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I would like to convert an HTML file or a Word file (.doc, .docx or .rtf) to a .chm file. I searched for ways of doing this and they all said that I should install a program on my computer. Is there a way of doing this without installing anything (online, with a program initially installed on Windows or with a USB version of a program)? I also accept a CHM editor as long as it doesn't need to be installed. I found a way to open a .html with hh.exe (the program that opens .chm) but as soon as I rename it from help.html to help.chm it doesn't work.

Donald Duck
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  • What's about giving Word to PDF a chance for your needs? – help-info.de Jan 26 '15 at 19:14
  • This isn't really an answer to my question since it requires an installation but [HTML Help Workshop](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=21138) is a good program to make chm files. – Donald Duck May 19 '16 at 16:47

2 Answers2

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As far as I know the answer is – no. I've seen never an online version or a USB solution for effective HTMLHelp (CHM) compiling.

You can’t rename a foobar.html to foobar.chm and get this working for a single file, because CHM is like a zipped webpage with all files needed inside and some more internal files e.g. for full text search or an index with keywords. Please see snapshot of a special view with FAR HTML below (left side only, navigation pane).

You can't rename from .zip to .chm too, because the internal structure of a CHM file is complicated and you need a compiler for generating CHM's.

Background:

Please note that the proprietary file format is normally generated by MS HH Workshop (hhw.exe). It’s nearly 20 years old und was first shipped with IE4 and Windows 95. It’s deep integrated to the Windows operating system.

The HTML Help compiler is part of MS HTML Help Workshop (HHW.exe). This is a free, very basic authoring system provided by Microsoft and must be installed before any other authoring tool (e.g. such as FAR HTML) can compile to a .chm help file.

HTML Help Workshop (HHW) installer is called HtmlHelp.EXE and contains a copy of the HTML Help Run-time installer (HHUpd.EXE). There are a few Independent Software Vendor (ISV) that install HHA.DLL and itcc.dll separately instead of installing the full MS HH Workshop (htmlhelp.exe). This is generally an OK practice if the ISV knows what they are doing. But there are many problems. ISVs please keep in mind the safest approach is probably to install the full Workshop.

HTML Help is in maintenance mode, which means no new features are expected for either the runtime or the compiler. All mainstream development on HH has stopped – but HTMLHelp (.chm help files) is still recommended as software application help (for offline (local) help).

At the time of writing (announced 1996-Feb) HTMLHelp is the only Microsoft help platform available for general application help. WinHelp is deprecated and no longer ships with the Windows OS. Visual Studio products such as MS Help 2 & Help Viewer only ship with VS.

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help-info.de
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  • You said that chm is a zipped webpage. So does that mean that I can put the HTML page and all the pictures that go with it in a .zip file and rename that .zip file to .chm? – Donald Duck Jan 27 '15 at 17:00
  • I said "... is like a zipped webpage ..." - please see all edits to this post. – help-info.de Jan 27 '15 at 18:43
  • Interesting decompile [here](http://www.russotto.net/chm/chmformat.html)- looks like it's packed using their own LZX algorithm. _(Offtopic)_: Actually came here on the reference to `itcc.dll`. For some reason it went missing from $SysDir even though HTMLhelp had been re-installed more than once. That may be due to having tried an OEM product that installs its own `itcc.dll`, and the OEM uninstaller removing it by mistake, as if it were not in $SysDir beforehand. Or perhaps something else. Who knows? – Laurie Stearn Feb 02 '19 at 12:01
  • You maybe interested in [Unofficial (Preliminary) HTML Help Specification](http://www.nongnu.org/chmspec/latest/) and [MJ's Diagnostics](http://kb.helpwaregroup.com/ms-html-help/mj-s-diagnostics/example1). With **MJ's Diagnostics** you can make some checks e.g. itcc.dll. – help-info.de Feb 02 '19 at 12:45
  • "Interesting decompile here- looks like it's packed using their own LZX algorithm." According to wikipedia.org. Microsoft modified the LZX algorithm so that hh.exe could search the nearest 64bytes. This was done so that searching the help docs would be much faster than if the program had to always start from the beginning. – Scott Tovey Mar 01 '20 at 02:52
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Here's word2chm. It converts word docs to chm help files.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/word2chm/

You will need Microsoft's HTML Help Workshop installed for this to work.

Another more robust program is: https://sourceforge.net/projects/nuhelp/

Requirements of nuhelp: 1) Word 2003, 2007, 2010 or 2013. 2) HTML Help Workshop (included in zip file) 3) .Net 3.5 Client Profile (already on most computers)

Scott Tovey
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  • A link to a solution is welcome, but please ensure your answer is useful without it: [add context around the link](//meta.stackexchange.com/a/8259) so your fellow users will have some idea what it is and why it’s there, then quote the most relevant part of the page you're linking to in case the target page is unavailable. [Answers that are little more than a link may be deleted.](//stackoverflow.com/help/deleted-answers) – U13-Forward Mar 01 '20 at 02:49
  • Try reading up on chm files why don't you? It is directly related to the OP's question as chm files are what HTML Help Workshop compiles HTML files into. – Scott Tovey Mar 01 '20 at 02:56
  • And lets review the title of the page shall we: "Convert HTML or Word to CHM without installation" which is exactly what the linked program word2chm does for free. – Scott Tovey Mar 01 '20 at 02:58