Publishing > PDF and Printed Manuals

Before you generate a PDF file you will probably want to modify one of the standard print manual templates supplied with Help & Manual for your own needs. These standard templates provide a basic framework for your user manuals and PDF documents but they contain a number of elements which you will want to change, like the contents of the cover page and introduction and so on.

Key Information

A maximum of 6 TOC levels are supported in PDF files. If you have more levels than this, they will be displayed on the same level of the print-style TOC. Levels below level 6 will not have headings in the body of your text.

Follow the instructions in Using PDF templates to create or edit a PDF print manual template.

Once you have created a personalized print manual template you can use it as often as you like, both for your current project and for other projects.

It's a good idea to store your edited template in your project directory. This keeps all the files associated with your project together and makes your project more portable.

Open your project and go to Configuration > Publishing Options > Adobe PDF in the Project Explorer to configure the export settings for Adobe PDF.

See Adobe PDF settings in the Reference section for details on the other available settings.

Go to View > Program Options > PDF Export and check your reference device for PDF output.

If you are not using EMF or WMF graphics you can get good results by setting the screen device. Otherwise you need to use a printer driver, which does not have to be the driver for a printer physically connected to your computer.

If you experience any problems with your PDF output they may be caused by proprietary printer drivers. If this happens try installing a standard driver for a common printer like a LaserJet or a DeskJet from the Windows CD. Then select this driver as your reference device in the PDF Export tab. You can also achieve excellent results with the Microsoft XPS Document Writer driver included with Windows 7 and Vista.

If you use rare fonts in your project you should make sure that those fonts are embedded in your PDF file, otherwise they will not be displayed on computers where they are not installed. However, note that this can significantly increase the size of your PDF file (particularly on Windows 7 and Vista!).

By default, Help & Manual automatically embeds all fonts except a list of standard fonts. To check this exclusion list go to Configuration > Publishing Options > Adobe PDF Output > Font Embedding.

1.Select Project > Publish, and select Adobe PDF as your publishing format.

2.Select your PDF template in the Publish settings, then just click Publish Now to generate your PDF.

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See Publishing Your Projects for more details on publishing.

Publishing PDF files

Publishing PDF files