Re: TECH: Can Acrobat replace WinHlp32.exe?

[Bill Burns <BillDB -at- ILE -dot- COM>]

Paul asks:

> What we need to know is whether the application can make a call to
> Acrobat Reader and go to a specific marker in the same way one would
> call a specific topic in WinHelp. My belief is that *maybe* Acrobat
> can
> be opened by calling a specific topic (how do I do that, BTW), but it
> can only be done through a macro in the .HLP file, not directly from
> the
> app.
>
> Has anyone ever tried using Acrobat reader as an online help viewer
> (using source .PDF of course)?
>
I don't believe you can open a PDF to a specific location other than the
first page (although I could be wrong). What you might consider doing
(if you absolutely have to) is create separate PDF TOC pages that can
then be used to link to bookmarks in the main PDF document. You can most
certainly launch Acrobat Reader from a *.hlp file using the ExecFile()
macro. The question I'd have (and you probably have it as well) is
whether the user would find such a help system helpful. Acrobat takes
longer to load, and it's a bit more difficult to navigate. Instead of
dealing with an intermediary step (the winhelp file), it would make more
sense to call Acrobat directly from the application. Either way, Acrobat
is an ugly solution for  quick, need-to-know information.

Bill Burns
Senior Technical Writer
ILE Communications Group
billdb -at- ile -dot- com


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