What's PackageThis

What It Does

Package This is a GUI tool written in C# for creating help files (.chm and .hxs) from the content obtained from the MSDN Library or the TechNet Library via the MSDN Content Service. You select the content you want from the table of contents, build a help file, and use the content offline. You are making personalized ebooks of MSDN or TechNet content. Both help file formats also give full text search and keyword search.

The code illustrates how to use the MSDN Content Service to retrieve documentation from MSDN or TechNet. It also shows how to build .hxs files and .chm files programmatically.

Prerequisites

Package This requires .NET 2.0, the .hxs SDK (MSHelp 2.0), part of the Visual Studio 2005 SDK, and the .chm SDK (You must Install HTML Help Workshop). If you just want to create .chm files, you don't need to download the .hxs components (and vice versa).

How to use

1. 安装.Net 2.0，如需生成CHM文件，需要安装MS HTML Help Workshop

2. 从官方网站 http://www.codeplex.com/packagethis 下载PackageThis

3. 下载后，解压，直接运行PackageThis。

4. 在菜单中选择Library (MSDN, TechNet)，选择语言（通常英文的资料是最新最全的）

5. 使用左边的树形菜单，导航到你所需要下载的节点（整个Library很大，而且从中国到美国的访问速度很慢，如果选择比较上层的节点，可能需要很长的时间下载。）

6. 右击需要下载的节点，选择"Select this node and all children", PackageThis开始下载该节点和所有子节点的资料。请等待下载...

7. 下载完成后，点击菜单"File" => "Export to Chm File..." 或 "Export to Hxs File..."，打包成CHM或HXS格式。

鱼漂(Ipaddr)提醒：Hxs格式需要专门的软件才可以打开，推荐使用Help Explorer 3.0

Reference

PackageThis: http://www.codeplex.com/packagethis

MSDN Library: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/library

TechNet Library: http://technet.microsoft.com/library