Background
Compiled HTML Help (or ".CHM") files were introduced by Microsoft about the same
time as Internet Explorer, Version 4.01. Originally, they were seen as the next
generation of Windows help file technology. Further, Microsoft provided the
tool necessary to create these files, a thing called
HTML Help Workshop,
for free.
This briliant marketing strategy has made the ".CHM" file one of the most widely
used forms of "help" system on Windows platforms the world over.
Microsoft © HTML Help Workshop
To create a ".CHM" help system file, you basically create a web site, along with
all of the various HTML, JavaScript, graphics and Cascading Style Sheet
components, laid out much like a web site. Once everything is operating, the
HTML Help Workshop is used to compile and compress the individual files into
basically a compressed web site. As such, each ".CHM" file contains all of the
individual files, graphics, etc. that the author wishes to display.
The only real drawback of the Compiled HTML Help system is that no
active scripting (such as Active Server Pages) can be incorporated. Hence, to
do anything "programatic," you have to use JavaScript and frames. For further
information, please consult "Building Enhanced HTML Help with DHTML and CSS".
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A Larger Project - testOmatic
WebAmphibian.Com was approached by
Multistate Academic and Vocational Curriculum Consortium
to create a tool for generating KidDrill-like
files based on specific curriculum that they already had in-house.
After about a year of cooperative work with MAVCC,
testOmatic
was created. This web application allowed for instruction development
specilists within the MAVCC organization to collectively convert their paper
curriculums into electronic representaions, using the Compiled HTML Help
facility Microsoft so kindly gives away for free.
The product that MAVCC sells, "The Test Generator", is a direct predecessor of
WebAmphibian.Com's testOmatic. With our version
of this product, several extra test question types are supported, along with
more direct access to the author of the program.
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