Archive for category Software Updates
eWriter Viewer and Viewer Distributables
Posted by Alexander Halser in eWriter, Software Updates on December 2, 2025
eWriter Viewer has been updated to version 5.4.
This update fixes a sorting issue in custom menu items and, if the eWriter file includes a custom icon with multiple resolutions, it uses the larger resolution for the taskbar icon.
Download:
https://www.helpandmanual.com/ewriter/index.html
Help+Manual and Translation Assistant v10.0.2 Update
Posted by Alexander Halser in Help+Manual, Software Updates on October 22, 2025
We are glad to announce the immediate availability of Help+Manual 10.0.2 and Translation Assistant 10.0.2!
Help+Manual 10.0.2 Changes
- Publishing Tasks: in dark mode, publishing multiple task entries created an error.
- Insert Snippet dialog: mouse wheel support did not scroll the listbox of snippet topics.
- The syntax editor always converted tabs to spaces. Syntax editors are used for XML topic source code and for HTML code in various dialogs.
- German UI: visual glitches in Insert Link dialog and bullet list selection fixed.
- Additional symbols implemented in Customize List Style dialog.
- Config > Common > Text Variables: spacing of variables grid was larger than normal.
Translation Assistant 10.0.2 Changes
- Side selection in session window did not work on a single mouse click: a single click on any tree column must activate this side.
- Copying (new) topic sub-folders from one project to another had a small bug: the resulting topics were copied but not correctly listed under this folder in Help+Manual. Instead, the topic files were listed separately.
- Dialogs updated to match Help+Manual 10.0.2 (Customize List Style, Insert Snippet, etc.)
All updates are available from our download page.
Help+Manual Version 10 Maintenance Update
Posted by Alexander Halser in Help+Manual, Software Updates on September 27, 2025
This is the first maintenance update for Help+Manual 10. In the last three weeks since the initial release of version 10 on September 4, we have implemented several bug fixes and generally improved the Markdown parser (this also affects the new ChatGPT plugin).
Update 10.0.1 Build 7421
New Features:
- The Insert Link dialog shows a topic preview for external links
- Docked windows (keyword index tool, search results) now remember size and position
- Markdown handling improved:
- Copy & paste of Markdown code: additional heading styles are auto-created
- Load topic from Markdown file: auto-created heading styles and improved formatting
- Create project from a list of Markdown files: improved formatting
- ChatGPT:
- ChatGPT prompt entry box supports Markdown as input
- Improved text formatting when copying content from the chat window to the current topic
- Online help updated: how to translate and edit topics with ChatGPT
Bug Fixes:
- Bug fixes in Word (DOCX) Export
- Publish dialog: if a project contained a lot of custom builds, some builds could not be selected
- Reconnect repositories: when repository styles needed to be resolved, the German version (only) failed to display the resolve-styles window.
- Move TOC items to the right: in some cases, selected entries were moved to the wrong position
- HTML Help (.CHM) export: the option to highlight image hotspots was ignored, the CHM export used the corresponding setting of the Webhelp export.
- Edit Table dialog: table style name was not selected
- Publishing Tasks: creating a new publishing task caused an error on save
- HTML Topic Templates: adding a new topic template created an error
- Webhelp standard skins contained an invalid link to the help context numbers file
- Several optical glitches fixed regarding dark mode, high-res monitors, German translation and in very rare cases flickering of the Publish dialog and Import dialog.
You can download the update directly from our Download Page.
V9 License Key = V10 License Key!
This is important to know: your current license key for Help+Manual 9 keeps working for version 10 as well!
After installation, please activate Help+Manual 10 with your current v9 license key. To do this, the license must have active maintenance (maintenance expires on or after September 27, 2025).
Help+Manual Version 10 Launches with Integrated AI Support and New SVG Image Editor
Posted by Alexander Halser in Help+Manual, Software Updates on September 4, 2025
Help+Manual, the renowned documentation software, has released its latest Version 10, introducing integrated support for ChatGPT, OpenAI Azure, DeepSeek, YandexGPT, and other compatible AI platforms.
While the interface may initially appear as a simple chat window, it offers much more: the AI integration can directly interact with the built-in XML editor. Users can now send formatted XML-text sections to ChatGPT for editing or translation and seamlessly reintegrate the revised sections back into their documentation. All formatting and metadata are preserved throughout the editing process. Generic responses from ChatGPT are converted from Markdown into the software’s proprietary XML format, ensuring smooth and consistent integration.
