about "mailto:" links.
  * Now also validates any Context Mappings stored in the Chm. 
• Features:
  * List files in Chm.
  * Compare 2 Chms (byte by byte compare of all files).
  * Extract selected files from a Chm.
  * Test Windows, Context and Topic API calls.
  * Compress Chw files. EG. MSDN 60MB Chw compresses down to 5MB.
  * Delete items from CHM (make ITS files with no HH binary files)

FAR 2.5.1 (July-7-2000)

• New - Dialog controls now display foreign character fonts correctly on Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Greek, Turkish, Vietnamese, Hebew, Thai and Russian (Cyrillic) Windows.
• Fix main File List - Now reports actual replacements as well as search matches found.  Also fixed Matches column sorting.
• Open file list dialog - option to load list explicitly or search moved into open dialog. Save file list dialog now contains option to save selected items only.
• New Reporting specifier - Can now report <title> text in HTML file.
• TOC Editor changes 
  * New - TOC Editor - The Preview page now has Edit button. Opens default HTML editor.
  * Fix - When removing all children from a node it was not automatically reverting to a non-folder icon.
  * Can now multi-select for TOC Delete and Drag & Drop
  * Fix TOC hotkeys that did not work sometimes
  * Editor now remembers drop mode
  * TOC drag & drop pause over folder will now auto open but not close
  * Several Find and replace bugs fixed.
  * Added extra key shortcuts
• Express HHelp
  * No longer creates Next/Prev toolbar buttons as these don't work if filenames have spaces and TOC icons cannot be edited with a binary TOC. 
  * Now has Title edit field.
• Preferences dialog 
  * New option allows multiple installs of FAR to save settings in different registry locations
  * Now contains the HTML TOC creation settings eg. Include bookmarks. 
  * The hardwired filter used when searching for web files can now be edited.
• Adv search - "new" button now makes a copy of the current search definition.
• Link checker - Now checks all hyper-links it can find in a chm file. This includes bookmarks and links to files in other CHMs.
• MSDOS Batch mode 
  * Fixed problem with current folder. Info sections were not being found.
  * Add new Batch command - OpenFarList=, OpenFarSrch=. They do the same as File >Open command.

FAR 2.4.13.140 (April-15-2000)

TOC Editor - Validate TOC Links

• Now validates Umlauts and HTML codes correctly.
  Example:  "و" character will match HTML codes "&aelig;" and "&#230;" and visa-versa.
• Validate now has a progress bar and cancel button.
  Searching through hundreds of CHM files can take time.

TOC Editor - Find Dialog

• New Find and Replace options - Append text and Prefix with text.

Other

• HH Compile -No longer displays Broken links info at end of compile since
  HHA.DLL compiler appears to report incorrect information.
• Update online help
• Minor fixes

FAR 2.3.11.120 (April-04-2000) - BETA

TOC Editor Changes

• Validate links now looks right inside CHMs to validate filenames. 
  Link#Bookmarks also validated.
• Can now load HHK Index files (since both HHK and HHC are site map format). 
• Window remembers its window size + Splitter position
• New TOC commands - See TOC > Special menu
• TOC Editor Preview -  added Sync button - Sync TOC to browser page
  Keep clicking to step though multiple matches in the TOC
• New TOC editor Tab - "CHM file". List contents of CHM and drag items onto TOC
• TOC Preview window changes
  - Can now preview topics links chm::topic
  - Can now be detached as a separate window to preview files in other TOC editor tabs.

Find and Replace changes

• Adv Search - Now easier to define sub-strings $A$, $B$ etc as start & end search text are now strings (were chars).
• Find and Replace - Restore Read Only attribute if previously set
• Do not modify date time stamp if no replacement is done.
• Can now search All or Selected files. Checkbox in the search panel or Adv Search dialog.

Other Changes

• Scan for files dialog progress dialog works better - better feedback & better cancel.
• New FAR command - Set File data & time
• Win2000 friendly - no longer creates files in FAR folder
• Fix - HH Wizard now handles very big project files.
• New - CHM Link Checker / Decompile dialog
  Searches files in a CHM with chm::topic#bmark type links and validates them.
• Marcel requested <Meta name="FarImageNumber" value="12"> 
  to be read from HTML file header for auto create TOC.
• Reorganize menus.

