Support in output formats |
  
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Support in output formats |
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Support for video files varies according to the output format you are using. This support is dependent on the output formats themselves, not on the capabilities of Help & Manual.
The bottom line is that if you want to be relatively sure that your movie will play on the user's computer then use Flash for CHM and WebHelp and M4V for videos in iBooks®/ePub eBooks (only plays in Apple iBooks®). MP4 is also reliable Other formats may or may not play, depending on the configuration of the user's computer.
Flash video is the only reliable format in HTML Help CHM files and it is the only format that can be embedded in the CHM.
HTML Help: |
Only Flash will play reliably. All other formats will fail to play in CHM files on at least some users' computers. Flash is also the only format that is actually embedded in the HTML Help CHM file, so you don't need to distribute any additional files with your help. Embedded YouTube videos will generally play in CHMs but only if the user's computer has an active Internet connection. |
WebHelp: |
Many video formats are supported, but only Flash and YouTube videos can really be considered to be generally reliable for use in WebHelp. MP4 is technically reliable but is not supported directly by Windows and will only play if the user has the necessary additional codecs installed. QuickTime MOV is also reliable, but will only work if the user has Apple QuickTime installed. The HTML5 <video> tag is not yet usable because of the ongoing political disagreements about the video formats it should support. There is not yet any format supported by all browsers and the net result of this is that the <video> tag is effectively useless, unless you are willing to include multiple versions of every video you use. |
Windows Exe eBooks: |
Flash is supported. Other video formats are not supported. |
iBooks®/ePub eBooks |
Only Apple iBooks® supports video in ePub eBooks reliably and for it to work you must use properly encoded M4V video files created with a tool that supports Apple video profiles, like Apple QuickTime or the excellent free Some other ePub readers may support video but you shouldn't rely on it yet. |
Adobe PDF: |
No multimedia support except as file links to external media files. |
Word RTF: |
No multimedia support except as file links to external media files. |
See also:
Help Formats (Reference)
