I have one .chm file in which Contents and Search tab are there. But Favourites and Index tabs are missing. IF I Want to add them in .chm file how can I do that?
I assume you don‘t have the original project with the project file (*.hhp) and the HTML files. If you have only the CHM file, there is no easy way to do this.
The missing index and favourites tab was originally not added by the help author. So you have to decompile the CHM file and compile again and you have to create the index yourself!
If you really want to start with Reverse Engineering decompling is described at:
http://www.help-info.de/en/Help_Info_HTMLHelp/hh_command.htm
For some first steps you don't actually need any tool to do this. Just open a command prompt window and type the following:
hh.exe -decompile <target_directory> <path>\<filename>.chm
The only decompiler with any additional features is KeyTools as this can try to rebuild the project (.hhp) file. You will need this file if you want to recompile the help project (see link above).
One thing to note is that the decompile/recompile process isn't a "round-trip" process; certain features that the help author added to the original help file can't be recovered when you decompile it, so these may no longer work properly after you've recompiled.
This is especially true in the area of context-sensitive help, which may be broken in the new version of the file.
For further information in help authoring and building CHM files see also:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxVm_Edaus8
Related
I opened my project on another computer, and the files where I'd been using a file watcher were expanded, like before they used to be nested like home.scss is now after I run the watcher once on that file.
Is there a way to automatically make all the files be nested?
Because when adding new files and folder with git, it would be quite troublesome to go into each and every file in order to make them become nested.
Like I have some minified JavaScript files that used to be nested, but now is expanded for some reason.
Hope you understand. Thank you.
Edit: Nested***
Is there a way to automatically make all the files go under a caret like that?
Unfortunately not. Such nesting information (to "go under a caret" as you are saying) is taken from "Output path to refresh" field of the corresponding File Watcher.
You have to run file watcher for such files at least once in order to see files nested like you have it on your another computer.
Here is how you can run File Watchers manually without the need to modify those files (so no extra history will appear in your git (or whatever VCS you may be using there)).
https://stackoverflow.com/a/20012655/783119
P.S.
In PhpStorm 2016.3 (the next version that will be released in 1.5-2 months or so) such nesting will be done automatically (the most common combinations) so there will be no need to have File Watchers for providing such info.
If you wish -- you can try EAP build right now (EAP means Early Access Program .. which is sort of Alpha/Beta builds (simply speaking).. and therefore some bugs for new functionality might be present and performance may not be optimal).
I use a program that spits out HTML and hhp projects containing data from my databases.
I then compile that hhp with Microsoft HTML Help Compiler (hhc.exe).
It works well, but unfortunately for few projects, hhc compiles fine, but chm file is unusable.
It reports "Cannot open the file: mk:#MSITStore: FileName"
I have no problem with other chm files on my system. I have no problems with other chm I compile. If I remove several topics from my project produced file works again. It doesn't matter what topics I remove. Files that don't work are almost twice the size of files that work, even tho the html and project file is almost the same (very few changes), which leads me to think compression fails silently if size or structure of some file isn't right.
Does anyone have experience like this and what could be the reason?
For those that want to see example, this project will compile and work fine:
Working chm project
And this one compile but fail to open:
Chm that fails
I experienced the identical problem. The CHM was double the usual size and could not be opened. The CHM compiler did not report any error. Removing any random HTML file enabled opening the CHM. I generated many other CHMs on the same day, and all the others were OK.
I worked around the problem in the following way:
I added a very small HTML file to the project. It is a copy of one of the other files in the project, so if a user finds it in a search, it does no harm.
I entered the file name in the HHP.
I recompiled the project in the CHM compiler.
The CHM shrank to the normal size, and it opens normally.
I had exactly the same problem and can say it's all a matter of size and most likely an error in the compression module of hhc.
When I added some lines of documentation the size of the CHM-file increased from 1.6 to 3.1 MB and it could not be opened anymore.
This problem could not only be fixed by removing files but also by adding files.
So I wrote some additional documentation, added it to the project and everything was fine again.
There are a number of reasons why the MS HH compiler may crash.
(1) Invalid filenamesfile and file
The HTML Help compiler does not like some filenames e.g. spaces in a filename can still cause some minor problems with HTML Help. Best to replace spaces with underscores. Avoid "#" in file and folder names.
Try and stick with these characters _, a..z, A..Z, 0..9.
Do not use periods apart from in the normal file extension. Example: A filename such as xxx.h001.gif is identified incorrectly as a HTML file. The compiler then attempts to parse the binary file and crashes.
Do not use file or folder names containing ".chm".
(2) Avoid compiling on a network drive and try to compile on local drive.
(3) Use MJ’s Help Diagnostics to ensure that all the help viewer components are properly installed and registered.
http://helpware.net/downloads/#MJs
(4) Delete the file “hh.dat”, which you should find in this subdirectory:
\Documents and Settings\%username%\Application Data\Microsoft\HTML Help
This file stores information about all the HTML Help files on your system (Favorites, window size and position, etc.), and can cause the files to misbehave if it has somehow been corrupted.
(5) You need to debug your help system. You need to identify the file(s) that are crashing the compiler.
