FAR HTML - Home Page

Product Information

FAR HTML is a collection of file and HTML Help utilities for authors. If you need to quickly manipulate HTML files, or create and edit HTML Help 1.x or MS Help 2.x projects then FAR will save you lots of time. You can safely use FAR HTML and MS Workshop side by side. Download the full working version of FAR HTML free today.

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In memory of Josef
 

FAR supports all Windows platforms: 95/98/ME/NT4SP6/2K/XP/2003/Vista
(2000/XP/2003/Vista recommended)

FAR HTML & Windows Vista Compatibility

See About FAR Download below before downloading


Release Date: V4.3.0.681, 1:00pm, 27-Apr-2008 (EST Australia)
Current Version Web Site Download
FAR 4.3 (build 681)
 		 This Site
 		 far43_inst681.exe (2.8MB)
 
FAR 4.3 (build 681)
 		 Ulrich Kulle's Help-Info.de FAR Download & Support Page (Eng),
FAR Download & German Support Page (DE)
See also FAR Online help in German (in progress)
FAR 4.2 (build 660)
 		 David Liske's HTML Help Center
 		 FAR Download Page
 

 

Please contact us if you find bugs or have suggestions for future FAR HTML releases.

Release Date:  V4.3.1.690, 11:00pm, 28-Aug-2008 (EST Australia)
Beta Version Download
FAR 4.3 (build 690) far43_inst690.exe (2.8MB)

 Beta release information

Build 690:

  • Added Encoding Column to FAR file list (Can switch on/off via the View menu since reading the first part of all files can slow the list down first time). Displays file Encoding type = ANSI, UTF-8, UTF-16 LE/BE. Also: added EncodingColumnExtSkip= to settings.ini so user can specify Binary files to skip when populating the Encoding column.
  • FAR File List Sort: Usually when we sort we restore the selection to the same item. Now if the selected item is at the top of the list, then after we sort we reselect the top item.
  • The Search insert command $DT$[now] has been expanded $DT$[now:%format%] so that the current date/time can be formatted.
  • Fixed problem where the Backup command (run from Explorer) would not check the Enable Filter box and thus enable the Backup drop filter.

Build 689:

  • Adv Search settings can now be saved to multiple files. This helps those who need to manage large numbers of search definitions. Each file can contain up to 200 search definitions (the maximum number of definitions that FAR can hold in memory at one time). The files are .FarRun batch script files so this will help those who create search script for batch jobs.

Build 687:

  • Added: FAR file list now displays a file Attr column (file attributes). RSHA (ReadOnly, System, Hidden, Archive).

Build 686:

  • Tweak Export Adv Search: Added Master.FarRun to Search Batch export. And default .FarRun filename is the name of the Search definition.
  • Tag Editor (a work in progress) - Added Delete Tags command.

Build 685:

  • Tweak Import TOC or HTML file.. now creates the correct relative path even if the file is not found.
  • New: Adv Find & Replace dialog - Added "Export Search settings to .FarRun batch file" command.
    Added popup menu (mini button in top-left corner) to allow user to export settings out to a batch job file.

Build 683:

  • New (Main window): "Edit > Group Selections" - Selected file items are grouped together and moved to the top of the file list.
  • Added (Main window): Add FTP Copy command to the toolbar.
  • New (Main window): Added command "Authoring > Tag Editor" -  (a work in progress). See what you think.
  • New (Main window): Added ability to auto-load and auto-save the file list at startup/shutdown. New menu check items...
      "Options > Auto-Save File List at Shutdown"
      "Options > Auto-Save File List at Startup"
  • New (Main window): Added "File > Reopen File List" command - An easier way to quickly load a previously saved FAR file list.
  • New (TOC Editor): Added "TOC > Import from HTML File" - Creates a TOC from <h1>, <h2>.. header tags in a HTML file and inserts them into the selected node.
  • Renamed (TOC Editor): menu item "TOC > Import File Contents" to "TOC > Import from TOC File".

Build 682:

  • Fix: Converting TOC to DHTML Toc. TOC nodes with Short Icon (19) were ignored (as if they were from an Index). If the entire branch was made up of Shortcut icons (19) the output would be malformed (missing div closing tags).

About FAR Download

The FAR download is a full working version.  FAR will operate for 2 months so you can try out all of its features, then you will get a nag screen asking you to register.  Please try out FAR and if you like it you can register for a small fee.

Requirements for Help Authoring

HTML Help 1.x

If you are using FAR to create HTML Help (.CHM help files) then you will need to download and install the free MS HTML Help Workshop (htmlhelp.exe). Workshop contains the help compiler engine which FAR and all 3rd party authoring tools use to generate .CHM help files.

Note: Workshop download includes a copy of the HTML Help V1.3x runtime installer (hhupd.exe), but does not install it. If you are running Win9x or WinNT4 then you will need to install the runtime files. If you think you need to update your HTML Help runtime files please see the MS HTML Help 1.x Download Page.

MS Help 2.x

FAR 4.x supports MS Help 2.x, the help system for Visual Studio .NET. For information on how to download the MS Help 2 Workshop (VS SDK) see the H2 Info Page.

Under Windows Vista we recommend you run FAR.exe "Run as Administrator" when performing MS Help 2 collection registration.

