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How to Port an OS/2 .IPF File or its Part into Windows Help File (WinHelp)?

Visual Prolog provides two ways of converting files from the .IPF format to the .RTF format:

Using Visual Prolog build-in Help Maker
Using Visual Prolog Document Handling Package

Importing Topics from  IPF Files into  Windows Help Files with the Help of the Help Maker

Visual Prolog VDE includes build-in Help Maker that provides the possibility to import topics from  IPF files into Visual Prolog hyperbase and then to create output .RTF files, compile and test Windows Help file (WinHelp).

Help Maker is extremely useful if you need to port only a part of an .IPF file or a file that has external links,  because:

  1. It is possible to load only definite topics.
  2. Help Maker detects all unresolved links and provides the choice to remove these links (together with specific coloring), or to redirect these links.

Importing .IPF File

  1. In the Project window choose "Help Topics".
  2. In the Help Maker menu choose Topics | Import from menu item.
  3. Select a necessary file with the help of the standard Import from dialog.

Parsing Topics

After choosing the source file or hyperbase the Help Maker parses topics, scans for hypertext links, and tries to resolve these links. At this stage unresolved links can appear if the file being imported has links to other files.

While import a user can choose whether to:

remove an unresolved link;
skip an unresolved link;
remove all unresolved links;
skip all unresolved links;

If the user decides to remove unresolved links, green hotspots marking links will be formatted as a plain text.
If the user decides to skip unresolved links or some of them while import, green hotspots will be preserved and the Help Maker will issue an error message.

Loading Topics

After parsing source topics, they can be loaded into the current hyperbase with the help of the Import from <filename> dialog. The user can choose whether to load the whole source file or a hyperbase, or to load definite topics.

Loading Definite Topics:

  1. Select topics in the Contents window of the Import from <filename> dialog. To preview topics check the Auto Preview check box or press the Preview button.
  2. Press the Load button.
  3. If the check box Ask Name is checked, the Help Maker asks for a new topic name. Note that renaming a topic can cause destroying links to this topic.
  4. The system verifies topics for duplicate names. Duplicate topic names can appear in the following cases:
The topic with the same name exists in the hyperbase. The user can overwrite the existing topic, or rename the topic being loaded with the help of the Duplicate Topic Name dialog.
Topics in the hyperbase and topics being loaded have different names, but these names have first 240 matching characters for the hyperbases created by the current version of the Help Maker and first 25 matching characters for the hyperbases created by previous versions, and are considered by the Help Maker to be duplicated. In this case, the Help Maker demands to rename these topics, that can cause destroying links to these topics.

Note: to avoid renaming topics having first 25 matching symbols while importing topics into an old hyperbase create a new hyperbase and import topics from the old hyperbase and a source file into the new hyperbase.

Note that separate topics you are importing can have links to the topics you are not importing. This can cause appearance of unresolved links.

Loading a Whole File or Hyperbase

Press the Load All button.

Adding Topics to a Hyperbase

To add topics to a hyperbase, press the Close button. After that , the Help Maker tries to resolve links once more and then adds new topics to a hyperbase.
If the Help Maker founds unresolved links, it issues the message: "One or more topics contain irrelevant links. Reestablish or delete this links".

Reestablishing or Deleting Irrelevant Links

The detailed description of the process is done in the topic "Reestablishing or Deleting Irrelevant Links while Import" of the online Help (In the Search index select: "import: unresolved links").

Preserving Hierarchical Structure of the .IPF file

The Help Maker import facility does not preserve hierarchical structure of the .IPF file. The Help writer can reestablish hierarchy using the Help Maker Browse facility. You can find a description of the  Help Maker Browse facility in the topic "Assigning Browse Sequences" of the online Help (In the Search index select: "browse sequences: creating).

Creating Output .RTF and Project Files

To save a Help hyperbase as an RTF-format file choose the Project | Write RTF command. A basic Help project file will be  generated by the Help Maker automatically.

Compiling Windows Help

Run Help compiler to make a final Help file using Project | Compile Help command.

Testing Windows Help system

To test your Help System call the Microsoft Windows Help system (WinHelp.EXE) with the help of the Project | Display Help File.

Converting of .IPF Files into the .RTF Format with the Help of the Document Handling Package (DOC_TOOL)

The Document Handling Package provides a set of tools for parsing and converting documents of different types.  You can see an example of converting of .IPF files into the .RTF format in the DOC_TOOL\Example directory.