DeepL machine translation now available free of charge!
Posted by tim green on June 8, 2021
We’re delighted to announce that DeepL machine translation is now available free of charge in both Help+Manual and HelpXplain. The new free API developer subscription from DeepL allows you to translate up to 500,000 characters per month at no cost. This will almost always be enough for HelpXplain projects, which typically contain very little text, but it will also cover most Help+Manual projects. Read the rest of this entry »
Premium Pack 4.2 Update
Posted by tim green on June 8, 2021
We have just updated Premium Pack 4 to version 4.2.0. This is a significant update with several new features, along with a number of minor fixes and corrections.
How to get the Premium Pack update
You can download and install the updated version with the download link and personal installation password you received when you purchased. If you no longer have these details please contact support@ec-software.com and we will help you out. See the Premium Pack product page for more details on Premium Pack 4 and visit our online store to purchase if you do not yet have it.
Main changes and new features
Version 4.2 includes a general overhaul of a lot of code, also for the update to the latest version of jQuery. Because of this, please don’t try to backport this version to older skins — use the new skins instead. It also brings three major new features:
Code Sample Box
All skins now include a Code Sample Box feature. This enables you to add programming code samples to your documentation in a box with a Copy to Clipboard link that copies the sample code directly to the Windows Clipboard. This even works in CHM files.
Import/Export Styles
The Toolbox utility has a new Import/Export Styles feature, with which you can import individual text, paragraph and table styles to Help+Manual projects from other projects and style files created with the tool. (In Help+Manual itself you can only replace an entire project stylesheet with another one.)
Validate XML against XSD
The Toolbox utility now validates XML against the XSD schema file included with every Help+Manual project. This prevents the accidental creation of invalid HM XML when working on the XML source code, for example with the search and replace tool.
jQuery Update
All skins have been updated to the latest 3.6 version of jQuery. This includes quite a lot of low-level code changes in the scripts, so please don’t try to backport the changes in these skins to older versions. Use the new skins instead.
Toolbox Utility Changes and Fixes
- XML validation against XSD: This checks all projects and skins you open and prevents the creation of invalid XML (see above).
- Import/Export Styles tool: Import individual styles to Help+Manual projects from other projects or style files exported with the tool.
- Normalize Styles: Corrected an error that could incorrectly reset Bold/Underline/Italics formatting when processing some projects.
- Edit Preferences: A message is now displayed in Edit Preferences explaining that all current projects and skins need to be closed to change some options.
- Complex Search & Replace: On some projects the search and replace tool could only be used once if the Autosave feature was active.
- Complex Search & Replace: An error could be generated when replacing in invalid topic files because they were not automatically excluded from searches.
- TOC \Maps folder in uncompressed HMXP projects: Toolbox would crash silently on opening an HMXP project if there were non-TOC files or invalid secondary TOC files in the \Maps folder.
- Plus a number of cosmetic changes, like showing a red explanation that you need to close all projects to be able to edit the disabled preferences in Edit > Preferences.
V3 and V4 WebHelp Skins
- Embedded Help: A new option enables you to leave the WebHelp header visible when opening help embedded in another web page.
- Local without Web Server: Changes in the security features of current browsers caused a number of errors when using these skins in local mode without a web server. These errors have been corrected, along with others caused by some Google Analytics features not being disabled in local mode.
All V3 and V4 Skins
- Image toggle close mode: The Click Inside option for closing image toggles caused an error in some skins.
- Image toggles: Image toggles were inactive when published with Help+Manual 7.
- Search results: Some V3 WebHelp and eWriter skins showed only the project title in the search results instead of the topic title. The incorrect topic title was sometimes shown in the search results in the Advanced skins.
All Skins
- A potential cross-site scripting vulnerability has been corrected in the Zoom Search component. The vulnerability was only available when date range searching was activated. This is only supported the full, standalone version of Zoom, so it was not an issue in WebHelp generated with the version in Help+Manual.
HelpXplain v1.5 Released
Posted by Alexander Halser on April 15, 2021
We are glad to announce the release of HelpXplain 1.5. If your maintenance plan for HelpXplain includes the release date (Apr 14, 2021), this is a free update. The quickest way to find out, is to start HelpXplain and click Help > Check for Update.
HelpXplain 1.5
We have implemented custom HTML meta tags for easier social-media integration, added new arrange functions for objects and fixed a technical issue with audio files sometimes not playing on iOS Safari.
Plus, the update supports 13 new languages for the DeepL translation tool, including Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Greek, Estonian, Finnish, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian and Swedish.
Download
Please download the update and install it over your existing version.
Help+Manual 8.3.1 Maintenance Update
Posted by Alexander Halser on March 22, 2021
We are glad to announce the release of Help+Manual 8.3.1. To find out if this update is included in your maintenance plan, please start Help+Manual and click the “Updates” icon in the welcome screen.
Changes in v8.3.1
This update corrects several minor issues, most of them UI related.
- PDF Export: in the manual designer, the Tables section had a “new page” break option only. All Table sections now support “new odd page” and “new even page” as well.
