Archive for category HelpXplain
HelpXplain v1.5 Beta (Release Candidate)
Posted by Alexander Halser in HelpXplain on April 8, 2021
HelpXplain v1.5 is coming! 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.
You can download the release candidate of HelpXplain 1.5 from this link:
https://www.helpandmanual.com/download/helpxplain-setup-v150.exe
eWriter Viewer Update
Posted by Alexander Halser in Help+Manual, HelpXplain 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 in Help+Manual, HelpXplain 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 in HelpXplain, Software Updates, Uncategorized 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.
DeepL now available in the USA and Canada!
Posted by tim green in Documentation Authoring, Help+Manual, HelpXplain, Technical Writing, Training on June 19, 2020
Good news for all our US customers: The API license needed to use the DeepL machine translation plugin in Help+Manual and HelpXplain is now also available in the USA for just $5.49 per month.
The license is referred to as DeepL Pro. Here is the DeepL announcement:
DeepL posting on the new license
You can order the new DeepL Pro license on this page:
Order page for the new license
In addition to the monthly fee there is also a charge for translation volume. However, the amounts here are so generous that it would be difficult to exceed $10 per month in total.
HelpXplain 1.3 Released
Posted by Alexander Halser in HelpXplain, Software Updates, Technical Writing on March 22, 2020
This is a maintenance and feature update for HelpXplain, which is free for all registered users. Every license of HelpXplain includes 12 months free updates, maintenance and support.
HelpXplain 1.3
Version 1.3 comes with 2 new features and several small bug fixes. One new feature is an option to restrict the Maximum Image Size in the publish dialog. This is a very useful setting if your Xplain contains many images, in particular large ones. Images may considerably slow down the loading time when viewed in a web browser. If there are too many too large images, memory might not be sufficient. The Maximum Image Size option can reduce the physical size of images during export.
The second new feature is in the DeepL translation function: it now supports Japanese and Chinese (Simplified).
Other changes and bug fixes in version 1.3:
- Access violation fixed, that occurred when deleting slides in Object List
- HTML editor problem with Japanese IME fixed
- Screen Capture German UI was too small
- Screencast dialog how to arrange slides was sometimes hidden behind main window
- Replacing image placeholders with a picture from clipboard create images without filename
- When changing the display duration of multiple slides in the Animation > Slide Transition dropdown menu, an error occurred.
- Updated xploader.js script: when loaded in lightbox, it sets to focus to the lightbox to enable keyboard operation without a first click.
Download
This update is included in your maintenance plan! Please download the update and install it over your existing version.
HelpXplain integration in Help+Manual
Posted by Alexander Halser in Documentation Authoring, HelpXplain on January 21, 2020
We are working on a closer integration of HelpXplain into Help+Manual. Additional print options will be available soon. How about printing all slides in a tabular order? That’s something you can’t do with a video.
HelpXplain 1.2 Released
Posted by Alexander Halser in HelpXplain on December 3, 2019
This is a maintenance and feature update for HelpXplain, which is free for all registered users. Every license of HelpXplain includes 12 months free updates, maintenance and support.
HelpXplain 1.2
The most important new feature in this version is the eWriter output format. HelpXplain now creates eWriter eBooks out of the box. An eWriter eBook is a compressed single file that can easily be copied, emailed and can be viewed with the eWriter Viewer, available as a free app in Microsoft Store.
A second important change has been made to the PDF export. It supports multiple slides per page and offers a quality setting for the slide pictures.
eWriter Export in HelpXplain
New PDF Options in HelpXplain
Other changes and bug fixes in version 1.2:
- Screen capture bug fix: full-screen capture on secondary monitors did not work
- Screen capture bug fix: in free region capture mode, the screen capture tool silently crashed if one single-clicked outside the selection area.
- Bugfix: ribbon menu for fill was enabled for text objects, though text objects are always transparent
- Spotlight objects with follow-cursor (like inserted with screencast): when a text object was placed left of the screenshot, the spotlight was in the wrong position
- eWriter export format implemented
- favicon.ico added to output folder (also for the eWriter output, which picks up the icon)
- DeepL: Portuguese language supported
- Problem with invalid fill images fixed
- Publish Dialog: skin selection drop-down list has a scrollbar
- Mouse-over action “Change to full opacity” was always reset
- Improved error handling for Image Tools
- When inserting (new) images, extra large images are physically reduced to a maxium of 3000 x 2000 px.
- SVG images are normally exported with an <object> tag (= animated SVGs supported, but not clickable). If the SVG image has a click action, it is exported with an <img> tag (= clickable, but not animated)
- Slide #number is no longer displayed in document title
- Lines with a dashed stroke were rendered es solid lines in HTML
- When the caption of a slide was being edited, pressing the DELETE key asked to delete the slide.
- Publish as PDF / GIF / Images: an optional page scale factor makes the exported slides larger or smaller
- Full-screen mode on secondary monitors: when HelpXplain was running full screen on a secondary monitor, it did not save the window position and reverted to the default monitor the next time it was opened.
Download
This update is included in your maintenance plan! Please download the update and install it over your existing version.
HelpXplain Student’s Projects: Trip to Barcelona
Posted by Alexander Halser in HelpXplain on November 28, 2019
We recently equipped the Webdesign division of the school Instituut Sint-Maria in Antwerp, Belgium, with HelpXplain. One of the students’ first projects was a promotional website for Barcelona, created entirely with HelpXplain.
Here (drum roll!) are the first results!
We are proud and happy to share this student project with you:
Joris
eWriter 2.0 released
Posted by Alexander Halser in HelpXplain, Software Updates, Utilities, WebHelp on October 17, 2019
eWriter is a converter application to turn HTML pages into a self-contained Windows executable or eBook. This output format is integrated into Help+Manual as well (and will soon become available in HelpXplain). The eWriter converter application is the free stand-alone version.
Redesigned Runtime Viewer
The viewer for eWriter eBooks is now a stand-alone app. We have completely rebuilt the viewer app with this version and made it (optionally) available as a separate installer. The viewer looks more modern, but more important is the new code base which it is built on: it is more or less platform-independent.
The eWriter Viewer app is currently available in 32 and 64 bit versions, and it is listed in the Microsoft Store: