Re: Winhelp

[Paul Prescod <papresco@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Let's make this concrete. Is there some combination of DSSSL coding
style and "perl script" that could transform RTF into HELP-friendly RTF?

Sean Mc Grath wrote:
> The key RTF "formatting" features that achieve winhelp semantics are:-
> 
> 1) Footnotes.
> '#' footnote == Context String == Link end
> '$' footnote == Title
> 'K' footnote == Keyword
> '+' footnote == Browser sequence (i.e. forward ./ next buttons)

I guess these are RTF commands. Could you give an example of syntax?
 
> 2) Hypertext
> A jump is coded as <text to highlight><context string> where <text to
> highlight> is
> formatted with double underline and <context string> is "hidden" text.

Does this mean that any text that is double underlined and has a hidden
context string following it becomes a hypertext link? It wouldn't seem
too hard to convert Jade-RTF links to use this format.
 
> That is the guts of it. The rest is limitations - brain dead tables, no full
> text justification,
> no super/sub scripts etc. etc. etc. For all its limitations, Winhelp (and its
> big brother Multimedia Viewer) are two of the unsung heros of Windows software
> IMHO.

I agree, it is a very convenient browsing environment.

 Paul Prescod

 DSSSList info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/dsssl/dssslist