HelpNow! for Windows version 1.0.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With many Windows development systems, a copy of the Microsoft Help Compiler
is provided, to enable you to produce Help files for your application.

Unfortunately, this is not all you will need.

To create a Help file, you must first create a topic file using a
word-processor which is able to save files in Rich Text Format (RTF). Such
word-processors are usually expensive.

What's more, having purchased one, you will need to spend time learning to
use it.

Thirdly, you have to find out how to use the word-processor features to
produce a file which is properly formatted for input to the Help Compiler.
Features like underlining, double-underlining, footnotes etc. are given
special meanings which are, to say the least, not obvious.

HelpNow! is so-named because it is designed to let you generate Help files 
*NOW*, without having to wait until you can afford or have time to learn
these tools. You can write your Help topics in a simple text file, using
your favourite text editor, and have them translated automatically into a
formattedHelp file, complete with hypertext "jumps", pop-up definitions
and bitmap pictures.

An extensive example is included.

To install HelpNow!, assuming your hard drive is c: and you are installing
from a:, use the command

	pkunzip -d a:\helpnow.zip

This will create a separate directory for the program below your current
directory. Drag the helpnow.exe file from File Manager into a suitable
group window in Program Manager. Double-click the HelpNow! icon to start
the program, and look at the online Help for further information.

This initial version of HelpNow! is being released as Shareware, and is
freely distributable.

Copyright C.C. Brown 1996. All rights reserved.


Chris Brown
browncc@bae.def.co.uk
				
