Microsoft HTML Help vs xchm

Struggling to choose between Microsoft HTML Help and xchm? Both products offer unique advantages, making it a tough decision.

Microsoft HTML Help is a Office & Productivity solution with tags like help, documentation, authoring, html.

It boasts features such as Authoring tool to create HTML Help files, Supports HTML, images, multimedia, Context-sensitive help through special HTML tags, Full text search, Table of contents, Index, Hyperlinks, Integration with Visual Studio and Microsoft products and pros including Easy to create help content with HTML, Good integration with Microsoft ecosystem, Full text search allows quick access to content, Navigation features like TOC and index, Multimedia support allows images, audio, video etc, Wide adoption in Microsoft products.

On the other hand, xchm is a Office & Productivity product tagged with chm, viewer, microsoft, compiled-html.

Its standout features include Table of contents pane, Text searching, Indexing, Ability to print pages, and it shines with pros like Open source, Easy to use, Good CHM file support, Available on Linux.

To help you make an informed decision, we've compiled a comprehensive comparison of these two products, delving into their features, pros, cons, pricing, and more. Get ready to explore the nuances that set them apart and determine which one is the perfect fit for your requirements.

Microsoft HTML Help

Microsoft HTML Help

Microsoft HTML Help is a Microsoft proprietary format for writing help content. It allows creating help files with HTML, providing features like full text search, index, table of contents. It integrates with Visual Studio and other Microsoft products.

Categories:
help documentation authoring html

Microsoft HTML Help Features

  1. Authoring tool to create HTML Help files
  2. Supports HTML, images, multimedia
  3. Context-sensitive help through special HTML tags
  4. Full text search
  5. Table of contents
  6. Index
  7. Hyperlinks
  8. Integration with Visual Studio and Microsoft products

Pricing

  • Free
  • One-time Purchase

Pros

Easy to create help content with HTML

Good integration with Microsoft ecosystem

Full text search allows quick access to content

Navigation features like TOC and index

Multimedia support allows images, audio, video etc

Wide adoption in Microsoft products

Cons

Proprietary format limited to Microsoft platform

Limited styling capabilities compared to HTML/CSS

Not responsive for mobile devices

Lacks features of newer help formats like responsive UI, embedded videos etc

Authoring requires Microsoft HTML Help Workshop

Not actively developed anymore


xchm

xchm

xchm is an open-source CHM file viewer for Linux. It allows users to easily view Microsoft Compiled HTML (.chm) documents. Some key features include a table of contents pane, text searching, indexing, and the ability to print pages.

Categories:
chm viewer microsoft compiled-html

Xchm Features

  1. Table of contents pane
  2. Text searching
  3. Indexing
  4. Ability to print pages

Pricing

  • Open Source

Pros

Open source

Easy to use

Good CHM file support

Available on Linux

Cons

Limited features compared to proprietary options

Few customization options

No support for other file types