The AI interface is fully configurable and supports not only ChatGPT but also additional solutions such as OpenAI Azure, DeepSeek, and YandexGPT.
Version 10 also brings enhanced SVG support and introduces SnipSVG as its image editor. SnipSVG, our free and separately available image editing tool, offers powerful features for creating annotated screenshots. Images are saved in SVG format, allowing labels and annotations to remain fully editable.
With these new capabilities, Help+Manual Version 10 delivers advanced AI-driven editing features and robust SVG workflow enhancements for technical documentation teams and content creators.
New in Version 10:
- New AI Assistants: ChatGPT and DeepL Write
- SnipSVG Included
- High-dpi User Interface supporting Dark Mode
- Topic Editor Improvements
- New Publishing Features
- Translation Assistant v10
- And a lot more…
For detailed information, please refer to the page What’s New in Version 10.
You can download the update directly from our Download Page.
V9 License Key = V10 License Key!
Important to know: your current license key for Help+Manual 9 keeps working for version 10 as well!
After installation, please activate Help+Manual 10 with your current v9 license key. To do this, the license must have active maintenance (maintenance expires on or after September 27, 2025).
Premium Pack 5.2.2 for SnipSVG 2.0
Posted by tim green in Browsers, CHM HTML Help, Documentation Authoring, eWriter, Help+Manual, Skins, Software Updates on April 14, 2025
We have just released a small update to Premium Pack 5 that basically just adds compatibility with the new SnipSVG 2.0. All the skins in the Premium Pack now support the new animated SVGs and SVGs with embedded web video created by SnipSVG 2.0. There are just a couple of other small fixes.
How to get the update:
You can download and install the update with the link and credentials you received when you purchased. If you no longer have these, just contact support by email and we will help you out.
Changes in 5.2.2
- SVG support:
Adds support for the animated SVG files and SVG files with embedded videos that can be created with SnipSVG version 2.0 and above. - Videos with captions in lightbox mode:
To comply with accessibility standards, Help+Manual now includes a <figure> tag around the video placeholder image. This prevented videos with captions from being displayed correctly in lightbox mode, which has now been corrected. - Link errors in V2 Modern skins:
Some V2 Modern skins included debug code that displayed an alert when any link was clicked in a topic page. - Social sharing link:
In individual skins, the social sharing link window opened could close instantly if it was opened a second time in a new topic.
SnipSVG 2.0 Released
Posted by Alexander Halser in Software Updates on April 7, 2025
We are happy to announce the first major update of our freeware image editor SnipSVG!
This version 2.0 is really a big update, here are the new features at a glance:
- Animations: create animated SVG images with SnipSVG
- New objects: text tables, curved text, web videos
- Create custom shapes by combining shapes
- Updated screen capture with window-sizer
Help+Manual 9.7 and Translation Assistant 9.7 with new DeepL-API
Posted by Alexander Halser in Help+Manual, Help+Manual Translation Assistant, PDF, Software Updates on February 12, 2025
We are glad to announce the immediate availability of Help+Manual 9.7 and an updated Translation Assistant. This is in fact quite a large update, although most of the changes remain mostly “invisible”.
The most important change concerns the DeepL translation plugin and the DeepL bulk translation function in the Translation Assistant. Both applications have switched to the latest version of the DeepL translation API.
In order to keep working with the DeepL translation plugin, you must update to Help+Manual 9.7 and Translation Assistant 9.7. DeepL will soon retire their old translation API.
Help+Manual 9.7 Changes
- DeepL: new API implemented.
- DeepL: new option included to change from “non-splitting-tags” to explicit “splitting-tags”.
- DeepL: the editor for API glossaries now shows line numbers. If there are any duplicates in the list, it jumps to the corresponding line number.
- DeepL: protected word lists and API glossaries are saved as UTF-8 text when exported within the dialog box.
- DeepL: translating single TOC entries included a line break in the translation, which created problems when building breadcrumb tags for the HTML output, because the line break was preserved in the breadcrumb tag.
- SnipSVG images: when using the native .SnipX format in Help+Manual, these images are translated into SVG images in the HTML output and are implemented with an <object> tag. Embedding SVGs with an <object> tag is mandatory to for interactive SVG files. The converter has been updated to version 2.0 in order to support animated SVG files created by the (upcoming) SnipSVG 2.0.
