AutoHotkey Community

it would be nice to have the general documentation also in PDF for easier reference.

What is easier then HTML ?

I don't really know how to go about it. However, I think there are a few other topics about it, such as Reliable Printed Manual

I've just uploaded the PDF file for the AHK version 1.0.45.01 help file:
http://www.autohotkey.net/~JohnB/autohotkey.pdf

It's 2.5 Mb. Please let me know if you have any comments.

Thanks,
John B.

Was this converted from the .chm, or did you make it by hand?

Jonny-

I converted it from the CHM:
1. KeyTools to decompile the help file.
2. Tweak a couple file paths/file names.
3. Adobe RoboHelp to import the decompiled CHM.
4. RoboHelp to create an MS Word file from the imported files.
5. Tweak the styles in Word for appearance (and save it as a template so I won't have to do it again).
6. PDF writing function added to Word by RoboHelp to create the PDF.

I use RoboHelp in my work as a contract Technical Writer. It costs a bunch, but it's the tool many of my clients demand.

John B.

Aha, so it wasn't a free tool. My suspicions are confirmed.

CutePDF - Create PDF for free
pdfforge.org - PDFCreator Seems there is a PDF Creator (a space) which is not free.

Both untested by me. The first needs Ghostscript, which is free too.

Note: lot of PDF softwares are just print drivers: they take print orders (GDI) from Windows and convert them to PDF. So they work from any Windows application with standard printing output. It should work directly from the CHM.
Otherwise, there is no need to decompile the CHM file. Just take the HTML pages from the site.
Chris might, perhaps, provide a Zip file with the manual pages in plain HTML. It should be easy to make it automatically on each update. It would avoid to use a Web spider (like HTTrack) to get them: less stress for the site, easier for the user.

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vPhiLho := RegExReplace("Philippe Lhoste", "^(\w{3})\w*\s+\b(\w{3})\w*$", "$1$2")

If anyone wants the HTML files, download MS HTML Help Workshop (a free product from Microsoft, quite small) and use it to extract all the HTML files out of the latest AutoHotkey.chm file.

I use FreePDF XP 3.07. I also has a english GUI and uses GhostScript. When your application can print you can create PDFs. You can also create a single PDF from multiple print jobs. It support watermarks, encryption and joining of multiple PDF files.

But I do not know how difficult it is to add bookmarks to the PDF, since I never tried.

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Ciao
toralf

Even simpler, I found that 7-Zip can open cleanly a CHM file like any other archive...
Something that neither IZArc nor TUGZip can do...

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vPhiLho := RegExReplace("Philippe Lhoste", "^(\w{3})\w*\s+\b(\w{3})\w*$", "$1$2")

Neat find. 7-Zip is one of my favorite file management utilities. However (as I found out the hard way), you'll need at least version 4.31 in order to do it. If you haven't downloaded a new version of 7-Zip lately (the current version is 4.42), now might be the time to do it.

Them be my thoughts...

Not bad. Recently I have found this PDF Converter in the net. It supports Windows Vista.

I've always had great results with PrimoPDF if you're looking for alternatives.

Even simplest?

Jacques.