Merging CHM files

[mitutoyo]

We have new software written that will be utilizing a snap-in architecture. Each snap-in will be installed to the client based on user interaction during installation or a command line parameter. Each snap-in will have a corresponding help file utilizing compiled HTML (.chm). We would like to be able to merge each snap-in's .chm file into a single help file but of course we don't know which files need to be merged until during the installation.

Is there a merge module available that can merge .chm files together, or can this be scripted? Thanks for any advice in advance.

[DebbieL]

A Google search for "merge .chm files" offers some search results that may help. I noticed some tools that seem to allow you to merge multiple .chm files into a single .chm file. However, I'm not sure if any of the sources that offer them allow you to distribute the merge tools and use them at run time on end users' machines. I've never used tools such as those, but maybe someone else has, and they can report their results.

I have used the method of "merged" .chm files where you have one sort of main .chm file, and then several subhelp systems that are each separate .chm files. The .hhc file that is compiled into the main .chm file must have a [MERGE FILES] section that lists each of the possible sub .chm files that may need to be merged. Note that you can have the [MERGE FILES] section in the main .chm file list all of the possible sub .chm files, even if some of them won't be installed. There shouldn't be any problems with viewing the help (as long as the .chm files that are installed don't have any hyperlinks that point to help topics in the missing .chm files).

There are several other requirements for preparing each of the .chm files if you use this style of merging. (For example, the index and table of contents must be set up a certain way.) Plus, all of the .chm files must be installed to the same folder.

When users view the main .chm file for this style of merging, users see the help system as one combined help system (only one combined table of contents, one combined index), even though it is actually composed of multiple .chm files.

The nice thing about this sort of merging is that it wouldn't require any sort of run-time changes to combine multiple .chm files into one file. The following page has a nice write-up on how to implement this.
http://helpware.net/htmlhelp/how_to_merge.htm

[mitutoyo]

Thanks for the response. We were trying to make a determination how best to do these merges, during the install or using a merge utility as you have suggested, and have since come to the same conclusion as you. Thanks again for the link.