We are programming with Delphi (former Borland Delphi) and EC Software GmbH is an official Embarcadero Technology Partner.
On this page, we share some of our work with fellow programmers: all software components on this page are used in Help+Manual and are either open-source or freeware with full source included. Enjoy!
eWriter Help System for Delphi / RAD Studio
(Update December 2022 for eViewer 3.x)
[All Delphi versions from XE]
This is an implementation of the eWriter help format as a replacement for HTML Help (.chm) files in Delphi applications.
EWriter eBooks are the modern alternative to the obsolete CHM format for local application help. They offer full support for context-sensitive help and file links. They combine the benefits of CHM and WebHelp and eliminate the disadvantages of both.
The package includes the unit Vcl.EwriterHelpViewer.pas which implements support for the eWriter help format in Delphi's help system. Applications currently using CHM files for application help can switch to eWriter help with basically no changes.
Download:
ewriter-helpviewer-for-delphi.zip (~ 3mb)
A Delphi Developers Guide for 4K Displays
(Released November 2014)
[All Delphi versions, demo for XE6, XE7]
This guide intends to help you getting your Windows applications ready for ultra-high resolution ("4K") displays. It will explain the challenge and tell you how to master it.
It covers all topics from Delphi's UI scaling on systems with "large fonts" to per-monitor DPI-awareness on Windows 8.1:
- Dots per Inch explained
- Windows and DPI, Delphi and DPI
- Testing high resolutions
- DPI virtualization in Windows
- Windows 8.1 multi-montor DPI scaling
- Declaring DPI-awareness in Delphi
- Flipping DPI at runtime on Windows 8.1
Download:
delphi-developers-guide-4k.zip (~ 10mb)
(Released June 2015)
This tutorial focuses on application documentation in HTML Help (.chm) format and is made for all Windows developers, whether you work with Visual Studio or Delphi or any other Windows desktop development tool.
DPI-awareness: when your application is 4K-ready
DPI-awareness is when you have prepared your Windows desktop application to shine on ultra-high resolution ("4K") monitors. It needs a lot of details to make this work well. Once your application is DPI-aware, the Microsoft HTML Help viewer invoked via the HTML Help API, will be DPI-aware, too! With unexpected consequences...
In this tutorial, you learn what to take care of in HTML Help on 4K monitors, what to avoid, and how to get things right!
Download:
getting-html-help-ready-for-4k-monitors.zip (~ 11mb)
OpenOffice 3 Spell Checker for Delphi
Version: 1.1 (updated March 2011)
Open source component to implement spell checking using OpenOffice 3 dictionaries.
[D2007,D2009,D2010,XE]
This is a spelling checker based on the NHunspell project from Thomas Maierhofer (also open source). It is the first Delphi implementation to directly support the latest OpenOffice 3 dictionaries and uses the Hunspell spell checking engine, which is being used in OpenOffice, Firefox and many other software programs.
Features:
- Can read and open OpenOffice 3 dictionaries as well as the older OpenOffice 2 format
- Implements spell checking and hyphenation
- Full Unicode support, no codepage conversions
- Support for Addict 4 from AddictiveSoftware - use Addict with OpenOffice dictionaries!
Download:
NHunspell for Delphi Project Page on SourceForge
EC Software Help Suite (EHS)
Version: 1.90 (updated February 2008)
Freeware components for Delphi with full source.
[D3,D4,D5,D6,D7,D2005,D2006 and D2007]
Note: EC Software Help Suite provides a bridge to enable HTML Help (.chm), that was missing in older versions of Borland Delphi. Since RAD Studio 2005, Delphi has native support for HTML Help, making EHS actually obsolete. We recommend to use the native Delphi functions for HTML Help.
Download:
EC Software Help Suite (ehs.zip, 1.2 MB)
Includes all components with full source code and a compiled exe demo.