Help+Manual is a documentation tool and content management system for both single and multi-author editing.

All publishing formats supported by Help+Manual are generated from the same project. This means you only have to edit your help and documentation once. Forget about the nightmare of "converting" your documentation every time you change anything.

illustration of the Help+Manual workflow
illustration of the Help+Manual workflow
Help+Manual creates all publishing formats from a single source

However, Single Source is much more than just outputting exactly the same information to different formats. Help+Manual supports conditional and customized output features that enable you to include variant content versions for different output formats and purposes – all in the same project, no post-processing is required.

 

Multi-Channel Publishing with Help+Manual

Help+Manual publishes all standard Windows help formats, from HTML Help to Webhelp to Visual Studio Help. It also generates Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word documents and ePUB e-books - the standard format supported by the Apple iPad - as well as Amazon Kindle.

 

Responsive, context-sensitive Webhelp

The Webhelp publishing format includes a table of contents, keyword index and full-text search. Webhelp is context-sensitive and allows seamless integration into your website. This output format can be highly customized and supports jQuery plugins for animations of non-static content.

Windows help formats

Windows HTML Help (.chm) is the platform-specific format for all Windows applications including .NET. Help+Manual creates CHM files as well as MSHC, a special help format for integration into Microsoft VisualStudio.

See a live version of Webhelp

 

Adobe PDF

PDF output and print manuals are fully customizable with the bundled Print Manual Designer program: include a table of contents and a keyword index, automatic page referrers for links and cross-references, customized page layouts, headers, footers, page numbering, covers, introductions and more.

Microsoft Word

A classic: Word documents. Use a regular Word file to build the layout of your user manual and use placeholder tags that Help+Manual uses to fill the content of your help project when publishing to Word. An automatically-built table of contents, keyword index and interactive topic links make the Word document suitable for both, printing and online viewing.

 

ePUB Publishing

With the Apple iPad, e-books have become mainstream. Help+Manual publishes the standard ePUB e-book format optimized for iPad, iPhone, the Nook Reader and other e-reading devices.

This is a dedicated e-book format for offline reading on e-readers like iPad and iPhone.

Amazon Kindle

Do you want to get your e-book into the Amazon store? Nothing's easier than that! With Help+Manual, you can produce Amazon Kindle e-books, packaged ready for distribution.

 

 

Organize content in single-source projects

Single source is more than simply publishing same content to different output formats! You certainly want to customize the output for every publishing platform. Help+Manual supports this on many levels of the documentation work flow:

 

Migrate Legacy Content

Import existing content from Microsoft® Word, Adobe® RoboHelp®, Author-It®, HTML and Winhelp with detailed control, how Help+Manual organizes and splits the content.

 

Windows HTML Help (.chm)

Help+Manual both creates and reads Windows HTML Help (CHM) files.

Winhelp Sources (.hpj)

Convert the depricated Winhelp format into standards-compliant HTML.

Compiled Winhelp (.hlp)

HLP file raw import is the last resort, if the Winhelp source files are no longer available.

Adobe® RoboHelp® (.xpj)

Import content from RoboHelp® projects.

Author-It®

Author-It® projects can be converted from the Author-It® XML output.

Microsoft® Word

Help+Manual imports Word documents in RTF format.

HTML Files

Read HTML5 and older HTML content, import a batch of HTML files from folders.

Source Code Documentation

Build source code documentation for Visual Studio projects.

An Intuitive Working Environment

 

Help+Manual´s working environment gives you all the formatting and editing features of a modern word processor, including dynamic styles and complex tables.

This is combined with powerful features for generating and editing help and documentation files, including full support for multimedia and complex modular projects.

Your projects are displayed and edited with the same hierarchical tree structure used by all Windows help formats. The editor and content tree view are combined in a single window. Editing topics and manipulating the structure of your projects is fast and intuitive.

Help+Manual handles all the complexities of help formatting and generation for you, letting you concentrate on the work of writing. But there is also extensive support for power users and experienced help authors. You can get under the hood and insert your own HTML code, change the code the program uses to generate your projects, manipulate topic and project templates and more. Help+Manual gives you the best of both worlds.

 


I've tried several different apps, some of them quite expensive, and none comes close to H+M for depth of features, stability and ease of use. Each time I use it, I discover some new "Wow!!" feature.

Steve Rindsberg, Microsoft MVP

Working with Help+Manual is so easy and enjoyable

We promise: after experiencing the Help+Manual way of writing documentation, you don't want your old HTML editor back! Never. Try yourself with our 30-day fully-functional evaluation version!

Are You Ready to Try It Yourself?
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