Delivering HTML2EXE

A couple of weeks ago Gearhead related a problem posed by John Becker regarding DHCP. Well, suggestions as to how to solve the problem are still coming in and we'll let you know when the answer is found.

In the meantime, let's shift gears and look at a useful utility that could solve all sorts of problems with electronic content distribution.

Let's say you want to send out electronic text in HTML format but not through a Web site. You could just offer the HTML files in an archive with instructions on how to unzip and then load the files into a Web browser, but that's very messy and users will figure out how to mess it up and then they'll call you and you'll waste hours on the phone and get nothing done and then your boss will complain about why more isn't getting achieved and then fire you and . . . well, you get the idea.

The cool solution is called HTML2EXE from Update Computer Services in England (www.html2exe.com).

This utility is an HTML compiler and archiver that takes a series of local linked Web pages and compresses them into a special archive type (.H2E) that can be read with a free custom browser called H2E-View or turned into an executable that has the custom browser built in. The result is a compact, fully functional local Web site or, more accurately, self-contained presentation of HTML content.

HTML2EXE supports a subset of the HTML 3.0 specification, including bitmap, GIF, PNG and JPEG images, client-side image maps, frames, dreaded background sounds (.mid or .wav), tables, forms, font attributes and background colors and images.

The compile process has a lot of options, many of which constrain how the user can interact with the displayed content. For example, you can create a full-screen display without window controls or menus or the browser's own navigation controls.

You can prevent the presentation from being copied to the clipboard or printed, limit the days over which the presentation will work, password protect access and change the browser logo or the links that point to the author's home page and the help file.

You can build a sophisticated, self-contained HTML-based presentation. You can also extend the contents by using external references such as hyperlinks that point to other HTML content on local storage or on remote Web sites, and even launch local applications.

If there is a fault with HTML2EXE, it is the lack of exotic features Gearhead wants for our own nefarious purposes. For example, if we could include and compress files other than the linked-to HTML content, we could distribute software and multimedia content the compressed site could access.

HTML2EXE 2.2 has just been announced, and it includes better compression and an internal full-site search engine that, at $99, is good value. Gearhead gives it nine gear teeth out of 10.

Send your content to gh@gibbs.com.