Creating Help files doesn't have to be time-consuming (or costly). Fly Help is an easy to use authoring tool that simplifies the creation, editing, and conversion of HTML Help (CHM).

Converting existing HTML files or other file types (such as .pdf, .doc, .txt, .swf, etc.) into a CHM file is as simple as dragging files from built-in resource explorer or windows resource explorer onto your Help book. To save time, a table of contents (TOC) will be generated automatically based on files and folders you dragged.

Using the built-in browser you can quickly preview and test your topics as they will look and function in Internet Explorer or HTML Help viewer.

Web Help, also called Browser-Based Help, is designed for use by authors who want their end users can view their Web-based or desktop application Help on any browser and platform. Web Help can be deployed on the Internet, extranet or intranet as well as on Windows, Macintosh, Unix, Linux and Sun Solaris systems.

Web Help is an uncompiled Help type that supports standard Help features (such as TOC, index, and search), but also provides a customizable appearance.

Fly Help provides a tool that automatically generates documentation of COM type libraries in HTML Help format (CHM) or Web-Help format. With Fly Help you can import COM type library from .dll, .exe, .ocx and .tlb files.

Basic use of the tool is simple. You only need to provide source files containing a type library (*.EXE, *.DLL, *.TLB) created by any COM-enabled language (VC++, VB, Delphi, ...), specify a directory where all output files will be put. The tool will extract information from the type library automatically and create a set of HTML files describing the type library (classes, interfaces, methods, enumerations).

The visual TOC designer is a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) designer. You can move topics, rename topics, sort topics, copy and paste topics, drag and drop topics in the designer.

Using Fly Help you can customize your table of contents (TOC) of Help file by changing TOC properties. For example, you can add a border, plus or minus squares, and select a custom font for displaying titles. For most TOC styles, the visual TOC Designer appearance will change immediately according to the state you select. You can quickly test and see how TOC will look at design-time.

The visual TOC designer provides a toolbar which lets you access frequent commands quickly.

An index is one of the most important ways to get users quickly to locate topics (table of contents and full-text search are additional ways).

The index contains keywords that you specify. Users click a keyword listed in the index and it either takes them directly to the topic containing the information they are looking for, or to a list of topics that contain the keyword.

To save time, you can generate a index based on your TOC automatically, and you also can add keywords manually to the index.

Using Fly Help you can design multi-level indexes quickly and easily.

A flash movie (.swf file) enables you to demonstrate operations, promote features, give instructions in creative ways. Many Help developers are seeking to incorporate Flash movies into their Help files to enhance their Help files.

With Fly Help, you can easily incorporate Flash movies into HTML Help files (.CHM files). When you drag and drop a .swf file onto the Fly Help, the program will automatically generate a wrapper HTML file that is used to display your .swf file, and add the wrapper HTML file to your Help file.

Fly Help has a built-in WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) HTML editor for editing HTML-based topics.

WYSIWYG editing to HTML can help you edit HTML topics effectively without knowing HTML. The built-in WYSIWYG HTML editor conforms to HTML standards.

You can use it to highlight important text, format text, copy/cut/paste text, create bulleted and numbered lists, move information, insert/change links, multimedia and much more.

You can author HTML topics in another editor (such as Microsoft FrontPage or Macromedia Dreamweaver). Fly Help allows you to launch them at run time.

To facilitate your work and authoring, Fly Help includes a toolbox that is related to CHM. Using the toolbox you can explore CHM files, decompile CHM files and convert CHM files for PDA.

CHM Explorer provides an easy way to extract resources from .CHM files. Using it you can easily extract HTML files, images (.gif, .jpg, etc.), style sheets (.CSS), index (.HHK), table of contents (.HHC) from CHM files.

With Fly Help, you can convert .CHM files to a format that is readable on your PDA (Pocket PC, PalmOS and Psion).This function will make it easy for you to take your technical articles or business documents or ebooks in CHM format and read them on your PDA.