- PDF Export: some Unicode characters were not recognized as “unprintable” (which means that these characters are automatically exported as glyphs). Depending on the font (e.g. Calibri), some characters from the upper Unicode range were exported as text though and ended up being displayed as question marks in the PDF.
- Robohelp Import: Help+Manual now supports multiple Robohelp-TOCs and multiple keyword files.
- XML Code: the LastEditedBy attribute in topic files was empty if the Windows user name was too long.
- DeepL Translation Plugin: the <list> and <li> tags were defined as DeepL-non-splitting-tags. This may have caused translation errors with lists.
- Workspaces: when opening a workspace with multiple projects, the projects no longer open with a fully expanded TOC, but are just expanded on project level. You can rearrange the order of multiple projects within a workspace by drag & drop and the Save All button (available on the quick-access toolbar at the top of the main window) now saves the workspace configuration as well, if it has changed.
- Equations: if the font color for an equation was set to “auto”, it was converted to black (#000000). Now, the “auto” font color is preserved and picks up the font color of the current text style.
- Insert Picture Gallery: if an image in the picture gallery was also included in the baggage list of the project, Help+Manual unnecessarily asked to add the search path every time.
- Impict (.ipp) Images: we added a global option in the Program Options dialog to treat IPP images as transparent by default. This will re-render IPP images against a transparent background during the export and save them as transparent PNGs.
- Publishing Tasks Editor: optical glitches fixed when scrolling through very long task lists, duplicate task names are now tested for and not permitted.
- ePUB Export: the HTML page templates for ePUB received a “lang” attribute by default.
- Webhelp full-text search: we fixed an XSS vulnerability in the “zoom_search.js” script. This vulnerability occurred when date range search was enabled. Which wasn’t an issue in Help+Manual directly, but was a potential issue when using the full version of the Zoom search engine with Help+Manual.
- History foward/backward: this is the least obvious change but perhaps the best addition in this update – when using the back/next buttons to page through topics in your project you had just accessed, Help+Manual saves the text editor position with the history. In other words: when you go back to the topic you just came from, it remembers the vertical scroll position.
Download
Help+Manual 8.3.1 is available from our download page:
Premium Pack 4.1.0 Maintenance Update
Posted by tim green on February 8, 2021
We have just updated Premium Pack 4 to version 4.1.0. This update introduces a large number of both minor and major improvements. The most extensive change is an overhaul of the embedded and field level help system for both regular WebHelp and WordPress sites to support multiple WebHelp collections and WebHelp collections on remote servers.
How to get the Premium Pack update
You can download and install the updated version with the download link and personal installation password you received when you purchased. If you no longer have these details please contact support@ec-software.com and we will help you out. See the Premium Pack product page for more details on Premium Pack 4 and visit our online store to purchase if you do not yet have it.
Code certificate updated
The code signing certificate used for the Premium Pack installer and Toolbox utility has just been updated. Because of this you may see a dialog asking you to confirm that you want to trust the publisher before installing. This is normal with “fresh” certificates until they have re-established their trust level.
Remote and multiple domains in embedded & field-level help and WordPress:
It is now possible to use embedded and field-level help from multiple WebHelp documentation systems on the same web page. In addition to this you can also embed WebHelp hosted on other web servers, not only on the same server as the HTML pages on which you are embedding and displaying the help. These new features are supported both in regular WebHelp and in the WordPress plugin.
See the updated Embedded and Field-Level Help chapter for full details.
V3 and V4 WebHelp Skins
- Print Topic functionality: Improvement of topic printing in local no web server mode, both with the hamburger menu function and directly via the browser’s own print function.
- Printing only first page: In some browsers only the first page of multi-page topics would be printed.
- Print breadcrumbs: There is now an option to include the breadcrumb trail above the topic title when the user prints topics.
- Inline toggle icons: Inline text toggles with icons are now also supported in these skins.
- TOC autohide in mobile mode: When the TOC is folded over the topic content on mobile devices it now automatically slides out of view when a topic is selected. This new option is configurable.
- Buttons as popup links: These are now supported.
- Magazine skins: Calling context IDs via the URL didn’t work in the magazine skins because of a small internal error.
- Magazine skins: TOC width was sometimes too narrow when opening/closing.
- Flexible skins: The icon for page header open/close in the divider between the TOC and topic panes was hidden on the first load when the help was embedded.
- Modern Standard skins:
These skins have been generally overhauled and tidied up for better appearance and easier editing.- Maximum width setting: These skins now also have a HELP_MAXWIDTH setting for limiting the width of the help window in large browser windows.
- iPad and iPhone behavior: The TOC pane could be narrower than the tabs above it on first access on some iPhone and iPad devices.
- Swipe to change TOC pane width: Did not work on older iPad Mini devices.
- General layout: A large number of minor tweaks and improvements to the layout in these skins.
V3 eWriter Skins
- Title bar display in eViewer: You can now configure the title bar display in eViewer in the same way as in WebHelp. Options: Current topic title, current project name, current project name and current topic title.
Print breadcrumbs: There is now an option to include the breadcrumb trail above the topic title when the user prints topics. - Inline toggle icons: Inline text toggles with icons are now also supported in these skins.
