Graphics with hotspots are no longer supported in the obsolete Winhelp format. Hotspots in Winhelp graphics can be imported from old Winhelp projects for use in other publishing formats but you can no longer generate Winhelp files with active hotspots.

Browse sequences are no longer supported. They were actually only relevant in Winhelp (HTML Help and all other formats do not support browse sequences), which is now an obsolete format that is only supported backward compatibility. If you are still using Winhelp you should consider switching to HTML Help (CHM) or Webhelp (HTML) as soon as possible.

Winhelp always consists of two files: An .hlp file containing the help topics and a .cnt file containing the Table of Contents (TOC). You must always distribute both of these files if you want to have a TOC. If you only distribute the .hlp file the help will be functional but you will not have a TOC.

The obsolete Winhelp format doesn't support chapters with text.  If your project contains chapters with text they will be exported twice: Once as a chapter without text and once as a sub-topic of the chapter without text, with the same name as the chapter. This "duplicate" topic will contain the content of your chapter with text.

If you are publishing both to Winhelp and to formats that support chapters with text you can use Help & Manual's conditional output features to create alternative topic and chapter versions for Winhelp and the other formats.

This is one of the many limitations of the obsolete Winhelp format. It does not support custom icons in the TOC.

This is an uncorrected bug in the Microsoft Winhelp format. If a chapter in the TOC is followed by a single top-level topic the single topic will become a sub-topic of the chapter above it.

This problem only affects single topics (i.e. topics that are not part of a chapter) that are top-level topics. Help & Manual automatically applies a fix to correct the problem for single topics that are not top-level topics. However, there is no solution for the top-level topics because Microsoft has not corrected the bug in the compiler. The only workaround is not to use single topics below other chapters in the TOC.

Just execute the winhlp32.exe Winhelp viewer followed by the name of the help file you want to open:

winhlp32 "myhelp.hlp"

The viewer program is located in the Windows directory does not require a path.

Command line parameters:

-Kxxxx
Find a keyword (xxxx)

-Nxxxx
Open a specific topic using the help context number (xxxx)

-Ixxxx
Open a specific topic using the topic ID (nnnn)

-H
Run Winhelp and open Winhelp.hlp (help on help)

Examples:

winhelp32 -N23678 "myhelp.hlp"

Opens the file myhelp.hlp and displays the topic with the context number 23678.

winhelp32 -Iintroduction "myhelp.hlp"

Opens the file myhelp.hlp and displays the topic with the ID introduction.

Select Context Tool in the Tools tab and then select the option Export Map File. This exports the Topic IDs and corresponding context numbers to a standard map file. See The Help Context Tool for full instructions.