This dialog box lets you determine global options to customize HTML Executable, default settings that will be used each time you start a new project, and miscellaneous properties.
You can access the Environment Options dialog box by clicking 
and selecting the "Environment Options" menu command.
General Options
Create a backup of non-imported settings when converting version 3.x projects: HTML Executable 4 can import projects made with previous 3.x versions. However, some issues may occur.
Due to the Unicode introduction, system HTML pages and resource strings are inevitably replaced by new ones. To prevent loss of data when you load a project saved with a 3.x version, HTML Executable will extract your previous system HTML pages and resource strings to XML/HTML files and store them in a zip archive. This Zip archive is created in the same folder as your .HEP project file and named [project filename]conversionbackup.zip.
This option lets you disable the backup behavior.
Create a file backup when an HTML page is modified: if you edit an HTML file using the internal HTML editor, HTML Executable can backup the original file before saving the changes back to the file. The backup filename will be the same except that the extension is changed to .BAK. Recommended.
Directly add files to publication using the relative path: when new files are being added (manually or using the Source File List Update), HTML Executable can prompt you to specify the publication virtual path for these files, or automatically find the best virtual path and use it. This option lets you actually disable the prompt and lets HTML Executable decide itself for the virtual paths. This is, however, NOT recommended: it is better to keep an eye on how files can be accessed in the publication at runtime.
Display the changes when an old project is converted: some changes may occur during the conversion when you open a project file created with HTML Executable 3.1. If this option is turned on, the program will display these changes once the project is converted.
Always enable the built-in server: enable this option if you want to activate the built-in HTTP server in each new project you start.
Display the "Getting Started" tip: a small window with hints for compiling projects is shown when you start or load a project. Especially useful for beginners, you may want to disable it later.
Timestamp feature enabled for digital signing: option for code signing.
Use SignTool instead of the HTML Executable's signing utility (option for code signing): if GSignCode does not work, you can use Microsoft SignTool (shipped with Windows SDK). In the field, specify the full path to the the SignTool executable program file.
Search Engine Options
Word Delimiters: when compiling your publication, HTML Executable parses HTML pages to create an index with all words it finds. In order to determine the words, the parser uses delimiters which are special text characters, space, punctuation (comma, full-stop, etc...). You can determine the list of all word delimiters that will be used by the parser. Just enter each separator after another one. This field is only used if the Use default word delimiters based on Unicode character categories option is disabled: learn more about this in the search engine topic.
Default Settings
These settings will be used each time you start a new project.
Author Name/Company Name: enter your full name or even your company name.
E-Mail Address: enter your e-mail address where end users can reach you.
Web Homepage: enter the URL to your Web site.
Default copyright: enter the default copyright information for your packages.
Add the "default macros" script to the project: turn this option off if you don't want HTML Executable to add the Macros script to each new project you start.
Compile the runtime module into the .exe file: see more information here.
Default Files
These files will be used each time you start a new project.
Note: the default language file must exist! If the default language file is not found, HTML Executable will try to use the one in its program folder. If this one does not exist too, an error will occur.
The default logo must be a true bitmap file (.bmp) while the default toolbar glyph set must be a PNG file.
Source File List Update
Additional options for the Source File List Update operation
Automatically remove non-existing files: when turned on, HTML Executable automatically removes missing files from source file lists (a file is missing if it is not found on the hard disk at the place it should be). Otherwise you will be prompted. Note that this will also remove the properties associated to this file, but not the possible references (in the TOC for instance).
Monitor the source folder for changes: if turned on, HTML Executable will use the Windows Shell extensions to monitor if some changes happen to the root folder and its subdirectories. If something has happened, the entire file lists will be rebuilt (and the File Manager refreshed). If turned off, file lists are updated only when a live folder update occurs.
Perform a file list update when a project is loaded: the source folder will be scanned for changes and file lists will be refreshed as soon as the project has been loaded.
Perform a file list update when a project is compiled: the source folder will be scanned for changes and file lists will be refreshed just before the compilation of the publication really starts.
Archive cache: compare file date-times when compiling: an additional option for the archive caching feature. HTML Executable only compresses files again when they have been modified or the source file lists have been updated; if this option is enabled, it stores the file date-times when it compresses them for the first time. For the next builds, it then compares the file date-times with the stored ones. If a pair is different, then it will compress all source files again. This option is highly recommended.
You can also exclude files based on their file extension, like executables, projects, backups and other types of files. Just add the extension(s) you wish to the list.
Notes:
You should exclude all files associated to HTML Executable: projects (HEPX), languages (HEL), backups (BAK), skins (SKN)...
If you want to exclude a single file from the compilation, you can set this in the File Properties dialog box.