Best Settings for Atop Free CHM to TXT Converter to Preserve FormattingConverting CHM (Compiled HTML Help) files to plain TXT is useful when you need lightweight, searchable text or want to extract content for scripts, archival, or use on devices that don’t support CHM. Because CHM files contain HTML, images, tables, and formatted text, the biggest challenge is retaining readable structure when exporting to plain text. This guide shows the best settings and practical steps for using Atop Free CHM to TXT Converter to preserve as much formatting and structure as possible.
1. Preparation: inspect the CHM content first
Before converting, open the CHM in a viewer and note which formatting elements are important:
- Headings and subheadings
- Lists (bulleted/numbered)
- Tables (data and column separation)
- Inline emphasis (bold, italic)
- Code blocks or monospaced text
- Footnotes, captions, and references
Knowing what matters helps you choose settings that map HTML structures to sensible plain-text equivalents (for example, converting headings to all-caps or underlined lines).
2. Choose an output encoding that matches your content
- Use UTF-8 whenever the CHM contains non-ASCII characters (Cyrillic, accented letters, etc.). UTF-8 preserves characters reliably across platforms.
- If you must use legacy systems expecting ANSI, pick the appropriate code page but be aware of possible character loss.
Best setting: UTF-8.
3. Line endings and wrapping
- If you plan to view the output on Windows, CRLF ( ) line endings are common; on macOS/Linux use LF ( ).
- Preserve readability by limiting automatic hard wrapping. Let the converter use a moderate maximum line length (60–100 characters) so that long paragraphs don’t become a single extremely long line, but avoid wrapping mid-sentence in ways that break readability.
Recommended settings:
- Line ending: match your target OS (or choose LF for portability).
- Maximum line length: 80 characters (good balance for consoles, editors, and diff tools).
4. Mapping HTML elements to plain-text formats
Atop’s converter typically provides options or heuristics to convert HTML tags to plaintext constructs. Set the following mappings:
- Headings (H1–H3): convert to an emphasized text block.
- Option A (clear structure): prefix with a numeric or hash-based marker (e.g., “## Heading” or “1. Heading”).
- Option B (visual separation): surround with blank lines and underline with dashes (for H2) or equals signs (for H1).
- Paragraphs: ensure a blank line between paragraphs.
- Bold/Italic: represent emphasis using simple markers: enclose bold with * or uppercase and italic with /slashes/ or underscores. Choose one consistent style; many prefer asterisks.
- Lists:
- Bulleted lists: use a consistent bullet character like “-” or “•” (dash is most portable).
- Numbered lists: preserve numbering (1., 2., 3.).
- Keep nested lists indented by 2–4 spaces per level.
- Tables:
- Best-effort ASCII table formatting or simple column-separated text using tabs. If Atop supports a “plain table” mode, prefer tab-separated values (TSV) — easier to reformat later.
- If the converter can produce Markdown-style tables, that preserves readability for many viewers.
- Links: replace hyperlink tags with inline text followed by the URL in parentheses: “Link text (http://example.com)”. If the link URL is redundant, you can omit it.
- Images: insert a placeholder like “[Image: filename]” or “[Image]” plus alt text if available.
- Code blocks: preserve monospaced text with indentation or fenced markers (“`), or prefix lines with four spaces.
- Footnotes and references: append them at the end under a “Notes” section if automatic conversion supports it.
Recommended mapping choices for best readability:
- Headings: underline style for main headings, blank lines around headings.
- Emphasis: asterisks for bold, underscores for italic.
- Lists: “-” for bullets; 2-space indent per nested level.
- Tables: TSV if available, otherwise simple ASCII with columns aligned where feasible.
5. Preserve structure: keep the hierarchy and navigation
CHM files often include a table of contents and index. If Atop can export or include the navigation:
- Export the table of contents to the top of the TXT as a simple numbered list referencing section titles and (if possible) page or location markers.
- Include a short “Contents” block so readers can jump to relevant text in the TXT file.
If automatic linking between contents and body isn’t possible, at least preserve the order and headings so the ToC aligns with headings.
6. Handle special characters and HTML entities
Ensure Atop decodes HTML entities (e.g., , &, <) into their character equivalents. For non-breaking spaces, convert them into normal spaces; for special typographic quotes or dashes, keep Unicode equivalents when encoding is UTF-8.
Setting: enable HTML entity decoding and smart punctuation mapping.
7. Cleaning up noise: remove unnecessary elements
CHM content may include navigation buttons, search boxes, or script-generated text. Configure the converter to:
- Exclude or strip common UI elements (e.g., “Back”, “Next”, “Home”, navigation frames).
- Optionally remove repeated headers/footers that appear on every topic.
- Keep meaningful captions and figure descriptions.
If Atop offers a “clean HTML” or “strip boilerplate” option, enable it.
8. Post-conversion fixes (automated and manual)
Even with ideal settings, a final pass often improves output:
Automated post-processing:
- Run a script to normalize whitespace, collapse multiple blank lines to one, and fix common punctuation spacing.
- Convert tab-separated tables into aligned columns or Markdown tables if needed.
- Reflow paragraphs consistently while preserving hard breaks created for lists or headings.
Manual checks:
- Scan headings, lists, and tables to ensure structure preserved.
- Verify non-Latin text and special characters look correct.
- Look for broken links or orphaned fragments and fix as needed.
Example simple cleanup commands (Unix):
# normalize CRLF to LF dos2unix output.txt # collapse multiple blank lines awk 'BEGIN{RS=""; ORS=" "}{gsub(/ [ ]+/," "); print}' output.txt > cleaned.txt 9. If Atop has profile or preset options
Create a conversion profile with these settings so you don’t reconfigure each time:
- Encoding: UTF-8
- Line endings: LF (or platform-specific)
- Max line width: 80
- Preserve headings: enabled
- List mapping: bullets as “-”, numbered lists preserved
- Table export: TSV (fallback to ASCII)
- Strip boilerplate: enabled
- Decode HTML entities: enabled
Save the profile as “PreserveFormatting” and run it for all CHM conversions you want to keep readable.
10. Troubleshooting common issues
- Missing characters: switch to UTF-8 and ensure HTML entity decoding is on.
- Collapsed lists: increase or standardize list-indentation settings.
- Ruined tables: try TSV export or export to HTML first, then use a dedicated HTML-to-Markdown/TSV tool to preserve columns.
- Excessive repeated headers: enable boilerplate stripping or post-process to remove repeated strings.
Conclusion Set Atop Free CHM to TXT Converter to use UTF-8, moderate line width (around 80 chars), clear mappings for headings/lists/tables, HTML entity decoding, and boilerplate stripping. Save these as a profile and run a short automated cleanup afterward. Those steps preserve the readable structure of CHM content while producing portable plain-text output.
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