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I want to know how I can convert a chm file into a doc (or alternatively a searchable pdf).

After trying the online services as well as Calibre without luck.

I am using windows 7.

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  • You question is attracting close votes as it is phrased as if you are asking for a service. These sorts of questions are off-topic here. I think if you rephrase the question a little to emphasise the "how" you should be ok. Please see How to Ask and take our tour for more details.
    – Burgi
    Commented Dec 3, 2019 at 15:04
  • For reference
    – Worthwelle
    Commented Dec 4, 2019 at 17:02

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This is a quick-and-hacky way of doing things.

At the heart of it, .chm files are similar to ZIP archives, and they can be opened with 7-Zip. Once you've extracted the contents of your help archive, you can pick out the HTML files you want to include in your final PDF.

If you want to convert them into individual PDFs then you're almost done; just Print to PDF if you have a PDF converter tool already installed, otherwise use an online tool.

If you want to combine multiple pages into one big PDF, you can either use your PDF printer's tools to save to an existing PDF with the Append option, or if you don't have this option, you can combine the HTML files into one big HTML file by opening a command prompt, going to the folder you've extracted, and using this command:

type *.html > everything.html

The resultant file is technically not valid HTML, but most browsers will render it just fine. Want to omit some pages or change the ordering? Just delete them or rename them before running the above command.

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  • Would that method result in a searchable pdf? I need to keep the order of the pages too.
    – user580054
    Commented Dec 1, 2019 at 22:39
  • Yep, the text should be preserved if you're using any standard PDF converter.
    – BoffinBrain
    Commented Dec 2, 2019 at 3:00
  • but PDF fake printers do not make true searchable pdfs; what standard PDF converter do you refer to?
    – user580054
    Commented Dec 2, 2019 at 12:03
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    I've used CutePDF and NitroPDF in the past. Never had trouble searching for text within those documents. What do you mean by 'true searchable'?
    – BoffinBrain
    Commented Dec 3, 2019 at 2:39

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