I normally remove sections of the web by renaming or moving folders and files, then recompile. Keep adding and removing sections until the compiler does not crash. Eventually you will find one or two files that are causing the problem. You may also need to debug these files by temporarily removing sections of the HTML file.
I see 0 byte files in the input? Maybe the compiler can't handle that?
I've a file in a folder and I don't know anything about this file (how it's generated and updated) because it comes from an application running on my system of which I don't have the source code.
The file format is clearly json and I successfully created an hard link to it (using the shell command ln file hardLinkToFile) and placed it on another directory.
At this point I check the "2" files and they are exactly the same as expected, but when I perform an action in the application that cause an update of the original file the hard link doesn't get updated.
Any idea on how I can solve this problem?
UPDATE: As pointed out by both Vlad Lazarenko and mvds the file probably get deleted and a new one is created, is there something I can do to obtain a solution equivalent to the hard-link one I thought initially about?
If a hard link is not getting updated, it means that application is removing the old file and creates a new one. Thus, you still have a hard copy of the previous file, but new file has a totally different inode, though path is still the same. You can verify it simply by changing the content of that file yourself - the link should get updated.
I am getting the same behavior in TextEdit, but not in TextMate. I would suspect this is due to the revision control built in to OS X Lions document architecture. TextEdit uses versioning, while TextMate does not. Most likely this function replaces the file instead of changing it, as described by #Vlad Lazarenko.
#Vlad and Francesco. It's really in this way. I verified that vi leaves the inode unchanged and the src and dest file are both changed, while e.g. the kate editor doesn't and I was getting mad to understand why the changes I made in the src file weren't also in the dest file.
You can easily check this with the command ls -li srcfile destfile before editing one of them with each editor I mentioned.
By the way it's not nice that the hard link are application dependent
I guess it is a bit too late...
Anyways, accidentally I found that, if you change the default app for the file, the hard link gets separated from original file. Even if you click on change all and do not relate to that specific file.
I have a reference to the Microsoft Scripting Runtime (scrrun.dll) in one of my Access projects. If I open the object browser in VBA (by pressing F2) and choose 'Scripting' from the library dropdown it shows me all of the properties, functions, etc. for the Scripting library. If I choose one of these functions and then click on the help button (with the yellow question mark) it opens a help window with the title of 'Microsoft Visual Basic Help.'
It acts like it is unable to find the help file for this library. I can manually find the help file on my computer at the following location: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\microsoft shared\VBA\VBA6\1033\VBLR6.CHM". (Note: I have 64-bit Win 7, thus the '(x86)' in the Program Files folder name.)
I tried copying the help file to the following locations with no luck:
"C:\Windows\Help\VBLR6.CHM"
"C:\Windows\SysWOW64\VBLR6.CHM" (I believe SysWOW64 folder is the Win7 64-bit equivalent of C:\Windows\System32)
I have had this same problem with other referenced libraries as well, so I'm looking for some kind of generic solution. I'm hoping there is some way to specify a location for the help file of a particular reference, or something else along those lines.
Copy VBLR6.CHM to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office10\1033\VBENLR98.CHM"
That's the short answer for this specific case...here's how to get there which may be useful for getting other help files associated:
Download Process Monitor (currently hosted here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx or do a Google search for Process Monitor)
Run Process Monitor with the following filter: 'Process Name' 'is' MSOHelp.exe 'include'
Open object browser in VBA
Choose the library (Scripting in this case)
Choose any function, property, or event in the library and click on the yellow question mark (this should open an empty window with the title Microsoft Visual Basic Help)
Go back to Process Monitor and scroll all the way to the bottom of the list; make sure the Path and Result columns are displayed
There should be dozens of 'PATH NOT FOUND' and 'NAME NOT FOUND' Results in the list. For each one of these results, there should be a corresponding Path where MSOHelp was looking for the help file. Choose any one of these and create a file with that path name. I chose to create a copy of the help file from its original location to the new spot and rename it to match what MSOHelp was looking for.
My best guess is that the scrrun.dll contains the name of the help file and over the years the dll stayed the same but the help file was renamed, modified, etc.
I understand that a hxs file is a compiled help file, a replacement for .chm files, but I can't seem to open them.
I've read that you read them with the help explorer, dexplore.exe found here:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\Help 9\dexplore.exe
When I try opening the file with dexplore, it asks me to save the file to disk, or open with another program.
Any ideas?
Not sure if you want to look through them programmatically or with some tool, but Help Explorer can open hxs files and extract contents. CHM files (the precursor to hxs) were a custom binary format with indexing and other data at the beginning of the file, and a zip archive in the rest.
You can also decompile hxs using HxComp.exe
EDIT: That link appears to be broken/down or something, but your answer did lead me to find Help Explorer Viewer, which may or may not be the same program, but it does the job.
Edit: I've deleted all broken links to spare confusion.
After a bit more research, it looks like these files must be installed into the IDE when you install 3rd party tools. There is a diagnostic tool called Namespace#. You can see details about it here:
http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/NamespaceSharp
HXS file extension - Microsoft Help compiled storage file. It is only one among the: HxI, HxS, HxC, HxT, HxK witch is known as MS HTML Help 2.
Help Explorer Viewer may be used to open this file.