You can now download the OHM source
here at Sourceforge. (This may change in the future, however; keep your eyes open here.) The DL size is almost 40MB and unpacks to a size of about 66MB.
The archive is in RAR format, and requires WinRAR 2.9 or above (or a program that can de-archive RAR 2.9 files). That application is shareware but completely usable.
(edit by LPChip: 7-zip can also open .rar files and is completely free. There are more archivers that support the winrar fileformat too. A portable one could be peazip)The document list of the original source is as follows (others may be added in the future by various devs):
OHM Master & Subdocs (folder): This contains the OpenOffice.org (OO) files that contain the source text; however, while the Master Document (which combines all the chapters into one build) is in OO's native format, the subdocuments are in Word 97 format, so each should be openable in WORD 97 and later. (They are also openable in WordPad, but you shouldn't edit in this format as they will not retain all of the layout settings.) The Glossary is also in this folder in OO's native format.
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MPT OHM Images (folder): Within the Subdocs folder are the images that are used in the chapters. MAKE SURE THIS STAYS IN THE ROOT LEVEL OF THE SUBDOCS. Otherwise the images may not appear (which may not be a problem if you only wish to edit the text). There may be a problem with the subdoc's link system -- see below for more info.
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Image Sources (folder): Within the Images folder are some images that are composed of layers in either PSD format (Photoshop) or XCF (GIMP). If you are editing or updating the images, check with these and edit the layers so you don't have to re-create the images. (Not all of the document's graphics have layered counterparts in this folder.)
MPT Research (folder): Within this folder are the various sources of info (mostly third-party) i used to learn how everything worked in MPT. These are presented here for verification of the knowledge base that MPT relies on. I decided to put them together in the source release, so future editors/translators would not have to go looking all over the internet for the pertinent data. This folder contains subfolders and a variety of files that went into the making of the OHM, including my own test results.
MPT OHM 1.0 & Glossary (PDF): The original build of 1.00. This document is included to give editors and translators an idea of the intended layout. Of course, you are free to create your own layout, even making no changes to the graphics or text, but this file gives an idea of how the original OHM looked. (OHM Updates will be added to this sourceforge folder for download.)
Miscellaneous help files (TXT or RTF): The original source folder includes the following:
> A .txt file that describes how to fix your registry if your computer won't open extension-assigned files with MPT automatically,
> A .txt file that describes how to use "problematic" or complex VSTs with MPT (i've included notes for using Roland's "Orchestral" VSTi).
If you wish to make your own changes for inclusion into the trunk build, edit the individual subdoc and ask the devs for inclusion (unless of course you are a dev!). Also check the first post in this thread for more reminders on building your own version...
KNOWN ISSUE: There may be a major problem with viewing the graphics on your computer. All of the subdocs are LINKED to the images; they are not embedded like the PDF release. This is why you have to keep the Images folder in the same folder level as the subdocs. However, i could not set the links to be relative rather than absolute. This means that OpenOffice will expect to find the images from MY personal computer, not yours. I tried it with both WORD 97-2000 format (.doc) and OpenOffice 3.2.1 format (.odt), but neither would make the links relative. (If anyone has a way to fix this, please let us know...)
WORKAROUND: There are only two things you can do to get the images to show if they are not linking:
1. The easiest option -- create a set of folders on your own computer with this hierarchy, mimicking my computer:
"C:/Documents and Settings/Kelley/Documents/Text Files/MPTs Offline Help Manual/OHM Master & Subdocs"
and put the "MPT OHM Images" folder into the "OHM Master & Subdocs" subfolder. To make it easy to navigate to that folder if you should need to, put an alias of the Images folder into the folder where you are keeping the Subdocs (unless you want to just put all the subdocs into the "Master and Subdocs" folder)...
2. The worst option -- go thru EVERY image in EVERY subdocument and change the link to match that of your computer. Do this by double-clicking on the image to open the Picture dialog, click on the "Picture" tab, and edit the "File name" field. Count on about 4 hrs worth of work.
The reason we want to have the images
linked rather than embedded is twofold. First, if changes need to be made in the future (and they undoubtedly will), you only have to change the image rather than the whole subdocument. Secondly, many of you might wish to transcribe the OHM into other file formats, like a Windows Help File or an HTML page. These formats use linked images as well, and make for much more easily buildable and editable documents.
With that said, you are free to build your own OHM from these documents and embed the graphics to alleviate the problems with linked graphics.
BTW, the documents are up-to-date for MPT 1.18.3, altho i have not built a PDF from it yet.
Note to devs: if you'd rather not have an archived source, you're welcome to disassemble the archive and put the files right there in the OHM folder at sourceforge. You may also delete any files you think are superfluous, the only ones i want to remain are the original .docs that make up the chapters and the graphics folder, so users can create their own versions easily.