- Equations: the entry box for the equation how has a vertical scrollbar for extra long equations. When inserting a new equation, the initial dummy text “a = x + y” is highlighted and the edit control is active, so the user can start typing right away.
- Equations: improved vertical placement in HTML, both when exported as inline SVG and PNG. The inline SVG has been upscaled to a multiplier of 8 instead of 4, resulting in smoother curves.
- Markdown Snippets and Load-topic-from-Markdown: Markdown headings are now auto-imported as anchors, the anchor ID is built according to the Microsoft standard for Github. (Markdown does not have anchors as we know them from HTML, but some Markdown interpreters consider headings as valid anchors, with an auto-converted ID.) With this change, it is now possible to deep-link into the content of Markdown snippets.
- Insert Anchor dialog: the dialog box is now sizeable.
- The WEBP library ECLibWebp.dll is loaded dynamically. This speeds up the start of H&M, because the DLL is loaded on demand only (when the first webp image needs to be decoded).
- eViewer 5.3 included.
- Project Report: includes help context numbers of master/child projects.
- HTML Export: videos – including web videos like youtube – always contained an outer div with the class name <div class=”video-lightbox” …>. Inline videos did not have a class name. Change: inline videos now have <div class=”video-inline” …> and both have an additional HTML class “flexwidthXXX”.
- HTML Export: if a Youtube video specified a poster image, but the image file was missing, this caused a silent error.
- HTML Export / ARIA: to improve accessibility, manually bold formatted text is exported with a <strong> tag (instead of <span>), manually italic formatted text is exported with an <em> tag instead of <span>. You will not see any differerence in the HTML output, but these tags are interpreted differently by screen readers.
- HTML Export (CHM only): for YouTube and Vimeo web videos, Help+Manual does not use lightboxes anymore, but redirects to an external browser window. This was already the case for Prezi presentations. All of them, YouTube, Vimeo and Prezi have given up support for Internet Explorer (the display engine in CHMs). To prevent inevitable Javascript errors with web videos, the CHM file opens a new window in the default web browser to run the video.
- PDF export: when exporting SVG images as PNG (because they include drawing commands, which cannot be translated to PDF), the SVG image is rendered larger than displayed to get a better PNG quality. This might increase the PDF size in some cases.
- PDF export: if the very last page (back cover) of a manual template contained a PDF snippet, the PDF export failed with an error.
Help+Manual Translation Assistant 9.7 Changes
- DeepL: new API implemented.
- DeepL: new option included to change from “non-splitting-tags” to explicit “splitting-tags”.
- DeepL: the editor for API glossaries now shows line numbers. If there are any duplicates in the list, it jumps to the corresponding line number.
- DeepL: protected word lists and API glossaries are saved as UTF-8 text when exported within the dialog box.
- Topic editor: improved mouse-hints for inline text toggles.
- Image hotspot editor: asks to save changes, if the dialog is canceled after changes have been made.
All updates are available from our download page.
SnipSVG Version 1.5 for Windows and macOS
Posted by Alexander Halser in Software Updates on November 9, 2024
SnipSVG 1.5 comes with a new set of shapes: all the typical shapes required to create a flowchart. This is a first step towards making SnipSVG a versatile flowcharting tool. There’s more to come in a later version.
However, most of the work for the v1.5 update went into the macOS version. We not only fixed bugs, but made it ready for macOS 15.1 Sequoia.
HelpXplain Maintenance Update: Build 1854
Posted by Alexander Halser in Software Updates on October 17, 2024
We have updated HelpXplain to version 1.8.4 build 1854. This update does not introduce any new functionality, but fixes a problem with text objects sometimes being cut off at the bottom. If you face this problem with existing Xplain files, please re-apply the font size for the text objects affected by this problem.
Furthermore, this update handles two occasional error messages better. One error has been fixed, the second is being properly reported.
All updates are available from our download page.
SnipSVG Maintenance Update for Windows and macOS
Posted by Alexander Halser in Software Updates on October 10, 2024
We have updated SnipSVG to version 1.4 build 370. This update does not introduce any new functionality, but fixes a problem with text objects sometimes being cut off at the bottom. If you face this problem with existing SnipX or SVG files, please re-apply the font size for the text objects affected by this problem.
All updates are available from our download page.