ID Number: Q75010
3.00
WINDOWS
Summary:
The Windows Help Compiler version 3.0 does not support all of the
formatting options that word processors, such as Microsoft Word for
Windows or Microsoft Word for the Macintosh, are capable of creating.
This document briefly lists many of these unsupported formats.
The complete specification of the Rich-Text Format (RTF) is included
in the Microsoft Word for Windows Technical Reference (Microsoft
Press).
More Information:
Most of the time, unsupported format information is ignored by the
Help Compiler without any warning messages.
The following items are not supported by Windows Help 3.0 in any form:
Absolute-positioned objects
Annotations
Bookmarks
Document formatting properties
Document information
Headers and footers
Index entries
Style sheets
Table of contents entries
Tables
The following items are used for specified purposes in the Help
Compiler:
Footnotes
---------
Note that the footnotes are "overloaded" and used for build tags,
context strings, browse sequences, keywords, alternate keywords, and
topic titles by the Help Compiler.
The group containing footnote text begins with the control word
"\footnote". Footnotes are anchored to the character that immediately
precedes the footnote group. If automatic footnoting is defined, the
group can be preceded by a footnote reference character, identified by
the control word "\chftn". The following is an example of a group
containing footnotes:
...
{footnote \pard\plain \s246 \fs20 {\up6\chftn }See Sahlins, Bateson,
and Geertz for a complete bibliography.}
It was her work in America during the Second World War, however, that
forms the basis for this paper. As others have noted, \chftn {footnote
found at the end of this chapter.}
this period was a turning point for Margaret Mead.}
...
Character Formatting Properties
-------------------------------
The last group of RTF control words controls character formatting
properties. A control word preceding plain text turns on the specified
attribute. Some control words (indicated by an asterisk following the
description) can be turned off by the control word followed by 0
(zero).
Control Word Meaning
------------ -------
\plain Resets application's default character formatting
properties
\b Bold*
\i Italic*
\strike Strikethrough. Overloaded. Used to indicate a jump term
(hot spot).
\scaps Small capitals*
\v Hidden text. Overloaded. Used to indicate the context
string of the jump destination.
\f# Font number. (Replace # with the appropriate number.)
\fs# Font size in half-points (default is 24) (Replace #
with the appropriate number).
\ul Continuous underline*
\uldb Double underline Overloaded. Used to indicate a jump
term (hot spot).
In order to read negative \expnd values created by Word for the
Macintosh, Windows Help uses only the low-order 6 bits of the value
read. Word for the Macintosh does not emit negative values for \expnd.
Instead, it treats values from 57 to 63 as -7 to -1, respectively (the
low-order 6 bits of 57 to 63 are the same as -7 to -1).
Special Characters
------------------
Special RTF characters are listed below. If a character is not
recognized by the RTF reader, it is ignored and the text following it
is considered plain text. The RTF specification is flexible enough to
allow new characters to be added for interchange with other software.
Control Word Meaning
------------ -------
\'hh A hexadecimal value, based on the specified character
set (may be used to identify 8-bit values).
An ASCII 9 will be accepted as a tab character. The code \<ASCII10>
(line feed) or \<ASCII13> (carriage return) is treated as the control
word \par. The backslashes must be included or RTF will ignore the
control word. It is also desirable to insert a carriage-return/line-
feed pair (without backslashes) at least every 255 characters for
better text transmission over communication lines.