File Types
Reviwed and revised June 2024; see History
A collection of HTML pages with index and table of contents pages, also known as "Web help," is the normal format for A-Shell online documentation. While this is the best choice for most readers in most circumstances, other file formats may be applicable or needed in some situations. Sometimes, for historical reasons or by special request, the A-Shell documents may be available in other file formats. If you would like to get the documentation in a format you don’t see, it may be available on request. Continue reading for information about document formats and files types, and why you might prefer one or another.
HTML also known as "Net Help" or "Web Help:" These help files are standard web pages, with hyperlinks, tables of contents, linked indexes and search capabilities. They reside on the MicroSabio web server, are always up to date, and require no downloading step; pages are downloaded on demand—and very quickly. As long as you have a good internet connection, this is the preferred format for help/documentation files.
CHM (Compiled HTML, standard Windows help files): CHM files are compilations of HTML pages into a single document which includes all the features of the HTML documents. CHM files are downloaded to and accessed from your computer, and are the preferred help file format when you do not have a good internet connection. CHM files are opened using built-in components of Windows, so no additional programs are required to view them. If you are running Windows 98 or later, you have what you need in order to read CHM files. If you download them to your Windows computer and then double-click on them, they should be properly opened and displayed in the familiar help-file context. Note also that this file format is no longer recommended or supported by Microsoft, and therefore is becoming less common. More on CHM
PDF (Adobe's Portable Document Format): Various A-Shell docs have been available as PDF files in the past, and may be available on request; inquire if you are interested. Files of this type consist of exact replicas of printed pages, just as they would appear in a printed manual. If you plan to print a copy of the document, this is the best type of file to download. PDF files are not hypertext documents or pure help systems, but most documents come with an interactive table of contents. This file format and the program(s) needed to read these files are the property of Adobe Systems. If your computer does not already have a copy of Adobe® Acrobat®, which you will need in order to read the files, you may download a free copy from the Adobe Acrobat download page. If you are printing or plan to print PDFs, see note under Printing below.
TXT: Text files are universally readable by all computers and all operating systems, so you can download or display them regardless of your system. They do not contain any organizational or text formatting, however, and are therefore the most difficult file type to navigate.
DOC and DOCX: These are the native file formats of Microsoft Word. From the beginnings of A-Shell documentation until 2022, all documentation was written and maintained in Word, and then published to other formats using various types of conversion and authoring programs. Although the A-Shell documents are now maintained in another format, Word files may be available; inquire if interested.
Printing
HTML and CHM files are not particularly well-suited for printing. They are fine if you want to print a few pages or even a full section, but not if you want to print an entire doc/manual for reading and reference. The best format for printing is PDF. If you wish to print the docs, therefore, make sure to get a PDF version of the doc(s) you want to print. If you don’t see them here, contact MicroSabio and ask about a PDF for the doc in question.
Important note on PDF printing: If you intend to print the PDF documents, be sure that your printer is configured to interpret colors as either black or white; if the printer tries to interpret colors as shades of gray, all the color printing in the document will appear as gray—i.e., light and not very readable. A-Shell help files do not use a lot of color, but they use some for text formatting and screenshots. On pure black and white printers, configured as black and white printers, the colored material prints fine.
History
Through approximately the year 2001, the A-Shell documentation was written in Microsoft Word and was presented to users and developers in Word or PDF files. In additional to the on-going record of changes to A-Shell, which was available in simple text format, A-Shell was described in four manuals: Setup Guide, Command Reference, XCALL Reference and Development Guide.
In 2001, with the arrival of Ty Griffin as a member of the MicroSabio team, the A-Shell documentation remained in Word but was now processed by a "help authoring tool" called Doc-to-Help. This tool produced CHM files, which soon replaced the Word and PDF files as the "presentation of choice" for all the A-Shell documentation. Internet access was generally not fast or reliable, so the CHM format (a single file which resided on the users' computer) was much better than web-based alternatives.
In approximately Spring 2012 and A-Shell version 6.1, two things happened:
| • | The four separate documents mentioned above were consolidated into one: The A-Shell Reference. |
| • | The new A-Shell Reference, along with the smaller documents for A-Shell's add-on products (ATE, PDFX, EMAILX, etc.), were published in "Web Help" format instead of CHM format. Since most A-Shell users, developers and sites now had good and reliable internet connections, the Web Help format became the new standard for not just A-Shell but most of the documentation world. |
In 2015, Doc-to-Help, the tool that MicroSabio had been using to generate the CHM and HTML files presented to users, was sold for the second or third time. The old program continue to work and meet MicroSabio's needs, but the new owner of Doc-to-Help was not continuing to develop the program. MicroSabio started looking around for alternatives.
In December 2019, after concluding that there was no future in Doc-to-Help, MicroSabio purchased a new help authoring tool called "Help & Manual." It took a couple years to learn the new system and make the full transition from old tool to new, but it eventually happened. The new online documentation published with H&M was essentially identical to the old versions published with Doc-to-Help.
As of this writing, June 2024, Help & Manual has been in use for several years, and is nicely meeting the documentation needs of A-Shell and MicroSabio. All of our online documentation is published by H&M, and H&M the software product is undergoing continuous development and improvement, much like A-Shell itself. We expect to be using H&M for the foreseeable future, and recommend it to anybody who has documentation publishing needs.
