
The help converter is intended to do 90% or better
of the job necessary to move an ipf file to a windows
rtf format.  Some manual tuning of the result is to
be expected.  However, this should be minimal.

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help.exe:   help <filename.ipf>
            takes filename.ipf and generates rtf output in out.rtf

            help <CR>
            assumes ipf file is named sample.ipf

            help sample.ipf d
            the 2nd parameter (regardless of what it is) turns on a
            debugging mode.  In out.rtf you can see the input tokens
            and the rtf output generated.  This is not valid rtf
            output.

hc.exe:     hc test
            this (with test.hpj) will compile out.rtf into test.hlp
            for use on windows 3.1.

brace.exe:  brace file
            this will report brace mismatches.

Notes:
Note that embedded braces would mess the translation up.  
Necessary sed script if your ipf text uses braces:
s/{/\\&/
s/}/\\&/
that would need to be run on an input file using those characters.

You would need to load MS word and go looking for MS_MS to find your
examples.  We do not guarantee formatting on examples.

Non-ascii text items don't do very well.

If errors are encountered with hc.exe, I recommend not wasting your
time with the error messages, they are nearly worthless.  Instead:
1.  Make sure your open and close braces match.
    An excess number of open braces will cause an error at end of
    file.
    Excess close braces will end the rtf file prematurely.
2.  Go looking for problem areas by panel.  You need to isolate
    where the converter has generated an incorrect set of braces.
3.  If some of your hypertext links are not comming thru, or your
    function references are not handled appropriately, make sure
    that the hypertext and the refid are on the same line:

This can cause problems:

:hpt.HyperText:ehpt.:fnref
refid=HyperTextLink

Where this will not:
:hpt.HyperText:ehpt.:fnref refid=HyperTextLink

     Such changes will not adversly effect your ipf file and OS/2
     help.

You are free to play with appearance in Word.  You also have the
source if you don't like Microsoft's formatting suggestions.


JMH, SDE Microsoft

