The WebHelp generated by Help+Manual is compatible with all modern browsers. It requires a web server and JavaScript to work correctly (see below for details). For documentation installed locally, use eWriter, CHM, or possibly PDF.

Different appearance in different browsers:

It is unavoidable that your WebHelp output will look slightly different depending on the browser used to view it. HTML Help and Visual Studio Help are proprietary Microsoft formats that are displayed with Microsoft viewers using the integrated Windows WebView component. Your output in these formats will generally resemble your source in the Help+Manual editor more closely.

This is not possible in WebHelp. The HTML code generated is the best possible compromise between compliance with web standards for HTML and CSS and the quirks and weaknesses of individual browsers. Discrepancies between browsers have become less in recent years, but to a certain extent individual browsers often interpret the same rules differently.

Skins for legacy browsers

If you are targeting legacy browsers or WebViews, usually based on very old versions of Internet Explorer, we recommend using the "Two Frames Classic" skins. These are original skins from the IE 6 era that still use the deprecated frameset structure, and they should still work fine on very old browsers.

Browser and web server requirements for all features:

The current WebHelp skins require current browsers supporting HTML5, CSS3 and the current iteration of JavaScript. WebHelp has a complex, multi-page structure and requires both JavaScript and a web server to work correctly. It will not work if you just try to open its HTML files by double-clicking them — it is designed for the web and must be deployed on a web server (either Internet or intranet) and accessed via a web browser with a URL. If you need WebHelp style documentation stored locally, use eWriter instead.

See also:

WebHelp (Configuring Your Output)

WebHelp (Configuration Options)