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November 18, 1999

The first time a user starts the Help system in a Microsoft Office 2000 application (or in any Microsoft Windows® application that uses HTML Help), Windows automatically builds an index file for the Help topics contained in the compiled HTML Help file. The user must wait to use Help while Windows generates the index file.

On Microsoft Windows NT® 4.0 and Windows 2000 computers, you can eliminate this delay by building Help indexes before you deploy Office 2000. The Office 2000 Help Preparation tool (PrepHelp.exe) locates the compiled HTML Help (CHM) files on a specified drive and runs routines to create the Help index (CHW) files.

Toolbox    Registered Office users can download PrepHelp.exe free of charge to use on Windows NT or Windows 2000 computers. You can find this downloadable file on the Office 2000 Resource Kit Downloads page.

Create and deploy Help index files

After you run PrepHelp.exe to create Help indexes, you can add the indexes to a transform and distribute them to all users during your Office 2000 deployment.

To build the Help index files

• Run PrepHelp.exe to create the Help index (CHW) files.

  PrepHelp.exe scans the current or specified drive and creates the CHW files in the same location as the associated CHM files.

You can now add the CHW files to a transform (MST file) and distribute them with Office 2000.

Tip   The CHW files range in size from less than 100 kilobytes to several megabytes, depending on the application. If you are concerned about the size of your transform, you can select CHW files for only the most frequently used Office applications in your organization.

To add the Help index files to your Office transform

1. Start the Custom Installation Wizard.
2. On the Add Files to the Installation panel, click Add and select the CHW files you want to include in the transform.

   By default, the CHW files you create with PrepHelp.exe are stored in the Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\LCID folder, where LCID is the locale ID for your installed language version of Office.

3. Click Add and append the path to the location where you want to install the CHW files on users’ computers.

   This location must be the same folder that contains the Help (CHM) files; typically, it is the same as the path in Step 2.

Build Help indexes for Windows Terminal Server

PrepHelp.exe is especially useful if you are deploying Office 2000 under Windows Terminal Server. For Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server or Windows 2000 Terminal Services, run PrepHelp.exe on the server computer immediately after you install Office 2000.

Because Windows Terminal clients do not always have access to the folders and registry entries in which the Help index files are built, this installation sequence avoids permissions conflicts. You must include the /LockedDown command-line option to allow the computer to create the indexes and update the registry.

Build Help indexes for Office 2000 MultiLanguage Pack

If you are deploying Office 2000 with MultiLanguage Pack, you can use PrepHelp.exe to build the Help indexes for MultiLanguage Pack Help files. If the Help files contain Unicode, double-byte character sets, or nonWestern code pages, see the instructions on the Office Update download page for information about the /LPK command-line option.

PrepHelp.exe does not index every compiled HTML Help (CHM) file – only those CHMs that contain associative links (ALinks). ALinks in a Help file connect to Alinks in Help topics in other CHMs. Keyword links (KLinks), by contrast, link to keywords in topics within the same CHM.

When PrepHelp.exe encounters ALinks in a CHM, it generates an index (CHW) file for that CHM. The resulting index lists all the ALinks and KLinks in the CHM. The number of ALinks and KLinks in the CHM determine the size of the index file.