You can now use user-defined and HM global variables in the output file name fields for publishing, both in the main Publish screen and in the Publishing Task Manager for batch output. The only restriction is that it must be a global variable defined for the entire project, not a per-topic variable definition.
When you click on the "Open and explore output folder" option in the Publish screen after publishing, Help+Manual now automatically selects the output file as well as opening the correct folder. This can be useful for WebHelp, and in folders containing multiple files of the same type.