Help & Manual
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| Developer(s) | EC Software |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 5 |
| Written in | Delphi |
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows |
| Platform | PC |
| Type | IDE |
| License | Proprietary |
Help & Manual is a Windows-based help authoring tool published by EC Software, a company based in Austria.
Like many help authoring tools, Help & Manual allows the writer to create a single source text which it then converts to a number of target formats. In this case, the author creates the source text using an editor built in to the Help & Manual program. The text, along with the user's settings for the project, are stored in XML files. Version 5.0 of Help & Manual was released June 2008. Help & Manual currently supports the following output formats:
- WinHelp
- Compiled HTML
- HTML Web Page
- Visual Studio Help
- Rich Text Format (Microsoft Word)
- eBook (Windows executable containing an embedded viewer)
- Round-trip XML for external translation and re-import (own XML schema)
- Printed manuals
Version 4.x of Help & Manual also supports Unicode for creating help in all international languages, including Asian languages like Chinese, Japanese and Thai but excluding right-to-left languages.
Version 5.x of Help & Manual contains a completely redesigned Ribbon interface, and permits multiple users to collaborate and work on a single help project at the same time.
The program comes bundled with several tools, including a screenshot capture tool, a graphics program with functions for editing and enhancing screenshots, a help context tool for managing, importing and exporting help context numbers, a "print manual designer" for creating and editing layout templates for PDF files and printed manuals and a reporting tool for generating and exporting project reports.
[edit] Version history
- 3.x - used RTF-based source files with a .HM3 extension.
- 4.x - uses XML-based source files with a .HMX extension
- 5.x - uses XML-based source files with a .HMXZ extension
