Reading .chm (compiled HTML) files on the axim?

shanek · 07-02-03, 12:11 AM

Hi All,

I'm a 'soon-to-be' Axim owner (when it finally arrives!) and I'm just wondering if anyone knows of a program that will allow me to read .chm format files on the Axim. This is a 'compiled' HTML format, and it's the format that Microsoft often releases it's MS Press books in (often included on the CD packed with the books.)

It would be great if I could read this book format on the axim, as it would allow me to carry around a lot of great reference books!

Any ideas? Thanks in advance ...

Shane

mmw · 07-02-03, 06:37 PM

I'm also interested in finding a program to read CHM files. In the meantime, you can use the HTML Help Workshop to decompile the CHM files into HTML and image files.

You can download the HTML Help Workshop free from Microsoft here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...asp?frame=true

- Matt

shanek · 07-02-03, 07:56 PM

Thanks for that Matt ... I thought that there must be a way of converting them somehow, so I'll give that HTML help a go ... thanks for the link!

It would be nice to be able to open the .chm files up natively, but the conversion will do for now ... :)

Thanks again ...

Shane

07-03-03, 10:30 AM

Actually you don't need to HTML Help Workshop to decompile CHM files. Just open a dos prompt and type:

hh.exe -decompile <folder> <chm>

<folder> is the destination folder to decompile to, and <chm> is the source .chm to decompile. Hh.exe is the HTML Help executable, which is already on your system.

mmw · 07-03-03, 12:16 PM

Thanks for the tip Talyn!

I came across some PPC software that claims it can import CHM files. It's TransCreative's Quick Lookup - Dictionary and Reference Tool http://www.trancreative.com/Product.aspx?id=6. There's an image on the site that appears to be a Microsoft API CHM file.

It's $20 but Aximsite members get a 30% discount (see member discounts for TransCreative) so it would only cost $14. There's a 14 day trial.

Chewy88 · 07-03-03, 04:02 PM

This is exactly what you need. Cheaper too...

www.handango.com

shanek · 07-03-03, 07:26 PM

Yeah, great tip Talyn! That's excellent ... I wish I knew that earlier! I think I'll just go with that method, rather than using other software. Might give the trial a go though ...

Thanks all for your help ... just can't wait to get my axim! :)

delradie · 07-04-03, 08:12 AM

I've been using the Aroy CHM reader (as linked to above) since I got my Ax back in March. On the whole, it's a decent enough piece of software, but just a quick warning on its limitations:

* File size: No matter how much working memory you free up on your device you won't be able to open any chms over about 2/3 meg (If anyones properly experimented on this let me know)

*Display: Make sure you have a button on your device mapped to Today or some such that will display the top bar (I've overriden the record button as I never use it) , as CHM Reader works full screen.

Other than that it does what it says on the tin: alows you to read CHMs.

P.S. If anyone knows an easy way to convert chms to .lit please let me know, as I've got a couple of files that would probably be usable in reader, but extracting the files out of the chm (which is how chm reader works) overloads the memory - cheers

mmw · 07-04-03, 10:02 AM

Quote:

P.S. If anyone knows an easy way to convert chms to .lit please let me know, as I've got a couple of files that would probably be usable in reader, but extracting the files out of the chm (which is how chm reader works) overloads the memory - cheers

I haven't tried this yet but this might work...

1) Extract the CHM files using Talyn's tip
2) Download the following MShttp://www.microsoft.com/reader/downloads/rmr.asp which is an add-in for MS Word 2000/2002 that allows you to create MSReader files from Word
3) Open the HTML files that you extracted in step 1 into Word
4) Use plug-in from step 2 to create LIT file

There's a lot of editing that you 're probably going to have to do to get all those HTML files into one document though (I'm thinking master documents in Word). I'll probably give this a shot in the next couple weeks.

mmw · 07-04-03, 10:04 AM

Oops, here this link in step 2 above...

http://www.microsoft.com/reader/downloads/rmr.asp

07-05-03, 07:00 PM

Yeah, just decompile to the source HTML then use the RMR plugin for Word (bleh...) or better yet, use ReaderWorks.

Or there's always the word2pml plugin for Word to make a Palm eBook...

I write .chm and .hlp and I can say that it's just not an appropriate format for Pocket PC. (But neither is .pdf and Acrobat made a clunky reader for us anyway)

kieranmullen · 10-30-06, 01:26 PM

From another post in the forum...

CHM Reader for Pocket PC 2003
http://www.codeproject.com/ce/chmreader.asp

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