Troop 53
Leadership Smart Books

Download Page

We are offering the Troop 53 Leadership Smart Books for download in 3 different forms:

1. smrtbook.exe (4.18 MB) — This is an installation file that installs the books on your hard drive just like installing a program. Shortcuts to the books are placed on your Start Menu to make navigation extremely easy. Highly recommended for all relatively current versions of Windows (XP and above). Notes for Windows 8 users.
2. smrtbook.zip (3.22 MB) — for all operating systems. No installer, just the books.
3. sbsource.zip (380 kb) — All of the source files used to build your own set of books. These will need editing to customize them to your own Troop. We suggest downloading and reviewing smrtbook.exe or smrtbook.zip prior to trying to build your own books. In addition, the readme.txt file enclosed in the sbsource.zip file has more information on building your own books.

All of these files are being offered for free and as such we offer no support whatsoever and/or make no guarantees as to their fitness for your unit.

The following software may also be needed depending on the file you download (specific software requirements are listed in each file's readme):

• Adobe Reader at least version 5, for viewing/printing PDF files (needed for all files)
• A text/html editor such as Edxor or EditPad Lite (needed for sbsource.zip)
• HTMLDoc (see below) to convert HTML to PDF (needed for sbsource.zip)

HTMLDoc update:
From version 1.8.24 compiled versions of HTMLDoc were commercial and relatively expensive. The company that did the development has gone out of business so HTMLDoc is no longer available as a compiled binary from the developer. Source code, however, is "open source" and available from http://www.msweet.org/ (Michael Sweet, the original developer). It is still somewhat supported, although dangerously close to being "abandon-ware". Beware, since this is source code only you will need to compile the code, build a GUI to work with your operating system, and more. All way beyond this geek wannabe. But if you fancy yourself an über-geek, go for it.

Gary Harris from Australia compiled a Windows version of 1.8.24 and for a number of years made it available on his website (no longer active). After getting a 64-bit computer with Windows 8 on it I found that my old copy of 1.8.23 wouldn't install. I found a copy of Gary's version in my archives and was able, with a few tweeks, to get it running just fine. Download from the link below. Make sure you read and follow the instructions in the readme.txt file!

Download: HTMLDoc 1.8.24 for Windows — 2.66mb

1.8.23, the last "freeware" edition with the Windows installer, is available from 321download.com. This should install on any 32-bit system.

Some more research reveals 1.8.27 with a Windows installer. I tried it on my Win 8 64-bit and it installs and works, so this may be your best bet. This is the latest version of HTMLDoc.

Since there's so much transition going on right now in Windows (and hardware) with everything from XP to 8, 32 and 64 bit machines, and more all out there and fairly common, I'll keep these 3 versions linked here for a while. Find out what works for you and your needs. They're all fairly small downloads at less than 3 Mb.

If you are running Mac or Linux, you're out of luck here. I've found numerous builds for Linux during searches for HTMLDoc. Just Google for "HTMLDoc 1.8.23" (or later); maybe tag "Linux" (or your flavor of it — Red Hat, DeLi, Ubuntu, Knopix, Fedora, Mint, etc.) on the end of the search term. Maybe you'll get lucky.