Previous New features

Page Tips

Versions 2.1.10 and 2.2.10 now support pop-up Page Tips, ie little coloured boxes which pop up when the user's mouse hovers over an entry in the Contents. Use these page tips to give extra information about your pages.

User Locale

Version 2.2 (and version 2.1.5+ if run in a suitable browser) select the most appropriate index and language files for a user, using the new index parameters locale field.

New features in version 2.2

This version has been ported to "JDK 1.1". This is the latest version of the Java Development Kit.
This version is currently only usable in Internet Explorer 4 (and Navigator 4 with the JDK 1.1 patch) so it is difficult to set up your HTML to run this version.
You can use JavaScript to determine the user's browser and make the appropriate HTML when the page is loaded. A bit messy, but it works.

Hi HelpIndex version 2.3 will run with the JDK 1.1 appletviewer, Internet Explorer 4 and Navigator 4.04+ provided you get and reference the hi230.jar file. Ie change your HTML to: <applet code=COM.phdcc.hi.HelpIndex width=400 height=200 archive="hi230.jar"> or similar.

Version 2.2+ also copes with different character encodings for index and language files, so you can use non-English character sets.

The Contents tree shows its selection as an outline when it does not have the input focus.

New features in version 2.1

Hi Lab.
New help index file format, inc targets for URLs
Loads index files faster
Uses less memory
archive and cabinet files provided
high mode grey box round Hi HelpIndex text fixed for IE
default card background colour is now light yellow
tabicons parameter added. expanded option added to indexN parameter.

Existing users please note that Hi Lab will read your existing index files, but will only write them in the new format. This format can only be used with Hi HelpIndex version 2.1 or later.

We are looking at Marimba Castanet technology which lets you have the HelpIndex classes on your computer and get updates automatically.

New features in version 2.0

example screen shot showing Contents tab

Has a Contents "tree" of the web site.
Has a "card" arrangement with Contents, Index, Select and About tabs.
The Select tab allows new index files and languages to be loaded.
Displays a "Loading" message while the applet is loading

Note that MakeHelpIndex has already been improved to make an index file which has the links necessary to display the Contents. However this will usually have to be edited by hand to have your desired tree layout. You can also add references to icons which you would like displayed beside a contents entry.

Language files have a new format.

Note that the version 2 class and gif files are now about 80kB; these will take users longer to download.

New features in version 1.7

Can use a language file.
HelpIndex can now be used as a simple database, see this User database example.
The mode parameter now allows selection between "high" and "wide". In the new "high" mode, the search form is arranged so that it is higher than it is wide, ie the labels and fields are in one column. Try out the "applet high" in French and German version of HelpIndex.
The indexlines parameter allows the number of lines in the keywords list box to be specified.
Double-clicking a page URL is the same as pressing Display Page.
fieldbgcolor parameter added

New features in version 1.6

The main change is that index file format code 1.2 is now supported. You can now specify a target frame on an index-by-index basis. If there is no index target specified then the page is displayed in the frame specified by the TARGET applet parameter.
Note that format 1.2 also has extra parameters to the URL record which will eventually be used to display a tree hierarchy of URLs. This feature will be in version 2.0, due in the new year.
HelpIndex 1.6 will read your existing format 1.1 and earlier index files correctly.
MakeHelpIndex version 1.3.0 now writes format 1.2 files, with undefined entries for the URL record tree hierarchy fields. It picks up the TARGET parameter from your A tag links.
There are various other improvements to MakeHelpIndex.
Note that evaluation HelpIndex is now deliberately limited to displaying a maximum of 500 keywords and a maximum of 100 URLs. This will in fact be big enough for a lot of sites. You should purchase a full licence for HelpIndex to obtain an unlimited version.
HelpIndex must now be run on the same server as the web page that calls it. This is to stop you calling HelpIndex on PHD's server from your pages using APPLET CODEBASE. You must download the development kit and install the required files on your server.

HelpIndex PHD