FAR 2.3.7.95 (Mar-03-2000)

• Fix - Could not save .hhp files > 64K (limitation with INI files). Now saves files of any size. 
• Fixed - Introduced a harmless bug last version where the HTML Help Wizard opened twice in a row. Oops! 

FAR 2.3.6.90 (Feb-28-2000)

Minor update to address  a problem with the new Advanced HH Editor:

• Fix - Advanced HTML Help Editor. When adding a window type  to a project that does not already have a window type you get an error "Error 4294967295 is not a valid integer" due to a couple of uninitialized settings. Now fixed.
• Adv HH Editor -- Added more language selections to the language drop down.
• Adv HH Editor -- If no window types defined then hide window type pages.
• TOC and HHP editors now have Reload file history lists.

FAR 2.3.4.80 (Feb-2000) 

Minor additions and fixes to HTML Help utilities:

• TOC Editor additions
  * New - Editor now has preview page tab to view the HTML Topics - Requires IE4/5.
  * New - Can now Alpha Sort groups of TOC items and optionally all sub groups.
• FAR HTML Help Compiler
  * Fix - HH Compiler bug- Some rubbish was being compiled into CHMs - fix was to do a change directory to the project folder before compiling.
  * New - Added popup menu options - "Select All" and "Copy to Clipboard".
• Fix - Explorer context menus bugs fixed. Some command line options were not compatible with Windows shell DDE - Had to disable .hhp, .hhc and .far command line options.
• Remove - "View log after compile" checkbox since the new compiler window displays the log.
• HH Project Editor
  * Now performs more parameter checks before compiling.
  * Files and Merge Files pages now have buttons to access popup options.
• Added further support for WebZip (http://www.spidersoft.com).

FAR 2.3.2 (Jan-2000)

• Fix: TOC Editor - Link browse dialog set the field but the new value was lost once you clicked another tree item link.
• Fix: Right click on Explorer folder "Open with FAR" fixed.
• New: TOC editor - duplicate a node or branch by holding ctrl key down while you drag and drop folders.
• New: Option to add background image to navigation frame for an uncompressed site.
• New: HTML Index for uncompressed site creation.
• New: Advanced Search options: 2 new $A$, $B$, $C$ options. "Replace delete text with" and "Include these 2 search chars".
• Create TOC dialog - Now has dropdown selection list for home page.
• New: Commands menu - Override the limit MS imposed limit of only 2 simultaneous Internet connections for Internet Explorer and WinInet applications.
• New: HTML Help Express - Select a folder and click compile for extra simple HTML Help.
• New: HTML Help Project Editor - Workshop replacement window fixes several bugs in Workshop and makes available several HH settings not normally seen in MS Workshop.
  Example: Browse buttons, MSDN Menu, Text Size.
• Old HTML Help Create dialog remains - Now called HTML Help Wizard.
• Better Checks for low system resources.
• FAR 2.3 now support the WebZip application (http://www.spidersoft.com)
• TOC Editor - FAR files page, Refresh button can create a file list from hard disk.
• Main window - "File > Add Web Files" Quickly search and add files to FAR list.
• Copy To command - now allows you to select a folder.
• Find and Replace 
  * Confirmation window now stays up. It hides only when search moves to the next file or the user cancels.
  * Remove Find Quiz Syntax highlighting because of Limited speed.
  Also added Line number.
  * File list now scrolls as list updates.
• FAR no longer cripples after the 60 day trial period. Instead you get an annoying 10 sec count down.

FAR 2.2.2 (23-Nov-1999)

• Fix: When creating a TOC file, search for Title tags deeper into file.
  If no Title tags found in a document then use first H1, H2 or H3 tag text.
• Fix: TOC editor - Right-click menu - Open commands work correctly on directory change now.
• Automatic creation of an HHK index file from a HHC file - Now a tighter Index file with no duplicates.
• TOC editor - can now delete a tree node without deleting child nodes
• TOC editor - now deletes temporary files created in test mode.
• Fix: Opening hhc, toc files using Windows Shell (Explorer) now works if folder has spaces

FAR 2.2.1 (245-Oct-1999) - Now Available

• New - Can now Open and Save FAR file lists (.far files)
• New - Can now save Drop File Filter Sets
• Main window Title bar now displays base folder path
• Main window remembers its size and pos
• Fixed - The Zip file view was displaying some unwanted artifacts.

