Installation

Step A Download the Microsoft HTML Help Workshop and Compiler. (Download)
This is freely available and must be installed by selecting the default options.
You also need to have Microsoft Internet Explorer (3.0 or later) on your computer. Internet Explorer 4.0 or later is recommended.

Step B Download The Electronic Telephone Directory software. (Evaluation software is available on request)
This is a self-extracting zip file and should be installed into c:\tel

Production

Step 1 Using Excel⁽¹⁾, open c:\tel\telephonedirectory.xls
This is a spreadsheet system which enables data to be entered/amended and various commands are available from a 'TelephoneDirectory menu
The system contains entries for several hundred staff which can be used to create a test telephone directory.
Alternatively, enter your own data in the appropriate columns.

Step 2 Save and Produce Directory.
Selecting 'Save' from the TelephoneDirectory menu saves changes to the spreadsheet and also saves other information required for producing the telephone directory.

Step 3 Select 'Produce Directory' from the TelephoneDirectory menu.
Whenever your data changes you can produce an updated Telephone Directory in just a few minutes.

Step 4 Select 'Open Directory' from the TelephoneDirectory menu.
Once the Telephone Directory has been produced it can be viewed by selecting 'Open Directory'.

Distribution

Users can view the telephone directory from an icon which runs telephonedirectory.chm

The Electronic Telephone Directory can be run from a users PC, floppy disk or USB key.

It can also be run from the network file server but the following edit to the registry is necessary otherwise a 'Page Cannot Be Displayed' mesage appeared.

Locate the key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\HTMLHelp\1.x\ItssRestrictions
Create a string value called UrlAllowList. Give it a value of
\\hostname\sharename\telephonedirectory.chm;file://;

where hostname is the name of your server
and sharename is the folder path where the chm file is located.

Paths containing full stops (periods) will not work.
You can also used mapped drive paths if you are happy the mapping from that PC will not be changed.
This method could be deployed on all PCs on the intranet using a Group Policy object.

⁽¹⁾ The Electronic Telephone Directory comes with a data entry Excel system.
Experience over many years has shown us this is the preferred method for data entry although other solutions are available.

⁽²⁾ A Telephone Directory containing 500 staff can be produced in a couple of minutes.