Monday, September 27, 2010

Creating a CHM file from offline/mirrored HTML pages

Having too many saved/offline html folders, maybe created using Httrack like website-mirrorring software?
Storing and using these is a bit of a headache.

All you need is to convert these loose files into a compressed html file i.e. CHM file
with facilities like indexing, favorites etc.


Step 1: Install chmProcessor from http://sourceforge.net/projects/chmprocessor/. It's free to download.

Step 2: Install HTML Help Workshop if it's not already installed on your windows system

Step 3: Point chmProcessor to the HTML Help Compressor using File > Settings menu option



Step 4: Point chmProcessor to
a) the "Source File" i.e. the index.html file,
b) "Add Directory" for the directory containing the rest of the html files and
c) "Compile Help" directory to place the output .chm file


Step 5: Click "Generate" button to get the .chm file.


Gotchas: Common mistakes are to forget change the output path from one project to another.