SpiderSoft.com WebZip Users

FAR provides the WebZip program with free ZIP and some basic HTML Help services. These 2 features never expire. FAR's other advanced web tools and HTML Help authoring features are shareware and will expire 2 months after installation unless you purchase a FAR license.

 
Support
Regular updates are planned for FAR HTML to fix reported problems and keep it in sync with the latest version of HTML Help. 

Subscribe to the FAR newsletter and keep up to date:

 
Testimonials and Links
Some nice things people have said about FAR.
 

  • "Eduscape uses FAR in the final step to create our software.  FAR is fantastic and simple to use.  It changes html pages into to chm files.  Eduscape’s product is mathematical e-books.   FAR is a great tool for doing this and the price is right" - Ralph Thomas.
    www.emathlearning.com (or www.eduscape2000.com)

    From Helpware: Interesting and unique application of FAR Uncompressed help. They add JavaScript Navigation and Search to the product, then wrap it all into a single CHM file. Their product also uses our embedded Agent text-to-speech reader. Screen shots of Eduscape.

     

  • "The interface improvements within v4.0 are awesome. This is without doubt the most powerful, yet simple to use HTMLHelp creation tool we've ever used. We created our first test CHM with dynamic linking within 10 minutes of installation. All our product documentation will now be created with FARHTML going forward" - Ryan Healey,
    www.instantasp.com 

     
  • "I'M LOVING FAR! As a freelance tech writer, I work on a lot of online help projects, and FAR is "by far" the best HAT utility I've ever found. The Help generators are fast, don't mess up my HTML code (unlike other HAT's), and afford me a lot of control over how the finished Help files will work and look. FAR is a great addition to my professional "toolbox" and I look forward to using it for future projects." - Tanja Rosteck,
    Words4Nerds

  • "FAR RULES! FAR saved many days (probably weeks) of hard grunt work. FAR's ability to compile and then edit TOC and INDEX files, as well as its abilities to "Find and Replace" text on mass, as I see it, are unrivalled! In addition, FAR's developers have been extremely helpful whenever I had questions regarding the program." - Ian Patton,
    HyperScribe Inc.

  • "FAR (Find And Replace) is an excellent tool for globally finding and replacing data within web pages. " - Rhonda Bracey,
    CyberText 

  • "Your FAR is a great source for me. I do all my projects with FAR. I also use it for automatically generating the file list." - Josef Becker,
    HelpMaster.com

  • "I suddenly had to convert my CHM Help system back to a regular HTML help-type file system. Using your utility it took all of about 2 minutes to correctly remove all HTML Help code. I'd estimated about 5 hours for doing the job manually!!" - David Altmann, Future Strategy

  • HTMLHelp enthaelt einen Fehler, der die Konvertierung von Umlauten betrifft. Enthaelt die HTML-Source Umlaute in Ueberschriften oder Suchbegriffen, dann werden diese spaeter in der CHM-Datei im Inhalts-Tab und im Index-Tab falsch dargestellt. Wird die CHM-Datei aus FAR heraus kompiliert, tritt dieses Problem nicht auf. Dank an MVP Robert Chandler   fuer dieses feine Werkzeug.  - Josef Becker, HelpMaster.com

  • Creating Hebrew help files proved the most difficult. Much to our frustration, the results we obtained from flagships of the trade we tried left a lot to be desired: parts of the original Hebrew text would transform into unintelligible non-language symbols, punctuation marks would wander to awkward positions and Hebrew/English combination sentences would get out of syntactical sync in most unpredictable ways. Hardly a product to be proud of.

    Until FAR. We can now create the basic pages/help topics in Word (which gives us the RTL editing support we need), let FAR create the HHP file, set the chm file's language properties to specification, and create the TOC and index within FAR, linked to the nth bookmark in a single page if so we wish. To further edit a page/topic we switch to the associated editor of choice, toggle back to refresh, and compile.

    Et le VOILA: a final Hebrew chm file with character set intact, punctuation where it belongs and Hebrew and English each in their right direction and appropriate location throughout the help file. The TOC works and appears right to left as should be, the index works, Search locates whichever strings we require and all the links function as first designed.
    Will take you a long way, FAR …..

    Ruth Levin
    Technical Communicator
    Roshtov Software Ind.
     

 
FAR is Shareware
FAR HTML is shareware.  It cannot be purchased through normal retail outlets. It is only available via internet download. The advantage to you the consumer is obvious.   Normal retail costs are not passed on and you get quality software at a greatly reduced price.

The FAR download is a full working version. Try it out and if you want to continue to use it you should purchase a copy using this page. 
FAR HTML Purchase / Registration
 

Each FAR HTML user must own a license to use FAR beyond the trial period. A license cannot be shared between users. A license can be shared between 2 PCs only if both PCs are used by a single user (E.G. A user has a work & home PC).

Once we receive payment we will send you the FAR registration codes (3 strings) by email which you enter under the FAR help menu. This will disable the nag screens and the about box will declare that you are a registered and legal FAR user.

Please Read This Carefully:

The copy of FAR you downloaded (page top) is a full working version. You get a total of 8 weeks to evaluate FAR. After that unregistered copies of FAR will show a nag screen with a time delay. Please use this time to properly evaluate FAR before paying for a registration Key. If you need more evaluation time then roll back the time on your PC's clock. 

There are no refunds. It is simply not cost effective to refund this small amount of money.

 Payment Options
link to TOC for Google
link to TOC for Google