Actually, you are not entirely correct about the new Vista help files.

WinHlp32.exe is not shipped with Vista (although the 16-bit app was, for some odd reason). Microsoft says HLP format included with every shipment since 3.1 ‘no longer meets MS standards’ and in order to read Legacy help files, Vista users have to copy the WinHlp32.exe file from the \Windows file on an older machine (9x, ME or XP) and place it in a folder on the Vista machine (not the Vista help folder!).

(That workaround was pending Microsoft’s release of the commercial version of Vista; after that release MS intended to provide a download to rectify the situation. Hopefully that has been accomplished.)

So, there actually HAS been a change to Vista help files; #26 was on the right track. Vista will not read HLP; it will, however, read CHM.

You could give GOTD and GridinSoft the courtesy of testing it out or you can just wait until tomorrow’s giveaway, but please don’t complain. I’m sure it’s not easy coming up with SOMETHING to offer EVERY DAY. It’s also ridiculous to think you NEED to download something EVERY DAY from here. Please, either show some appreciation, offer some constructive criticism (such as a freeware alternative), or respectfully decline to comment.

Thank you GOTD for all the free software I’ve downloaded from you. I’m always curious to find out what you’ll offer next! Keep up the good work!

BladedThoth’s review gave me pause for thought, especially that runtime error he came across. However, after searching the Web for something similar, I decided it was worth trying this puppy.

Pros:
- It installed swiftly and without any hassles.
- It allowed me to open and edit its own CHM help file without any hassles and with no error messages.

Neither Pro nor Con:
- Very spartan and bare-bones
- The only options that can be set are:
— use a proxy server for connecting to online translators,
— show or hide the three available toolbars (edit, format, translator)
- I did not even try the translator feature: I have no use for it, and online translation is notoriously bad anyway. I have disabled that tool bar.

Cons:
- Nothing indicates that it’s registered, except for the fact that nothing says it’s a trial version… (Since I didn’t install the trial before doing the GOTD install, I’m simply assuming the trial version says it’s a trial.)
- It doesn’t open .hlp files, which is what some older programs use
- There’s no way to close a file in order to open another one and work on it – you have to close the program and re-open it to load the new file.
- You can load a second file, but the right pane still shows the file you just worked on, and if you click on the new file, you get an error message. If you click on “refresh” (or use F5), you get the Internet Explorer-style ‘Page not found’ window that BladedThoth mentioned. If you then click on another page in the new file, you do see it, but clicking back in the first page that gave the “Page not found” just shows a blank page – it simply won’t load the page. Once again, you have to close the program and re-open it to load the new file.
- The only online translators available are Google and Yahoo, and there doesn’t seem to be any way to add one of the other ones — SYSTRAN or Promt/Reverso, for instance, which are marginally better (AltaVista’s Babel Fish is powered by SYSTRAN).
- There seems to be no way to eliminate the translator languages that you’re not interested in using, which keeps the interface more cluttered than it needs to be.
- Price. $49 is too much considering all the of the above, and even if those things were fixed, it’s far more than I’d want to pay for what I want to do with the program.

Final word: It’s still a keeper for me, but only as a freebie (or maybe $20 max). I can work around the quirks and still find it useful for what I want to do, which is annotate the help files of the programs I use. Sure, some help files let you add your own notes, but they use a small green paperclip which is hard to see, and they place it at the top of the page. With this program, I can place my notes where I want: near the item that needs to be annotated. And I can change the font color to make it stand out.

Wish list (besides fixing the issues noted above): It would be nice to have a highlight feature, instead of having to change the font color to get highlighted text.

Alrighty then, I am absolutely good to go! This CHM Editor is going to simplify my life by allowing me to compile all of the help files I have accumulated since Windows XP came into my life.

Think about it: all those files from the manufacturers and vendors, management tools, troubleshooting results, benchmark and driver information combined with often-colorful words of wisdom gleaned from exasperated, frustrated and downright cranky victims of Windows operating systems…merged into one tidy file.

No longer will I have to rummage through the filing cabinet for the Command Line Reference codes or the specific steps required to identify a fault in NETSH. I can forget the shuffle-rustle-cuss routine, not that I find anything WRONG with hard copies mind you…it is just that my feng shui morphs to ‘flung shui’ after searching for that one paragraph of information buried in a five-foot, five-drawer filing cabinet.

Thanks to the kind folks at GridinSoft and Giveaway of the Day, the paper blizzard will become a distant memory … the more distant, the better.

Once I have merged my help files and transferred them to other media (DVD? audio tape? CD?), the information I need will be accessible and searchable. By next year, the money I save on paper and printer ink should just about cover the cost of a new computer .. a Mac.

23 kiril — Good point about a mother explaining things to a baby. Unfortunately, neither GOTD nor this developer is your mother, so it isn’t reasonable to expect them to perform her functions. Try a search engine like, oh, maybe GOOGLE, or a source like, mmm, WIKIPEDIA for finding information. Keane’s logic was exactly right and eloquently expressed. If you see a tool and don’t know what it’s for, you don’t need it. If you think you might someday need it if you start doing what it does, but yo don’t know what that is, then LOOK IT UP! How is it the responsibility of anyone else to take you by the hand and lead you to the, um, teat?

Everbody who complains about quality of language translation — the description says this uses one of the translation engines out on the web, not its own, so your problem is with google or whoever makes whatever one you used, not with this program. Right?

it even makes the price of gasoline go down to 50 cents a gallon,
and there will be no more world hunger.

good lord…..

People like me get annoyed with GOATD when they try and ‘giveaway’ software that is sub-par commercial quality. Whats the point giving away non-free software if there are free alternatives that do a better job?

I don’t normally post here cos I just check the ‘giveaway’ and if it’s of no use to me I leave. I normally find more interesting the comments where people give links to better opensource/freeware apps that do the same thing.

In the end GOATD isn’t doing you a favour with this service. They are a business making money. It just so happens that some people may benefit from the service they provide.

As for tranlasions well all the services tend to suck so dont expect much from them in that regard. Might get you to the point where you can at least make partial sense of a non native language help file but thats about it. And really thats all they are ment to do.

And really people why in the heck do you feel theres a need to bash this site for their givaways? If yo dont have a use for a given program dont get it. No need to say what worthless crap junk trash etc.

I just got to say if I was a admin here I would ban for such worthless comments. I dont bother with or want screen savers. I think their all worthless paid free or OS included but i dont go posting flames about them every chance I get.