The Help Authoring Templates are similar to other Word for Windows templates: they contain a set of specialized macros and styles that become available when you open a document based on the template. The templates modify existing commands and add new commands to the Word for Windows menus. The result is a version of Word for Windows that has all the original word-processing functionality and yet is optimized for creating Help files.
Because Windows Help version 3.1 offers more features than version 3.0, Microsoft provides a separate template for each version of Windows Help. If you plan to create a Help system that runs under Windows Help version 3.1, use the 3.1 template (WHAT31.DOT). Help version 3.0 files, on the other hand, use WHAT30.DOT as the authoring template.
If you are using the Help Project Editor along with the Help Authoring Templates, the document template applied to your topic files is determined by two things: the version of Word for Windows you have installed on your hard disk drive and the version of Help you are using to build this Help file. Based on those choices, the Help Project Editor automatically applies the correct template to your topic files when you edit them using the Help Project Editor.
Note:
If you start a Help project using one version and then switch to another version (from version 3.0 to 3.1, for example), you will have to open the RTF files in the project and change the templates manually in Word for Windows (the Format Document command in version 1.1 or the File Template command in version 2.0).