Index and favourites tab is missing in .chm file

Question

I have one .chm file in which Contents and Search tab are there. But Favourites and Index tabs are missing. IF I Want to add them in .chm file how can I do that?

Answer 1

I assume you don‘t have the original project with the project file (*.hhp) and the HTML files. If you have only the CHM file, there is no easy way to do this. The missing index and favourites tab was originally not added by the help author. So you have to decompile the CHM file and compile again and you have to create the index yourself!

If you really want to start with Reverse Engineering decompling is described at:

http://www.help-info.de/en/Help_Info_HTMLHelp/hh_command.htm

For some first steps you don't actually need any tool to do this. Just open a command prompt window and type the following:

hh.exe -decompile <target_directory> <path>\<filename>.chm

The only decompiler with any additional features is KeyTools as this can try to rebuild the project (.hhp) file. You will need this file if you want to recompile the help project (see link above).

One thing to note is that the decompile/recompile process isn't a "round-trip" process; certain features that the help author added to the original help file can't be recovered when you decompile it, so these may no longer work properly after you've recompiled. This is especially true in the area of context-sensitive help, which may be broken in the new version of the file.

For further information in help authoring and building CHM files see also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxVm_Edaus8