Extract text from Help & Manual projects (HM3)
To convert HM3 projects to another format, you need Help+Manual or other Other software.
To convert other file formats to the "Legacy Help Project" file type, you need software like Help+Manual or a similar tool.
A .HM3 file is a legacy project file created by Help & Manual 3 (developed by EC Software) and sometimes associated with Help Magician. Technical writers use these files to store draft content, images, and structural layouts before compiling them into final software documentation or user manuals.
The biggest disadvantage of the .HM3 format is that it relies on an outdated, proprietary Microsoft Compound binary structure. This means the file requires a paid license for the original legacy software to open it. Modern documentation workflows use open XML standards, making the .HM3 file difficult to manage today. Standard web browsers, text editors, and generic conversion tools cannot read the internal OLE structure or extract the rich text formatting accurately.
Because .HM3 is a closed, proprietary format that acts as a container for uncompiled project assets, standard online converters fail to process it. If our analysis detects a supported underlying or embedded format, viewing or extracting the text may still be possible. To properly convert the file to modern targets like PDF, HTML, or CHM, you must open the project in the original software and use the built-in export or compile function. To modernize the source, it is highly recommended to migrate it to HMXP or HMXZ using newer versions of Help+Manual.
Convert.Guru analyzes your HM3 file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted HM2, HMX, HMXP and MCF files.
If you want to convert HM3 file to MCF, TXT, RTF, DOC, DOCX, ODT, PAGES, TEX, LATEX, MD, MARKDOWN or LOG, you can use Help+Manual or similar software from the "Help Authoring Project" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert PDF, DOC, ASC, TODO, NFO, MEMO, README, DOCX, JPG, TXT, NOTE or RTF files to HM3, try Help+Manual or another comparable tool in the "Help Authoring Project" category.
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 HM3 converter.