Frequently
asked questions
Q: How
can I get xCHM with Uncode support? My chm documents are displayed all
messy (I get squares for characters no matter what font face I choose).
A: This is not about xCHM, but about wxWidgets. You need to compile wxWidgets with Unicode support, and then re-configure and build xCHM. You can instruct wxGTK that you want it to use Unicode by issuing:
./configure --enable-gtk2 --enable-unicode
in the root wxGTK source directory.
If you received xCHM as part of a Linux or BSD distribution, you might try to ask your distribution maintainers to provide a Unicode-able xCHM package instead of the one you have.
A: This is not about xCHM, but about wxWidgets. You need to compile wxWidgets with Unicode support, and then re-configure and build xCHM. You can instruct wxGTK that you want it to use Unicode by issuing:
./configure --enable-gtk2 --enable-unicode
in the root wxGTK source directory.
If you received xCHM as part of a Linux or BSD distribution, you might try to ask your distribution maintainers to provide a Unicode-able xCHM package instead of the one you have.
Q: Can I
copy/paste text? Can I search for a word in the page?
A: Yes, you can. Starting with xCHM 1.0 copy/paste support is available. Searching the the current page is also possible, with ^F. xCHM only links with wxGTK 2.6.0 or later, which enables xCHM code to do that.
If you're using an older version of xCHM, you can still have copy/paste/search-in-page support by linking it to wxGTK 2.6.x.
A: Yes, you can. Starting with xCHM 1.0 copy/paste support is available. Searching the the current page is also possible, with ^F. xCHM only links with wxGTK 2.6.0 or later, which enables xCHM code to do that.
If you're using an older version of xCHM, you can still have copy/paste/search-in-page support by linking it to wxGTK 2.6.x.
Q: Does xCHM support context-sensitive help?
A: Yes. Eamon Millman has contributed XMLRPC++ code that allows xCHM to act like an XMLRPC server if started with the -x <port> command line flag. The API is detailed in the README.xmlrpc file that you can find in the source tarball. To enable the XMLRPC++ code for xCHM at compile time, you need to run:
./configure --enable-xmlrpc
Make sure you have the XMLRPC++ library installed before trying to enable the XMLRPC code for xCHM.
A: Yes. Eamon Millman has contributed XMLRPC++ code that allows xCHM to act like an XMLRPC server if started with the -x <port> command line flag. The API is detailed in the README.xmlrpc file that you can find in the source tarball. To enable the XMLRPC++ code for xCHM at compile time, you need to run:
./configure --enable-xmlrpc
Make sure you have the XMLRPC++ library installed before trying to enable the XMLRPC code for xCHM.
Q: Can I compile xCHM from source on my platform?
A: I don't know. Depends on your platform. You should be able to do that with minimum effort if you're using any of the mainstream Linux distributions (just run ./configure && make, then make install as root). For most BSD distributions, xCHM already comes with the ports collection and if you're running a BSD you probably know how to install things from the ports collection.
For more exotic systems, please see Martin Use's Mac OS X HOWTO (the chmlib-0.31 part is obsolete now, as chmlib-0.35 should compile out-of-the-box, but it's still an interesting guide on the matter), and Pabs' unabridged email about building xCHM on Windows.
But try to look for a binary for your system on the download page. Somebody might have already compiled and packaged it for you.
A: I don't know. Depends on your platform. You should be able to do that with minimum effort if you're using any of the mainstream Linux distributions (just run ./configure && make, then make install as root). For most BSD distributions, xCHM already comes with the ports collection and if you're running a BSD you probably know how to install things from the ports collection.
For more exotic systems, please see Martin Use's Mac OS X HOWTO (the chmlib-0.31 part is obsolete now, as chmlib-0.35 should compile out-of-the-box, but it's still an interesting guide on the matter), and Pabs' unabridged email about building xCHM on Windows.
But try to look for a binary for your system on the download page. Somebody might have already compiled and packaged it for you.
Q: Why doesn't xCHM work well with my file? Will you correct the
problem?
A: Please take a look at the 'Limitations' section on the technical notes page. If your problem is listed there, then the answer is no, I will probably not fix the problem. xCHM is but a humble front-end for chmlib, and it's not meant for reading Windows help. Use hh.exe to read Windows help. Of course, if you're set on writing a good patch I'll have a look.
A: Please take a look at the 'Limitations' section on the technical notes page. If your problem is listed there, then the answer is no, I will probably not fix the problem. xCHM is but a humble front-end for chmlib, and it's not meant for reading Windows help. Use hh.exe to read Windows help. Of course, if you're set on writing a good patch I'll have a look.
Q: What do I do if I get an "error while loading shared libraries" message after compiling xCHM?
A: The short answer is: run ldconfig as root. The long answer is on the forum.
A: The short answer is: run ldconfig as root. The long answer is on the forum.
Q: xCHM displays the HTML source code of the pages instead of properly rendering it.
Can I fix this?
A: That depends. The problem might be that an application such as Crossover Office has already registered the .chm extension in your ~/.mime.types file. Most likely that can be solved by commenting out the relevant lines (this solution has been received from Marcelo Fernandez).
A: That depends. The problem might be that an application such as Crossover Office has already registered the .chm extension in your ~/.mime.types file. Most likely that can be solved by commenting out the relevant lines (this solution has been received from Marcelo Fernandez).
Forum
If nothing of the above answers your question, you might try the SourceForge help forum for xCHM. Please see if someone else already answered your question before posting.
