Internet Explorer Options
HTML Help uses some of the functionality of Internet Explorer to display help topics, which explains why many of the settings of your Internet Explorer installation will affect how HTML Help operates, and how individual topics are displayed.
The settings under the sub-headings below can have a particular impact on HTML Help.
Styles and Accessibility Options
An HTML Help file will often come with its own font styles, layout and colour scheme coded into the topics. Settings you make in Internet Explorer can override these styles and replace them with your own.
This is a very useful option if, for example, you have trouble reading the fonts used for help text, or you cannot distinguish between colours in the help file.
However, it is equally possible that you will lose information. For example, the help file might include special styles to convey unusual or important information. If your settings do not include these special styles, the information will be displayed in the same way as normal text.
You can make these changes in the Accessibility section of the Internet Options dialog, which you can open from Internet Explorer.
- In Internet Explorer, choose Internet Options from the Tools menu.
- To change style settings, choose the General Tab, click the Accessibility button and modify one or more of the available formatting options.
It is not a good idea to make changes to these settings unless you have difficulty working with the HTML help file with its current style settings. There is a danger that you will lose information conveyed by the help developer using special styles.
Colours and Fonts
You can adjust colour and font parameters on the General tab of the Internet Options dialog. Click the Fonts or Colors buttons.
These options will have no effect if the HTML Help file contains its own built-in styles, unless you first instruct Internet Explorer to ignore the built-in styles using the Accessibility Options above.
From within HTML Help, you may also be able to change the font size
of normal text using the Font button ( 
) on the
Help Toolbar. See Changing
the Help Font Size for details.
Printing
One drawback of HTML Help is you cannot change your page setup for printing. You will have to start Internet Explorer and choose Page Setup from the File menu. You can change the page size and orientation, and also the margin widths.
