Click the "Select File" button above, and choose your HELP file.
You’ll see a preview, if available.
Click the "Convert file to..." button to extract text information.
Convert HELP to another file type
To convert HELP Help books to another format, you need Apple Help Viewer or other System software.
Convert a file to HELP
To convert other file formats to the "macOS Help Bundle" file type, you need software like Apple Help Viewer or a similar tool.
About HELP files
The .HELP file extension is a proprietary macOS bundle format used for application documentation. Known as a Mac OS X Help Book, it contains HTML, XML, CSS, and image files structured for Apple's built-in Help Viewer. The primary disadvantage of a .HELP file is its platform lock-in. It is not actually a single file, but a directory bundle. You cannot open it natively on Windows or Linux, and sharing it via email or cloud storage often breaks the bundle structure unless it is compressed first. Users are forced to rely on Apple macOS to view the documentation properly. Converting to PDF, HTML, or TXT is highly recommended to make the documentation universally accessible and easier to share. Because a .HELP item is a folder disguised as a file, standard online converters fail to process it. They expect a single data stream, not a nested directory of web assets. Often only the original macOS software can properly read or export the structured data. Our system can inspect the uploaded archive, show text or internal content, and if our analysis detects the supported underlying HTML formats, viewing or extracting the data may still be possible.
Convert.Guru analyzes your HELP file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
If you want to convert HELP file to SYS, DLL, EXE, DRV, VXD, 386, COM, BAT, CMD, SCR, PIF or LNK, you can use Apple Help Viewer or similar software from the "Application Help Documentation" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert MSI, EXE, REG, MST, LNK, CAB, CAT, DRV, INF, SYS, MSU or DLL files to HELP, try Apple Help Viewer or another comparable tool in the "Application Help Documentation" category.
The HELP Converter Story
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our HELP converter.