WinHelp 4.0 is a pain

[Matthew Danda <dandam -at- 1STNET -dot- NET>]

Is it just me, or do you think that the "new and improved" WinHelp 4.0 is
much more difficult to design than WinHelp for Win3.1?

I mean, now you have to deal with a Contents file, multiple window
interfaces, additional What's This? Help...sure, the end result may be
better (of course, that is debatable, too), but development seems to require
a much more technical mind-set, more planning and organization, and much
less creativity.

For instance, rather than designing your own Contents screen as in Windows
3.1, you now have to use the Microsoft Contents format, and design and link
the Contents using a separate application. Whats the term for this
concept--is it "FatWare?"

Sorry, but I just spent all day trying to make sense of .h, .hm, and .hh
files in order to implement the supposedly simple What's This Help for our
system. Read all the Help manuals at least 3 times, tried a thousand
variations of topic names, recompiled and tested the Help file dozens of
times, recompiled and edited the Visual C++ source code several times, and
still no luck.

AHHHHHH!!!!

  Matthew Danda
  Technical Writer
  St. Louis, MO
  dandam -at- 1stnet -dot- net

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