Special Note: FAR 2.2 is no longer a free give away. Download and install FAR 2.2 to a separate folder. That way you can continue to use your old free copy of FAR if you wish to. Of course we hope you will upgrade and register. See the FAR home page for more information.

FAR 2.1.7 (12-Oct-1999)

Minor update. Documentation only.

FAR 2.1.6 (15-Aug-1999)

Finally found a spare moment to update FAR.
Many thanks to all who sent in bug reports and wish lists. 

TOC Editor

• New - Validate links command 
• New - Option to drag and drop link information only
• New - Remove Set button from TOC editor
• New - File pick list dialog for link fields
• Fix - Can now create folders if TOC tree empty
• Fix - Test mode no longer shows file not found errors
• Fix - Test and Open now displays HTML via shell so now single session.
• Fix - TOC editor now preserves image list type globals. Was erasing them on save.
  <param name="ImageList" value="icons.bmp">
  <param name="Image Width" value="16">
  <param name="Color Mask" value="0xff00ff">
• Other minor fixes and cosmetic changes

Other

• New - Can now right click  Explorer Folders (Open with FAR)
• New - Can now right click .hhc files in Explorer Folders (Compile with FAR)
  Simply passes file to hhc.exe compiler and displays the log file. Avoid HHW lockups.
• New - Updated toolbar for main window
• New - 2 new batch mode commands for George
  MakeHHC=xxx.hhc -- Auto generates a XXX.HHC file
  MakeHHK=xxx.hhc -- Auto generates a XXX.HHC file
• Fix - FAR now displays correctly under large fonts display mode
• Fix - Find and Replace now finds Umlauts (E.G. نç) in non-case sensitive mode.
• FAR no longer ships with uncompressed version of help for netscape users

FAR 2.1.4

• Very minor cosmetic fix. The Environment Check dialog reported incorrectly
  that you needed to update HTML Help even though it clearly displayed
  that you were up-to-date.

FAR 2.1.3

Note: No changes to Find and Replace - only to HTML Help functionality.

• New - FAR WYSIWYG table of contents (TOC) editor.

  Replaces HH Workshop TOC Editor.  Include file (merge) items handled correctly. Drag and drop entire branches.  Move and Delete entire branches. Instant Test button. Shows unused web files and allows drag and drop onto the TOC. Explorer files view with drag and drop onto the TOC. Can open .hhc and .toc files directly from Explorer. Right click the explorer file and select "Open with FAR". Move between .hhc and .toc format without losing information. Drop .hhc and .toc files onto the TOC editor from explorer. Edit .hhc and .toc files in a text editor and FAR TOC Editor will detect the change and ask you if you want to reload.

• New - "File > Export File List" now programmable.  Create personalized reports to .TXT or .BAT files using the FAR file list. Toolbar button also added.
• Fix - FAR was checking for disk read-write access via writing a temp file in the drive root folder. Now checks the base folder where files were dropped from.
• Fix - Various Optimizations - processes very large numbers of files even quicker.
• New - FAR now excepts HHP, HHK & HHC files as command line parameters.
  Can now right click .HHP, .HHC and .TOC files in Explorer and select "Open with FAR".
  There is now a file association between .TOC files and the FAR application.
• New -If IE4/5 installed and an internet connection found, then FAR auto-checks for updates on the web. Can be disabled in preferences.
• FAR .toc files are no longer required. When creating a new TOC from the file list a temp .toc file is created then converted to a .hhc file. You can still work in FAR .toc format from the new FAR TOC Editor. Click the last icon in the Editor toolbar to open a .hhc in .toc format.
• Remove FAR tray icon - not a useful feature.
• FAR now has single instance support via dde and shell.  Example: When opening FAR via a .hhc, .hhp or .toc file you only get one instance of FAR in memory.
• When loading a .hhp file, if an invalid file is found in [files] list, FAR will ask if it can remove it.
• Move TOC icon search and replace from the Create HH Window to the Edit TOC window.
• Added file uninstall.bat - used to remove FAR registry changes.