Alternative .chm readers?

[f0dder]

Microsoft's own .chm reader is fast, but it has a number of shortcomings:

• It doesn't support UNC paths.
• It has trouble with certain things in filenames (# symbol, names ending in "col", ...)
• It doesn't have "proper" font scaling (smooth ctrl+mousewheel as we're used to from browsers).
• It doesn't support multiple tabs (important for me when reading tech ebooks and wanting to check out a referenced section without leaving the current section).
• It lacks bookmarks (another ideal function would be remembering where you left off, when you close an ebook).
• It doesn't have a "paged" mode - most of the time, the "one continuous page" style is what I want, but sometimes it would be nice to have a paged mode.

So, are there any decent alternatives?

[fenixproductions]

Dunno about full readers but maybe someone could build nice one using this:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/htmlhelp.aspx

[f0dder]

Yup, found a link to that from the other DC thread about alternate viewers - and the third thread mentions UltraCHM, which is payware.

* f0dder scratches his beard

[f0dder]

OK, via SuperUser I found KchmViewer. ~37 megs installed seems like a lot for a chm reader, but it loads very fast (about as fast as the native HtmlHelp viewer, which is guns-ablazing), and it supports tabs, font scaling, and remembers your last position.

Haven't tested UNC paths and the like yet, but my guess is that they work, considering it seems to be a full .chm implementation rather than relying on Windows' standard components (hence the size; it's got WebKit embedded).

[nudone]

i'm not at my work machine but i think i've got UltraCHM on there - after the trial it just has a nag screen on start up (and maybe exit). not sure about tabs though.

[Winkie]

I found KchmViewer

... UltraCHM ... not sure about tabs though.

Nice finds, both of you
I always thought I didn't need a different chm reader. Using these for 5 minutes proofed otherwise...

Main reason I'm gonna use kchmviewer instead of the standard HTML Help Viewer is:
* Tabs! (UltraChm has none)
* The ability to open external links in my default browser.

UltraChm will stay installed for times I need to extract individual pages or have to take notes.

[Armando]

I've been using Ultra CHM for a while. It's certainly more flexible than others. However... I find it unbelievable that this is... It. Rea...lly?

By comparison, Pdf viewers have a lot more convenient features... and are much more configurable (in terms of shortcut keys, editing, etc.). Which leads me to always try to find a pdf alternative to any CHM document.

Sorry... Complaining but don't have any good solution... But am periodically looking for one. I guess one day I'll have to buy something super expensive like Help And Manual and create my own pdfs out of CHMs.

[Curt]

For Firefox:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/chmreader/
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/chm-reader/

More about this add-on

Versions for Linux x86_64 and Mac OS X can be downloaded from http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=175748

An extension make firefox support Compiled HTML(.chm) file reading.

After install, with "File | Open CHM File", you can open an CHM file in Firefox. With "View | Sidebar | CHM Reader" or press "Ctrl-E", the sidebar which contains topics and indexes listing of the CHM file will be showed.

Open chm file from command line: firefox chm:file:///path/of/your.chm

Open chm from Nautilus: 1. right click on an chm file; 2. Select "Open with Other Application"; 3. Select "Use a custom command"; 4. Input "firefox chm:%U" and click Open.