WinHelp32 Download for Vista (32bit and 64bit versions) is now available on the Microsoft Download Center.
With this release, Vista customers can now install the WinHelp application on their system and securely view .HLP files on Windows Vista. This release applies to Windows Vista x86 and x64 only.
The WinHelp for Vista KB article will be updated with release documentation soon. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917607/en-us
Microsoft has released Windows Vista to manufacturing in anticipation of a November 30 business launch and a wider January 2007 launch to consumers.
Vista includes the new Assistance Platform Help 1.0 with content for the Help and Support Center. Only Microsoft, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) and corporate users will be able to customize this help content for the operating system and OEM help.
AP Help 2.x is not available yet. Microsoft no longer have immediate plans to release a public version of AP Help. So, Microsoft has not decided if it will be an assistance platform for third-party vendors or another Microsoft-only platform.
Within Business Desktop Deployment 2007 (BDD 2007) is the AP Help SDK. This is primarily for integrating Microsoft and OEM help content into Vista Help. It is not recommended for general use. BDD can be run on Windows XP but you will need Vista (and possibly Win 2003 SP1 server) to test the output. See BDD 2007 Download.
Just one week after shipping a surprisingly stable, full-featured, and bug-free pre-Release Candidate 1 (RC1) version of Windows Vista, Microsoft released Vista RC1 to the public. And in the days and weeks ahead, an astonishing number of people will be running this Vista version. Microsoft says it plans to deliver Vista RC1 to more than 6 million people.
RC1 includes the new Assistance Platform Help 1.x.
There is basically a new team in charge of help now and they probably don’t have the same timeline as before. But keep watching. We believe AP help will happen eventually. After all it is the core help shipping with the Windows Vista OS.
How do you integrate HTML HELP files into your Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)?
This is a frequently asked question. We have put together a example for help file integration with Visual Basic for Applications on this page.
Some good news on the Windows Vista / WinHelp front. Microsoft have now decided that Longhorn users can download the WinHelp32 engine. Originally MS indicated WinHelp would not work on Windows Vista at all.
Its official. The notice has been published as a KB article KB917607 at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917607/en-us
“… Users who want to view .hlp files must download the program from the Microsoft Download Center, and then install it on their computers. The download for Windows Help is still in development and will not be available for the release of Windows Vista Beta 2…”
Microsoft is rethinking its strategy with regard to Windows Vista Help. There are no decisions to announce, but it’s possible that MAML (which they’re now calling just AML) will not ever be widely available as an authoring platform. Microsoft is currently researching how software developers can best supported in creating Help in subsequent releases of Windows.
At the Fourteenth Annual WritersUA Conference to be held in Palm Springs, California, April 9-12, 2006 the MVPs have learned that the WinHelp viewer will not be downloadable either. The WinHelp engine will not be included in Microsoft Windows Vista.
You should not count on any of your WinHelp files being viewable in Windows Vista. If everyone downloads WinHelp then Microsoft just can’t guarantee Vista’s security. Get used to the idea of no WinHelp.
We have learned that Josef Becker died suddenly on 29 March 2006. Josef was well known in the Help authoring world for his collection of Help utilities, now found - in memoriam - online at www.helpmaster.info.
Josef Becker wrote his first technical documentation in 1982. Ten years later, he developed his first WinHelp system using pure Word. He was a Microsoft Help MVP from 1999 to 2005.
In later years, Josef Becker was the Managing Director of Becker & Poettgen Software GmbH, a firm that specializes in developing computer-based training, Web-based training, and hypertext-based training.
I extend my deepest sympathies to his family.
