There is a program to adjust Word 97 for use in help files
called FixRTF, from Eon Solutions at http://www.eon-solutions.com

I don't see it on their web site, but I found a copy at:
http://sr-soft.wtal.de/delphi.htm

I tried it a few times a year or so ago, and it works. I even added it to the right-click menu in Explorer, so I could right-click on an RTF file to fix it.

Since then, we've decided to leave WinHelp, bypass HTML Help, and go with ordinary, easily updatable, HTML files for our help system.