Tools für Integration, Aufruf und Test von Online-Hilfen

Help+Manual 2 Go

Mini web server that doesn’t need installation and can be used for testing and running browser-based help locally. Can be used to avoid the problem that browsers are increasingly implementing security features that prevent browser-based online help from running properly when opened from local drives or optical media.

Price: free (freeware); may even be distributed with your own products

http://www.ec-software.com/hm2go.html

KeyHelp

Free ActiveX control that enhances the capabilities of compiled Microsoft HTML Help systems. In particular, it enables you to use popups, embedded windows, auto-sizing windows, and information types.

Price: free (freeware)

http://keyworks.helpmvp.com/downloads
http://keyworks.helpmvp.com/code

Epilogue Advisor

Runs in the background, tracking a user’s place in the application. When the user requests help, the program delivers the most relevant supporting content. Users can also mark their favorite training and help content so that they can quickly access the help topics that are most relevant to them.

Price: not published

http://www.epiloguesystems.com

HelpBubble .NET

Lets you easily add balloon style popup windows to your applications with multiple lines of text, buttons, forms, and other standard HTML elements. Links within the popup windows can open a web site, jump into online help, or launch an external program.

Price: approx. $127

http://www.componentdesigns.com

CHM Editor

WYSIWYG editor to edit existing CHM files. Also supports machine translation of existing CHM files via internet machine translation services.

Price: approx. €70

http://www.chmeditor.com

Zoom Search Engine

Can be used to add full text search to browser-based online help files and web sites.

Price: approx. $99 (“Professional”); there’s also a free version for up to 50 indexed topics available

http://www.wrensoft.com

SeekQuarry

Search engine software.

Price: free (open source)

http://www.seekquarry.com

H2Reg

Small utility to register MS Help 2.x Collections (namespaces, titles, plug-ins, filters) without using Microsoft Installer.

Price: approx. $100

http://helpware.net

xchm

Cross-platform GUI front-end to CHM lib (http://www.jedrea.com/chmlib/). Can be used to display CHM files on Unix systems (including content tree, index, full text search, and bookmarks).

Price: free (open source)

http://xchm.sourceforge.net

kchmviewer

CHM viewer for Unix, Mac, and Windows.

Price: free (open source)

http://www.kchmviewer.net

Chmox

Displays CHM documents on the Mac.

Price: free (open source)

http://chmox.sourceforge.net

Browsershots

Takes screen captures of a web page in various browsers and on various platforms so that you can verify the rendering.

Price: free (web application)

http://browsershots.org

Abode Browser Lab

Lets you compare side by side screen captures of a web page that were taken in different browsers and on different operating systems.

Price: free (web application)

https://browserlab.adobe.com

Most important web browsers

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/default.mspx

http://www.mozilla.org

http://www.google.com/chrome

http://www.apple.com/safari/

http://www.opera.com/products/desktop/

http://www.maxthon.com

http://www.gnome.org/projects/epiphany/

http://konqueror.kde.org

XAMPP

Price: free (open source)

http://www.apachefriends.org

WampServer

Price: free (open source)

http://www.wampserver.com

EasyPHP

Portable WAMP package including PHP, Apache, MySQL, plus some basic development tools.

Price: free (freeware)

http://www.easyphp.org

MoWeS Portable

Can be installed on a USB drive.

Price: free (freeware)

http://www.chsoftware.net/en/mowes/mowesportable/mowes.htm

MAMP

Especially for Mac OS.

Price: free (open source)

http://www.mamp.info

The W3C Markup Validator

Checks the markup of web documents.

Price: free (web application)

http://validator.w3.org

Validome

Validation service for HTML, XHTML, WML, and XML.

Price: free (web application)

http://www.validome.org

The W3C CSS Validation Service

Free service that checks Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for conformance to W3C recommendations.

Price: free (web application)

http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

DRKSpider

Checks internal and external links, style sheets, images, and other files of a web site or browser-based help system.

Price: free (open source)

http://www.drk.com.ar

Xenu’s Link Sleuth

Checks web sites for broken hyperlinks. Link verification is performed on links that appear in <a> tags, as well as images, frames, plug-ins, backgrounds, local image maps, style sheets, scripts, and Java applets.

Price: free (freeware)

http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html