Tutorial: Organizing Your Computer Files with HelpNDoc

I love taking freeware that's meant to do one thing, and finding some other use for it.

One type of freeware that I've found really helpful are help makers. Help makers were really designed for the creators of software programs. They use the help maker to create those instructional help files you find in just about every piece of software you'll ever use.

Well I don't design software programs, but I've found help makers just as useful.

One of my favorite freeware help makers is called HelpNDoc. I've used it to organize some of the many, many files (mostly research for writing projects) that I've saved on my hard drive. And, whether you're a student or writer drowning in a sea of research, or just someone who likes to save and collect any interesting article you come across, this short tutorial will teach you how to get it all in order.

Step 1: Download and Install HelpNDoc.

You can use any freeware help maker to organize your files, but the HelpNDoc help maker is one of the quickest to learn and easiest to use. And it's free for personal, non-commercial use.

Install the HelpNDoc help maker, and read the help file included to get a feel for the program. It doesn't take long at all to familiarize yourself with this freeware help maker. In fact, if you can use a word processor, you can quickly learn to use HelpNDoc.

Step 2: Create a New Help Project.

With the HelpNDoc help maker, you can create multiple help projects. So you can have a separate help file for each topic or subject, or you can create one help file for all of your research.

For this tutorial, let's imagine I'm creating one help file for all of my information. And I'm going to call it Virtual Filing Cabinet.

Step 3: Organize Your Information by Topic.

The first file I'm going to add to my Virtual Filing Cabinet is an article about dog grooming. So I have to create a new topic (or file folder) to put the article in. I'll call this "folder" Pets.

Step 4: Add Your Files.

To add the dog grooming article to the Pets folder, I'll create a new topic under the Pets folder. Then, I'll quickly cut and paste the article into the Topic Editor. If you're familiar with Microsoft Notebook, Microsoft WordPad, Microsoft Word, or any other text editor or word processor, then you're have no problem using the HelpNDoc Topic Editor.

Step 5: Compiling Your Help File.

After adding more "file folders," and adding more articles, you can compile your help project, either as a help (or CHM) file, a series of web pages, or both.

One great thing about the HelpNDoc help maker is that, as long as you save your help project file, you can always add new articles and files to it, and recompile it at any time. And, since help files can be viewed on just about any but the oldest computers, you can take your research with you anywhere, and access it on any computer.

Freeware help makers like HelpNDoc are one quick and easy way to get your computer files in order.