InfoCourier

InfoCourier is program that allows you to combine an HTML file viewer (off-line browser program) with any number of HTML files and their associated graphics files. The result is a single compact executable file that will run on a computer with Windows 3.1 or 95. You can easily distribute this file by disk, e-mail or Internet download. Any person can view your set of HTML files by simply running the InfoCourier file. They don’t need their own web browser or HTML viewer program.

Creating an InfoCourier file couldn’t be easier. You simple place all the HTML files you want to include in the InfoCourier file into a single directory. Start InfoCourier and select the File command and then Compile. Choose the your display options and then select the directory with your HTML files. Enter a file name and click the OK button. InfoCourier quickly compiles the viewer program, HTML files and graphics files. It’s that simple.

The InfoCourier viewer can’t display files with frames, but it does support most HTML tags. It also supports some special HTML tags that let you create forms that a user can fill in and then print or e-mail to a specified address if they have an active TCP/IP connection when they submit the form. The program also supports some special tags that allow you to restrict access to some pages. InfoCourier also support graphics that contain more than one hyperlink links.

 

You can also use InfoCourier as an online help program, by adding a special topic name tag to each HTML file. You can then open InfoCourier and display a selected file with a simple command line parameter that contains the name of the InfoCourier file and the topic name.

The minimum size of the compile file is 530 KB. In my test the HTML files and graphics compressed to about 1/8th of their original size.

InfoCourier provides a relatively inexpensive method for distributing online information. In some instances it could be a viable alternative to the Adobe Acrobat, Envoy or Common Ground portable document publishing systems.

You can download a demo from the InfoCourier website.