Question

In new versions of Mathematica we have fully functional old-fashioned Mathematica Help Browser. But the legacy documentation of version 5 is not included in new versions of Mathematica. This legacy documentation takes only 209 МB of disk space and it would be useful to have it accessible from within the new versions of Mathematica.

Having Mathematica 5.2 and Mathematica 7 or 8 installed on the same machine, how can one make the legacy documentation accessible from within a new version through the old-fashioned Help Browser?

I tried to copy the Documentation folder from

C:\Program Files\Wolfram Research\Mathematica\5.2\Documentation

to

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Mathematica\Application\LegacyDocumenation

and inside of the legacy Help Browser now appear “Help Browser” as an AddOn. But it does not work properly.

Some useful information on tuning the appearance of the Help Browser in Mathematica 5 can be found here. But I do not know how to apply this to new versions of Mathematica.

Answer 1

The solution

Incidentally I have found the way to add all Mathematica 5.2 documentation to the legacy Help Browser in new versions of Mathematica.

The key is the “HelpBrowserSetup.tr” file located in the directory (under Windows)

C:\Program Files\Wolfram Research\Mathematica\7.0\SystemFiles\FrontEnd\TextResources

One should replace its contents with:

@@resource HelpBrowserSetup
BrowserCategory["Help Browser", None, {
    HelpDirectoryListing[{"RefGuide"}, False],
    HelpDirectoryListing[{"AddOns"}, False],
    HelpDirectoryListing[{"MainBook"}, False],
    HelpDirectoryListing[{"OtherInformation"}, False],
    HelpDirectoryListing[{"GettingStarted"}, False],
    HelpDirectoryListing[{"Tour"}, False],
    HelpDirectoryListing[{"Demos"}, False],
    BrowserCategory["Master Index", None, {HelpMasterIndex[]}]
}]

Then, the “Documentation” folder from the $InstallationDirectory of Mathematica 5.2 should be copied to the $InstallationDirectory of new version of Mathematica with replacement (one unimportant file will be replaced). Another possibility is to copy it to directory (under Windows)

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Mathematica

(probably the $UserBaseDirectory is also appropriate).

Now start Mathematica and evaluate

FrontEndTokenExecute["HelpDialog"]

The legacy Help Browser will open and will contain all the documentation from the version 5.2!

Edit

I just have found even simpler solution. One may modify the “HelpBrowserSetup.tr” file as follows:

@@resource HelpBrowserSetup
HelpDirectoryListing[SystemHelpPath, False, True, True]

(or simply copy with replacement this file from the version 5.2 installation to the new version’s folder).

Addition for those who have Mathematica 5.2 installed

You need not to copy the Documentation. You have two possibilities:

1.) Copy only the “HelpBrowserSetup.tr” file from the version 5.2 installation to new version’s folder. Then evaluate something like

SetOptions[$FrontEnd, 
 SystemHelpPath -> 
  Union[SystemHelpPath /. 
    Options[$FrontEnd, 
     SystemHelpPath], {"C:/Program Files/Wolfram \
Research/Mathematica/5.2/"}]]

(where “C:/Program Files/Wolfram Research/Mathematica/5.2/” is the $InstallationDirectory of Mathematica 5.2).

2.) Just modify the “HelpBrowserSetup.tr” file as follows (but in this case all installed pre-version 6 Add-Ons will not appear in the legacy Help Browser):

@@resource HelpBrowserSetup
HelpDirectoryListing[{"C:/Program Files/Wolfram Research/Mathematica/5.2/"}, False, True, True]

and then evaluate

FrontEndTokenExecute["RebuildHelpIndex"]
FrontEndTokenExecute["HelpDialog"]

P.S. Adding Help Browser item to the Help menu

For this we just need to add row MenuItem["Help Browser...", "HelpDialog"], in appropriate place in MenuSetup.tr:

HelpMenu["&Help", 
{
    MenuItem["Documentation &Center", "OpenHelpLink"],
    MenuItem["Help Browser...", "HelpDialog"],