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Microsoft Compiled HTML Help is a Microsoft proprietary online help format, consisting of a collection of HTML pages, an index and other navigation tools. The files are compressed and deployed in a binary format with the extension .CHM, for Compiled HTML. The format is often used for software documentation.
| Microsoft Compiled HTML Help | |
|---|---|
| Filename extension |
.chm |
| Internet media type |
application/vnd.ms-htmlhelp[1] |
| Developed by | Microsoft |
| Initial release | 1997 |
| Latest release | 1.4[2] |
| Extended to | .lit |
| Microsoft Compiled HTML Help | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Microsoft |
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows |
| Predecessor | Microsoft WinHelp |
| Successor | Microsoft Help 2 |
| Type | Help system |
It was introduced as the successor to Microsoft WinHelp with the release of Windows 95 OSR 2.5 [3] and consequently, Windows 98 and is still supported in Windows 10. Although the format was designed by Microsoft, it has been successfully reverse-engineered and is now supported in many document viewer applications.
History
| Month | Year | Description |
|---|---|---|
| February | 1996 | Microsoft announces plans to stop development of WinHelp and start development on HTML Help. |
| August | 1997 | HTML Help 1.0 (HH 1.0) is released with Internet Explorer 4. |
| February | 1998 | HTML Help 1.1a ships with Windows 98. |
| January | 2000 | HTML Help 1.3 ships with Windows 2000. |
| July | HTML Help 1.32 releases with Internet Explorer 5.5 and Windows Me. | |
| October | 2001 | HTML Help 1.33 releases with Internet Explorer 6 and Windows XP. |
| March | At the WritersUA (formerly WinWriters) conference, Microsoft announces plans for a new help platform, Help 2, which is also HTML based. | |
| January | 2003 | Microsoft decides not to release Microsoft Help 2 as a general Help platform. |
Microsoft has announced that they do not intend to add any new features to HTML Help.[4]
File format
Help is delivered as a binary file with the .chm extension. It contains a set of HTML files, a hyperlinked table of contents, and an index file. The file format has been reverse-engineered and documentation of it is freely available.[5][6]
The file starts with bytes "ITSF" (in ASCII), for "Info-Tech Storage Format".[why?]
CHM files support the following features:
Use in Windows applications
The Microsoft Reader's .lit file format is a modification of the HTML Help CHM format. CHM files are sometimes used for e-books.[8]
Sumatra PDF supports viewing CHM documents since version 1.9.
Various applications, such as HTML Help Workshop and 7-Zip can decompile CHM files. The hh.exe utility on Windows and the extract_chmLib utility (a component of chmlib) on Linux can also decompile CHM files.
Microsoft's HTML Help Workshop and Compiler generate CHM files by instructions stored in a HTML Help project. The file name of such a project has the extension .HHP and the file is just a text with the INI file format.[9]
The Free Pascal project has a compiler (chmcmd) that can create CHM files in a multiplatform way.
Use in non-Windows applications
Read support:
- GTK: GnoCHM on SourceForge, CHMsee, chmviewkit
- Qt: Okular, kchmviewer, KCHM on SourceForge
- Java: CHMPane on SourceForge
- iOS: CHMate Neue, iChm, ChmPlus, ReadCHM
- Android: KingReader[permanent dead link], Chm Reader, iReader
- Mac OS X: iChm(Discontinued), ChmPlus(Discontinued), CHMox(PowerPC apps no longer supported), ArCHMock(Discontinued), CHM to EPUB(Discontinued), Clearview Reader
- Other / Cross-platform: xCHM, arCHMage on SourceForge, DisplayCHM
- Amiga: libmspack on Aminet
Read/write support:
- Lazarus (IDE)/Free Pascal (for a doxygen like tool, a separate commandline compiler in 2.6.0+, and a simple viewer in Lazarus)
See also
References
- ^ Techtonik, Anatoly (11 April 2006). "application/vnd.ms-htmlhelp". Retrieved 7 March 2012.
- ^ "Microsoft HTML Help 1.4". Windows Dev Center. Microsoft. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
- ^ ^ since IE 4 is bundled with OSR 2.5, hence adding the CHM file support for the first time^
- ^ "Microsoft HTML Help Downloads". Microsoft. Retrieved 6 March 2012.
- ^ Wise, Paul; Wing, Jed (2005). "Unofficial (Preliminary) HTML Help Specification". Retrieved 15 August 2012.
- ^ Palade, Alexandru (2005). "Archive::Chm". Retrieved 22 July 2014.
- ^ "INFO: Limited Unicode Support in HTML Help". Microsoft. 11 April 2001. Archived from the original on 13 March 2016. Retrieved 17 March 2012.
- ^ Title Handbook of Data Compression Authors David Salomon, Giovanni Motta, David (CON) Bryant Edition 5, illustrated Publisher Springer, 2009 ISBN 1-84882-902-7, ISBN 978-1-84882-902-2 Length 1359 pages
- ^ Wise, Paul; Wing, Jed (2005). "Unofficial (Preliminary) HTML Help Specification INI formats". Retrieved 1 February 2018.
External links
- HTML Help Web Page on MSDN
- Microsoft Help 2 Reference (part of Visual Studio SDK for VS7.1 and VS8.0)
- History of HTML Help
- Unofficial (Preliminary) HTML Help Specification (the linked ITSF specification has been moved to the Russotto.net ___domain)