Official Microsoft HTML Help Authoring Kit [Paperback]

Steve Wexler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1998

If you are a developer or a Web site administrator, the Official Microsoft HTML Help Authoring Kit will make it easy for you to provide integrated Help systems that can be delivered via the World Wide Web or a corporate intranet. This book also contains essential Microsoft tools for software developers who are moving Help systems to distributed environments and those who need to maintain their Help systems in a central location. The Official Microsoft HTML Help Authoring Kit gives you a crash course in authoring with HTML Help and then provides the details you need to refine your system. If you already have experience with Help systems, such as those created with Windows Help, the book provides valuable contextual clues and parallel procedures to help you convert Windows Help files to HTML Help.

Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press (February 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572316039
• ISBN-13: 978-1572316034
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #479,590 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too little and out of date, September 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Official Microsoft HTML Help Authoring Kit (Paperback)

The author begins the book by stating "most of it has been written over the last six weeks". Well, Steve, it shows! The book is a glossy overview of the basic features, but is neither thorough nor deep. Pages of HTML code examples do nothing more than state what function is happening here - good luck to a novice that actually has to do something in HTML.

The book is based on HTML Help version 1.1, and I wish I had counted how many times it said such-and-such doesn't work yet, but it will in version 1.2 due out in 1998. Well it's the fall of 1999 now, and I downloaded version 1.22 from the Microslop site only to discover most of the book's examples won't work with it.

I bought this book because I wanted to begin an HTML Help project at my company. After studying the book and examples, I have revised my plans to avoid HTML Help altogether.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Basic, October 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Official Microsoft HTML Help Authoring Kit (Paperback)

Gives basic information on how to create an HTML project, and on the functionality of HTML help. It is sponsored by Microsoft, and it shows. Nowhere does it cover the issues, bugs and shortcomings of HTML-help, or possible workarounds.

However, the book does cover all the basic information you need to develop an HTML-Help project and is a must-have for anyone developing in this media; if only because it is the only book on this topic. For basic info, it is good. For real insider tips, you have to look elsewhere or struggle alone.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars One Of The Worst Technical Books Ever..., January 9, 2002

By 

Gary L. Fletcher Jr. (Alexandria, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Official Microsoft HTML Help Authoring Kit (Paperback)

This book is written in a point-and-click, monkey-see monkey-do format. If you follow the steps EXACTLY you will end up with (usually) a working help file with no explanation for what you have been doing. The author even tells you that some of his code "won't run in this version but will in the next" - and most don't. Half of the things I want to know (TOCs, FullText indexes, WhatsThisHelp for VB, etc.) do not have adequate (if any) coverage. It is too bad that the minimum rating is 1 star because I don't even want to give it that. If you are looking for a moron's guide to ineffectual help systems - this is the book for you! Everyone else - save your money for a DECENT tech reference that is worth reading...