In article <[log in to unmask]>,
[log in to unmask] says...
> The request for VESOFT's email address (and accompanying lament about the
> difficulty in contacting them) reminded me of a "problem" I have with their
> manuals. They will only provide documentation in hardcopy. I travel to
> multiple HP installations and carrying around a bunch of manuals is just
> not an option. I frequently end up having to dial into one site from
> another and often enough the site I'm at doesn't have VESOFT. I called
> VESOFT and asked if their manuals were available in an electronic form -
> preferably like Robelle's, though even a less useful form, IMHO, like
> Cognos's would still be helpful. They blew me off with little more than a
> terse "No". I really like their software and have used it since the days of
> the HP3000/III, I sure wish they would make their manuals as useful as
> their software. Having the manuals in a Help form on the 3000 only works
> while you're connected to the 3000.
>
> Does anyone else feel they would like to see VESOFT get with the times and
> provide their manuals in a easily transportable electronic form? For
> instance, Windows  Help or HTML.
>
> Now to go find some cheese to go with my whine. &:^)
>
>


It is relatively easy to convert QHELP files into a PC WinHelp file.
(I did this a while ago).


1)  Save the QHELP file (e.g. MPEXD.HELP.VESOFT) as a plain ASCII file.

2)  Write a program that reads the ASCII file and outputs a Windows
    .HPJ and .RTF file containing the text.

    Use .BEGINKEY as the start of a topic.
    Use .ENDKEY as the page/topic terminator.
    Ignore everything between .BEGININDEX and .ENDINDEX.
    Make sure the WinHelp topic id is unique and the topic
    string only contains letters, digits and an underscore.

    An example .HPJ would look something look like:

      [OPTIONS]
      TITLE=MPEX Help
      BUILD=WINDOWS
      COMPRESS=0
      NOTES=1
      OLDKEYPHRASE=NO
      REPORT=YES
      OPTCDROM=0
      DBCS=0
      [BUILDTAGS]
      WINDOWS
      [FILES]
      mpex.rtf


    And an .RTF file would look similar to:

      {\rtf1\ansi
      {\fonttbl\f0\fdecor Courier New;}\f0\fs18
      #{\footnote MPEX Help}${\footnote MPEX Help}
      \line
      \line
      \line
                                  MPEX / 3000\line
      \line
                                  User Manual\line
      \line
                                 (Version 26.)\line
      \line
                              Copyright (C) 1980\line
                             Current printing 1997\line
      #{\footnote topic1}${\footnote Eugene_Volokh_1}K{\footnote Eugene
Volokh}
                           Written by Eugene Volokh\line
                    Vice President, Research & Development\line
      }


      Where '#{\footnote' is the topic id, '${\footnote' is the
      topic string and 'K{\footnote' is the index string.


3)  Use the Windows help compiler to compile the .HPJ and .RTF file.


If you need more info then let me know.


Jamie.