Why convert ZHELP to PDF?
A .zhelp (Ziphelp) file is really a ZIP archive of HTML pages plus a sitemap.xml, meant to be read in EC Software's eWriter Viewer, not printed. People convert it to .pdf when they need a portable, paginated document they can email, archive, or hand to someone who does not have the viewer installed.
How to convert ZHELP to PDF
Help+Manual Print Manual PAID
If you have the original .hmxz/.hmxp project that generated the Ziphelp output, open it in EC Software Help+Manual and use Publish > Print Manual, which builds a single properly paginated PDF of the whole document.
eWriter Viewer plus system PDF printer FREE
Open the .zhelp in the free eWriter Viewer, then use the operating system print dialog and select Microsoft Print to PDF (or a PDF printer on macOS) to capture the visible topic.
About these formats
A .zhelp file is a Ziphelp Package, an open help-documentation format from EC Software. It is a standard ZIP archive that holds an extended sitemap.xml plus the HTML topics and media that…
Open .ZHELP details →
.PDF
Portable Document Format
A PDF (Portable Document Format) is a fixed-layout document that looks identical on every device - fonts, images, and layout are all embedded. Open it in any browser or the built-in viewer…
Open .PDF details →Quality & what to watch
- Extracting the ZIP and printing each HTML page in Chrome gives you one PDF per topic, not a single bound manual - you must merge them afterward if you want one file.
- Browser printing loses the help system's navigation, keyword index and context-sensitive links; you keep only the visible page content, images and layout.
- Only the Help+Manual Print Manual route produces a true book-style PDF with a table of contents and continuous page numbering.
Frequently asked questions
Is a .zhelp file just a ZIP?
sitemap.xml, so you can rename it to .zip and extract it with any unzip tool.Can I get one PDF for the whole help file?
.zhelp alone you print pages individually and merge them.
