Shane,

I misread your first post. That compiler update fixes incompatabilities with later versions of Word. If you open the file as a plain text file in VFP even you should just see ascii characters that'll look like:

{\rtf1\ansi\deff15
{\colortbl\red0\green0\blue255;}
\sectd \ftnbj
{\fonttbl
{\f4\fswiss\fcharset0 MS Sans Serif;}
{\f15\fswiss\fcharset0 Arial;}
{\f16\fmodern\fcharset0 Courier New;}

If there's any binary data you aren't getting it saved as an RTF file.

FWIW - I use a tool called ForeHelp to build my help files instead of messing around with Word. It'll be able to read your existing rtf file and build a project from it, then you'll have a WYSIWYG environment to work on the help file from there on out. It's a good tool.

>>Shane,
>>
>>You need an update to the help compiler. There is a link to the MS site to download it on my website under Q&A, General
>>
>>>I am attempting to update a help file that a previous employee had started. I can compile his existing files using HC31 without any problems. If I edit the help.rtf file in anything that I have(ie. Word 6.0 or Win95 WordPad) and then SAVE AS RTF format then I get an error about invalid help.rtf file when I try and compile. What can I use to edit this file? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>
>Thanks for the information, I downloaded the file and I like the interface much better, but I still can't get the thing to work. I get similar error allow it does tell me that the file appears to be in MS Word format. I can't figure out what I am doing wrong. I Open the RTF file, it imports it, then I do a Save As and select RTF as the File format and change the name to help2.rtf. I then rename the orginal file to something else and then rename help2.rtf to help.rtf. I am currently searching for a shareware or freeware program to edit RTF files.