Programming Microsoft Visual C++

The process of building the application's HLP file is complex. Part of the complexity results from the Help Compiler's nonacceptance of statements such as

HID_MAINFRAME = ID_MAINFRAME + 0x20000

Because of the Help Compiler's nonacceptance, a special preprocessing program named makehm.exe must read the resource.h file to produce a help map file that defines the help context ID values. Below is a diagram of the entire MAKEHELP process.

AppWizard generates the application's help project file (HPJ) and the help contents file (CNT). In the project file, the [FILES] section brings in RTF files and the [MAP] section contains #include statements for the generic and the application-specific help map (HM) files. The Help Workshop (HCRTF) processes the project file to produce the help file that WinHelp reads.