Help+Manual News

Posts Tagged Help+Manual

Help+Manual and Translation Assistant v10.0.3 Update

We are happy to announce the immediate availability of Help+Manual 10.0.3 and Translation Assistant 10.0.3! This update comes with a few bug fixes and one very convenient new feature.

Automatic Image Refresh

When you edit a picture in a topic with SnipSVG (or any other image editor), Help+Manual automatically refreshes the image, once you switch back to the application. We have put a great effort into this check-and-auto-refresh function, to make it lightening fast. It is on by default, but you can switch it off in Program Options.

Problem Fix with Open Dialogs

Help+Manual 10 has new open and save dialogs, that match the skin (light/dark) and feature an integrated preview for many file types. These new dialogs have caused delays with two customers. The symptom was a delay of more than half a minute, before the dialogs appeared. We were able to track this down to an incompatibility with 3rd party apps, that inject custom overlay icons in Windows Explorer. If you happened to experience such a delay with any of the open/save dialogs, the problem should now be solved.

YouTube Videos

YouTube has once again changed their policy and sometimes refuses to show embedded videos. The typical YouTube error is “501 Configuration Error”. For local HTML, that is unfortunately normal. For HTML pages running on a web server, it should work. We have implemented two modifications to avoid this problem. If you still experience issues with YouTube videos on a web server, please contact us.

Help+Manual 10.0.3 Changes

  • Automatic image refresh after external changes to pictures in topics.
  • Open and save dialogs: problem fix for 3rd party overlay icons.
  • Save dialogs: changing file type now changes filename extension.
  • Publishing tasks / task editor: scrollbar for include options was sometimes not visible.
  • Print Manual dialog: access violation in dropdown lists fixed
  • Sorting glitch in topics files list fixed
  • YouTube videos: attribute referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” added to the <iframe> tag. Furthermore, you can replace the hard-coded YouTube url with www.youtube-nocookie.com. This mod is still experimental and must be activated with a registry setting. Please contact us for more details if you face problems with embedded YouTube videos.
  • Russian CHM and PDF files: meta data encoding problem fixed.
  • SnipSVG: the version integrated with Help+Manual (build 502) received a small change regarding the autosize function: when applying a shadow to a picture, the autosize function calculates the required margins. The margins are now rounded to full integer pixels to avoid placing objects on sub-pixel positions, which led to a slight interpolation in some cases.

Update December 1, 2025

  • eViewer 5.4 included

Translation Assistant 10.0.3 Changes

  • Open and save dialogs: problem fix for 3rd party overlay icons.
  • Save dialogs: changing file type now changes filename extension.

All updates are available from our download page.

No Comments

Help+Manual and Translation Assistant v10.0.2 Update

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.

No Comments

Help+Manual Version 10 Maintenance Update

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).

No Comments

Help+Manual Version 10 Launches with Integrated AI Support and New SVG Image Editor

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).

No Comments

Maintenance Updates: Help+Manual 9.7.2 and Translation Assistant 9.7.2

We are glad to announce the immediate availability of Help+Manual 9.7.2 and an updated Translation Assistant. This is a small maintenance update with two bug fixes and one new feature.

Help+Manual 9.7.2 Changes

  • Link lists: new option to return results from the current module only (relevant for time-restricted link lists in modular projects)
  • Link lists sorted by date (e.g. changes of the last 14 days): results are still sorted by date, within the same date, results are now sorted alphabetically by title.
  • XML schema updated to 2.2.1 to acomodate new link list attribute “listtype”
  • Project Report: bug fix with help context numbers
  • Print Manual dialog: optical glitch with dropdowns fixed
  • Topic Editor: small glitch in Topic Options tab fixed

Translation Assistant 9.7.2 Changes

  • Link lists: new option to return results from the current module only (relevant for time-restricted link lists in modular projects)
  • XML schema updated to 2.2.1 to acomodate new link list attribute “listtype”

 

All updates are available from our download page.

No Comments

Help+Manual 9.7.1 Maintenance Update

We are glad to announce the immediate availability of Help+Manual 9.7.1! This maintenance update includes the new/updated screen capture tool from SnipSVG 2.0.

Screen capture with window-sizer

Have you ever tried to re-capture a screenshot and struggled to make it exactly the same size as the old one? This is what the new window sizer tool is for. It resizes a window that you want to capture to an exact pixel size. The function is right where you need it: it comes up with a right-click during the screen capture. Select from a list of predefined common sizes or enter the exact values you need.

Screen capture tool with window sizer

 

Screen capture with Windows 11 border trimming

Most application windows on Windows 11 have rounded corners and a translucent 1-pixel border around them. The updated screen capture tool trims the borders automatically, but you can switch this option on or off.

 

Minor Changes and Bug Fixes

  • PDF/Print: Manual Designer now supports transparent PNGs
  • Project > Config > Common > Languages page was not visible

 

All updates are available from our download page.

No Comments

Two build updates with two bug fixes

Help+Manual 9.7.0 Build 6883

  • The updated HTML export in v9.7 caused a problem with pre-formatted source code examples. This has been addressed with an updated CSS stylesheet.
  • SNIPX command line converter 2.0 for animated SVGs included

Help+Manual Translation Assistant 9.7.0 Build 622

  • A DeepL error message in combination with bulk translations was not correctly displayed.

All updates are available from our download page.

More detailed information on the recent v9.7 update.

No Comments

Help+Manual 9.7 and Translation Assistant 9.7 with new DeepL-API

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.

, ,

No Comments

Help+Manual (Beta) – DeepL Translation Plugin with New Option

Are you using the DeepL translation plugin with Help+Manual and have you ever experienced a translation glitch like this?

Read the rest of this entry »

,

No Comments

Maintenance Update: Help+Manual 9.6 Build 6810

We have identified a problem in the recent update of Help+Manual: YouTube videos were not exported to HTML anymore, due to an internal error during the export. The build 6810 update fixes this problem.

Furthermore, build 6810 introduces Markdown snippets and improved HTML snippets. Read the rest of this entry »

No Comments