We first started working on FAR in the late 1990's, when HTML Help was first shipped with IE4 and Win98. Since then it's become an indispensable tool for many users. Companies like IBM, Intel, Microsoft, ESRI, Sony, Component One, Borland, HP, Agilent, Boeing, Exceed (the list goes on) all use the tool. We get a lot of fan mail encouraging us to maintain the tool.
FAR is clever in that it fills many of the gaps left by other main stream tools. Yet FAR is capable of holding its own when it comes to creating and maintaining industry standard documentation and help. Many of our clients, sick of the cost and problems associated with some large authoring tools such as RoboHelp, have dumped them for FAR and are now very happy (and not so poor).
Some of these other tools are more than 10x the cost of FAR but do less and are less reliable.
We hope you are more productive in your day because of FAR Tools.
See also
Features
- Help Authoring:
- HTML Help 1.x (.chm help files).
- MS Help 2.x (.HxS help files for Visual Studio 2002/2003/2005/2008 help).
- MS Help Viewer 1.x/2.x (.mshc help files for Visual Studio 10/11 help).
- All help is non-proprietorial, royalty free & fully compatible with Microsoft Help SDKs/Workshops.
- Includes advanced TOC & Index editor / Help Wizards / Many other useful utilities.
- Fast multi-file features:
- Advanced Find & Replace (can operate in batch mode).
- Set File Encoding (Unicode/UTF-8/ANSI - With/Without BOM).
- Set File Date.
- Set File Attributes.
- File Copy (flat or hierarchical).
- File FTP Copy.
- File Zip/Unzip (.zip/.cab).
- Web Help (Uncompressed Help) - Put your Help (with TOC/Index/Search) on the web, server, disk or USB key.
- Batch mode (unattended mode).
- Many more time-saving features.
Version 5.x
FAR HTML 5 is a significant improvement for this popular tool. See revision history for a full list of changes and fixes.
- Full Unicode support, Windows 7 support, + many other new features.
- FAR HTML 5 now runs on Windows 2000/XP/7 and greater (which all support Unicode).
- Support for Visual Studio 10/11 help - MS Help Viewer 1.x/2.x.
- The mshcMigrate.exe application is now covered by your FAR HTML 5 license.
- Enter say Japanese characters as if you were on a Japanese PC.
- Find and Replace Japanese text.
- Open and save files with Japanese file names and directory names.
- Author Japanese help projects.. including MS Help 2.x, MS Help 3.x and Web Help (FAR Uncompressed Help).
- All this on a non-Japanese PC. No need to change Windows region settings.
- Download MS HTML Help Workshop installer (htmlhelp.exe) from the Microsoft site.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms669985(VS.85).aspx
- Download the MS Help 2 Workshop (VS SDK) see the H2 Info Page.
- Download mshcMigrate.exe (included with your FAR license.
FAR HTML Tour
Note that you create\maintain your help web (a collection of HTML pages)
using your favourite HTML editor.
Once you have a help web, use any of these
commands to create and maintain your help.
Express Help
Express Help - Select your help web folder, click "Create help" and you have a .HxS or .Chm help file.
Alternatively right click your help folder in Explorer and select "Compile to HTML Help with FAR"
Help Wizard
Help Wizard - More control. Guides you step-by-step. Create either .HxS (MS Help 2 for VS help integration) or .Chm (for your application help).
Advanced TOC & Index Editor
Edit .hhc\.hhk HTML Help project files, or .HxT\.HxK MS Help 2 project files. Also edit MS Help 3 (VS 2010 help) TOC and Keyword files.
FAR Uncompressed Help (Web Help)
Create help to run in your browser. Add JavaScript based TOC, Index, Search to your HTML files.
Press Generate and you have web help -- See example on our web site.
Also checkout ESRI's web help created using FAR HTML
http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisexplorer/900/de (German)http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisexplorer/900/en (English)
http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisexplorer/900/es (Spanish)
http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisexplorer/900/fr (French)
http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisexplorer/900/ja-JP (Japanese)
http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisexplorer/900/zh-CN (Simplified Chinese)
FAR HH Project Editor
Advanced .HHP project editor. Take full control over your help project.
Help Utilities
For .Chm and .HxS help files. View help file contents; Decompile help files; Test help API calls; Insert HH ActiveX code snippets; Check help file links.
Help Explorer
Explore the insides of your .Chm and .HxS help files.
MS Help 2 Project Editor
Maintain your VS 2002\2003\2005\2008 compatible help. Creates .HxS help, TOC, Index files. Test your help. Wizards for creating support files.
MS Help 2 Utilities
Manage the regististration of MS Help 2 help files. Decompile ,HxS help files. Plus more.
Help 2 Viewer
VS 2002\2003\2005\2008 DExplore alternative Viewer. H2Viewer is also available as a free standalone viewer.
VS 2010 Help Integrations
Migrate HH and H2 help to .mshc help for integration into VS 2010 help. This is not application help.
HTML Tag Editor
Add, remove & modify HTML tags across hundreds of files at a time. First drop your help project onto the FAR (main window) file list.
Batch Decompile
Decompile many .Chm & .HxS help files in one pass. All ITS help files in the FAR file list will be decompiled to the selected folder.
Batch Compile
Compile all your help projects in one pass. All output is sent to a single log file.
File Report
Create advanced reports on all files dropped on that FAR file list. This is a fast way for writing batch files that work on 1000's of files.
FAR Find and Replace
Powerful Find and Replace command. Safely update 1000's of files in a single sweep.
FAR Copy
Copy all files in the file list to another location while maintaining folder structure. Handy since you can filter out files first.
FAR Zip
Create and View Industry standard .ZIP and .Cab files. Now Unicode friendly.
Other File Commands
The Commands menu contains a lot of handy file commands that work on the files in the file list.
- Set file create and modify time stamps.
- Set file encoding - UTF-8, Unicode (UTF-16), ANSI.
- Set file attributes.
- Batch rename files.
- Line breaks - Count line breaks. Convert between CRLF <-> CR <-> LF line breaks.
- Convert all HTML files to XHTML.
- etc
Batch Mode
FAR can also run many of the above commands in batch mode (from the command line).