I use your portable apps on all my computers, and sometimes from a flash drive too. I really appreciate how handy they are! But one thing I find inconvenient is that few of them include the help file.
For example, I recently added BabelPad, then tried opening help. Error: "Failed to launch help". Next I went here...
http://www.babelstone.co.uk/software/babelpad.html
...and was able to download a zip file containing BabelPad.chm which, when placed in the right folder (PortableApps\BabelPadPortable\App\BabelPad) worked fine. Very simple.
I've had similar experiences with several other apps when I get them from here rather than installing them.
It would be nice if the file for offline help could be included wherever it's lightweight and easy to do. (Of course, with some programs the helps are large or available in various languages, so those could probably only be provided as separate downloads.)
Jon
Some publishers choose not to include their help files for some reason. In this case, it seems to be because it is out of date.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Different developers do things differently. Some package help files, while others don't.
Using your example of BabelPad, I did not include the available help file because the website specifically states that it is out of date.
Thanks to both of you for the replies. I'm glad to hear that this isn't an issue of having a general practice of removing them (whether to simplify packaging or to reduce the footprint or to avoid errors when the host computer doesn't support the help file format).