- Buttons as popup links: These are now supported.
Toolbox Utility
- Variables without names and unregistered baggage files: Toolbox now checks for the existence of variables without names and unregistered files in the baggage section and can correct this. (This can sometimes happen when the XML of your project file is generated programmatically or edited manually.)
- Baggage files incorrectly shown as edited: Sometimes baggage file listings would be highlighted red as edited when this was not the case.
- RTF build option removed: This option is no longer relevant in Help+Manual 7 and 8, which now generate Word DOCX by default.
- Context and Edit menu updating: Sometimes the right-click context menu and Edit menu for Baggage files would not update correctly after adding a Baggage file to the current skin or project.
- Baggage file handling: General handling of Baggage files improved, including better distinction of the differences between the processing of Baggage files in projects and skins when writing back to the project.
Help update
- The Premium Pack help has been updated and extended with more detailed information for version 4.
Help+Manual 8.3 Released – Improved Asian Font Handling
Posted by Alexander Halser on January 22, 2021
We are glad to announce the release of Help+Manual 8.3. If you are using version 8 already, this update is included in your maintenance plan. Just download the setup and run it to update your current installation.
Changes and Additions in v8.3
Asian Font Names
This update significantly improves handling of Asian fonts. If you do not translate your documentation into Asian languages, you might never notice. Asian fonts have dual font names in Windows: their native name and an English equivalent. For instance, your Windows may support the font Microsoft YaHei, which is known to be a Chinese font. On a Chinese Windows, however, there is no Microsoft YaHei anywhere, you have 微软雅黑 instead, which means the same, just in Chinese. As long as the project stays on an English computer (or Chinese, for that matter), everything is fine. Problems may arise when the project is being edited on one PC and published on another, because despite it’s the very same font, the name strings don’t match. Read the rest of this entry »
eWriter Viewer for Delphi
Posted by Alexander Halser on December 18, 2020
This is an implementation of the eWriter help format as a replacement for HTML Help (.chm) files in Delphi applications.
EWriter eBooks are the modern alternative to the obsolete CHM format for local application help. They offer full support for context-sensitive help and file links. They combine the benefits of CHM and WebHelp and eliminate the disadvantages of both. Read the rest of this entry »
eWriter Viewer Update
Posted by Alexander Halser on December 12, 2020
We have updated the eWriter viewer application to version 2.5.0. The eWriter output format is supported by Help+Manual as well as HelpXplain.
Version 2.5 of the viewer does not have any functional changes, but fixes a problem with a Windows 10 system-wide option, that is rarely active but could be active on your end user’s computers. This option is in Region Settings and is called
Beta: Use Unicode UTF-8 for worldwide languages support
If this option was activate on a Windows 10 computer, the eWriter viewer did not work correctly. Content was incorrectly formatted and images were mostly missing. Viewer version 2.5 fixes this problem.
The update is available for download from our website (link after the picture) and soon in the Windows 10 store. Read the rest of this entry »
Black Friday Offer: 30% Off for all New Purchases and Upgrades
Posted by Alexander Halser on November 25, 2020
We are pleased to announce our Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers for this year: 30% discount on any of our products between Friday November 27th and Monday November 30th.
This promotion applies to:
HelpXplain 1.4 Released
Posted by Alexander Halser on October 29, 2020
As part of our commitment to continuous improvement, we’ve released an updated version of HelpXplain. If your maintenance plan for HelpXplain includes the release date (Oct 29, 2020), this is a free update. The quickest way to find out, is to start HelpXplain and click Help > Check for Update.
HelpXplain 1.4
Version 1.4 comes with 2 new features important for social media sharing. It introduces a setting for custom meta tags. Some users have requested we should add additional social media meta tags (such as a Facebook App_Id). The new meta option enables this and a lot more.
The second new feature is in the Publish dialog: an option to mask the viewport of the Xplain. When an Xplain is embedded in another HTML page, the host page normally restricts the viewport so that the view matches the aspect ratio of the Xplain.
Social media sharing, however, often include direct backlinks to the Xplain HTML page directly. In this case, the Xplain runs in a new window or tab of the browser and the window size hardly ever reflects the aspect ratio of the presentation. As a result, some of the slides might become prematurely visible. The mask viewport option blacks out the browser window area which does not belong to the viewport.
The difference between masked and unmasked viewport explained:
- This is an image slider without masked viewport (opens in a new window)
- Same image slider with masked viewport (opens in a new window)
Other changes and bug fixes in version 1.4:
- The Publish dialog has an option to specify the maximum image size. If you use a lot of high-resolution images, reducing the size will significantly reduce the loading time of the Xplain on the web.
- HTML Editor: some glitches fixed, right-click menu implemented, shapes and callouts with text now automatically introduce a left and right margin.
- Recent files list: extended right-click menu has “Clear all” option
- Save translation file in .xliff format: the save function did not test for source-language compatibility, this has been added.
- Slide option “Stop Autoplay” did not work, if the slide contained an exit animation.
- Improvements in Powerpoint import
- Preview for skin customization: optical glitches fixed
Download
This update is included in your maintenance plan! Please download the update and install it over your existing version.