chi & chm files ?

[D. Speir]

Chi & Chm extension files ??
My download of directx7.a has help files with .chm
extensions that open with I-Explorer4. Nothing seems
to open the files with the .chi extension except a viewer.
And there appears binary data in both of these filetypes.
Seems like I read about these type files somewhere but
I can't find any info on them with a quick scan at wotsit.
Would someone enlighten me as to what these files do
and represent.

[David Liske]

CHM is the file extension for the new Microsoft HTML Help files, which
are replacing the older WinHelp files (*.hlp) in Office 2000, MSDN,
Windows 98 and 2000, and many other applications. See
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/tools/htmlhelp/chm/hh1start.htm for
complete information on the creation of HTML Help files, and then take
a look at http://htmlhelpcenter.hypermart.net/hhsysreq.htm for the
requirements to view CHM files.

CHI file creation isn't yet supported externally by Microsoft,
although it may be in the future. A CHI file moves a CHM file's
indexing to an external file for use with an HTML Help collection,
such as MSDN. Because the information a CHI would contain is presently
compiled into stand-alone CHM's created by the HTML Help compiler, and
since HTML Help collection development is not yet supported outside of
Microsoft (the technology is still under development), developers
outside of Microsoft don't yet need to be concerned with CHI file
creation.

David Liske
Microsoft HTML Help MVP 1999
http://htmlhelpcenter.hypermart.net

"D. Speir" <sp...@gte.net> wrote in message
news:POxn4.12$st4....@dfiatx1-snr1.gtei.net...

[D. Speir]

Thanks!