Help Explorer Server is specially designed to publish offline help files on the Web in whatever format they are: WinHelp (.HLP), Compiled Help Format (.CHM) or even Microsoft Help 2.0 (.HXS). read more
HELP EXPLORER SERVER
Help Explorer Server is a web-based application designed for viewing compiled help files in different formats. Help Explorer Server provides a rock-solid solution for online access to any kind of help resources, including software references, knowledge bases and documentation of any kind of applications.
Key Features
Universal Help Viewer Engine
Original help viewer engine supports three popular Microsoft help file formats : Microsoft Windows Help (WinHelp) - .HLP, Microsoft HTML Help 1.x - .CHM, and Microsoft Help 2.0 - .HXS.
Administrative Web Interface
Help Explorer Server includes a user-friendly interface designed to control the help server in a team-oriented environment:
  • organizing the help files you want to display into help sites;
  • maintaining the list of administrator and moderator accounts;
  • controlling moderators' access to help sites;
  • configuring the look and feel of help files via the customizable theme manager.
Customizable look and feel based on HTML templates
To each site available to end users via Help Explorer Server, a particular theme is applied. A theme represents an HTML template and determines all visual settings of the site (frames, fonts, colors, toolbar buttons and their behavior, and so on). Help Explorer Server includes two default themes — "Soaring Blue" and "Classic Layout" — which can be used as is or extended in any way and serve as a basis for custom themes.
Redistributable Help Server Engine
A standalone version of Help Explorer Engine can be redistributed as part of any custom solution. Help Explorer IIS Extension Module (ISAPI DLL) is lightweight and it does not require .NET Framework.

Deployment Scenarios

Help Explorer Server is an efficient and cost-effective way to deploy your documentation so that existing help files can be accessed via the Internet or your corporate intranet without having to be re-compiled. Help Explorer Server alleviates the burden of integrating documentation of different kinds into the online help.

Top Reasons to Buy

To make it clear, let's answer two general questions:

  • What is Online Help Needed for?
  • What is Help Explorer Server Needed for?

Documentation shipped with a software product is important both for end users of the product and for its developers. Although documentation on most products includes printed documentation and interactive (offline) help, the complexity of modern products and their technical support dictates the need for closer relations between product users (actual and potential) and product developers. In this situation, online help comes to be in great demand.

If you are an end user of a software product, your benefits of using online help are as follows:

  1. Accessibility. Online help is accessible from any computer connected to the Internet or your corporate intranet 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
  2. Versatility. You do not need to install the software product if you intend just to study it via the online help.
  3. Always up-to-date information. You can get the latest information on the product even if the product's offline documentation is regularly updated.
  4. Conventional search. The contents of the online help deployed on the Internet are constantly indexed by search machines (such as Google, MSN, Yahoo, etc.) This means that you can enjoy the convinience of searching for relevant information using the tools you are accustomed to.

If you are the developer of a software product, your benefits of deploying the online help are as follows:

  1. Sales increase. The ability to get the most comprehensive information on the product at the pre-sales stage is a key factor to ensure that your potential client will become your actual client.
  2. Support desk load decrease. It is statistically proved that users of products which have the professionally written online help call the support desk less frequently (up to 80%) than those who cannot initially address their questions to the online help.
  3. Industry standards compliance. Nowadays, having the online help for your software product is a de-facto standard in the industry.

If you are already convinced of the usefulness of the online help, you may want to know how to organize such help and, what is more important, how to maintain it. There are different approaches to doing this. Below are the distinctive features and benefits of the approach offered to you by Help Explorer Server.

  1. Maintenance effort decrease and offline help re-use. Your technical writers, who prepare and support the offline help in the .HLP, .CHM or .HXS format do not need to prepare the online help separately. Help Explorer Server automatically generates the online help from the same .HLP, .CHM or .HXS files. Moreover, the average size of a compressed .hlp, .chm or .hxs file is several times less than that of the archive of the corresponding HTML Web help. This also means that it is easier to deploy the online help from such files.
  2. No cost deployment. Deployment of the Help Explorer Server web-server is performed by an automated installation program. To flexibly configure the server and its contents, a convenient Web-interface (the Help Explorer Server Administration) is used.
  3. Seamless adoption. The look and feel of online help pages can be fully retrofitted to your site's design, including the case of the single-frame displaying of the online help site.
  4. Special distributable version. If your software product is an ASP.NET or another web application, it would be reasonable to make an embedded online help service for it. With Help Explorer Server, you can easily organize such a service. We developed a special version of Help Explorer Server that you can distribute as part of your software solution.
  5. Total customer satisfaction. HelpExplorer Software boasts the 30-day unconditional money back guarantee, which gives you enough time to test our product before deciding whether it fully meets your needs.
System Requirements

  Server Client
Hardware
  • 1-10 Users: Intel Pentium IV 1.8GHz, 1GB RAM
  • 11-25 Users: Intel Pentium IV 2.2GHz, 1.5GB RAM
  • 26-50 Users: Intel Pentium IV 2.8GHz, 2GB RAM
  • CPU 486 MHz or higher
  • Network interface card, 56K analog modem, cable or xDSL modem
Operating System
  • Windows XP Professional
  • Windows 2000 Professional
  • Windows 2000 Server
  • Windows 2000 Small Business Server
  • Windows 2003 Standard Server
  • Windows 2003 Web Edition
  • Windows 2003 Small Business Server
  • Windows 2003 Enterprise

Note: Windows XP and Windows 2000 Professional limit the number of concurrent users to 10.
  • Any
Software
  • Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) 5.0 or later
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or later, Mozilla Firefox 2.0 or later
  • Internet and/or TCP/IP connection
Free Download

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If you have any questions about Help Explorer Server, or need further assistance, feel free to contact to us at
sales@help-explorer.com.
 
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