Download Help & Manual 5.0.2 build 540

Every software developer knows how important a manual for a program can be if you don’t want to be inundated with the same questions from users over and over again. To easily compile this manual, you can use the Help & Manual program. This allows you to assemble your manual and then publish it in various formats, including Adobe PDF, browser-based help, html help, classic winhelp, e-books and Microsoft Word. In addition, it is also possible to create a hard copy. Developer EC Software has released version 5.0.2 build 540 with the following announcement:

Help & Manual 5.0.2 MaintenanceUpdate

We just released an updated build of Help & Manual 5 which is available from our download page. This updated addresses all currently known issues. We recommend to update to version 5.0.2 to all 5.x users!

Speed ​​improvements

The most important changes concern the everywhere speed of Help & Manual 5, especially when working with large projects and even more so if you use the compressed XML format (.hmxz). While you won’t notice much with small projects on a fast computer, the improvements are dramatic when working with large compressed project files (> 5000 topics). Speed ​​improvements affect opening a project, editing, inserting links, publishing and saving a project.

Bug fixes and minor improvements

Several minor problems have been fixed with this update. I am listing them here for overview:

• Bug fixes in tree view (this should fix some spurious access violations)
• Wrong encoding for special characters in HTML code objects (Webhelp only)
• Help context tool: values ​​> 2147483647 were not imported from external files
• Encoding for Russian a-keywords in HTML Help changed
• Keyword Index Tool: error message when assigning keywords to anchors
• Export dialog: Status was not remembered
• PDF export: cross references to topics in child projects were not exported as links
• Export: memory leak with embedded topics fixed
• Merged projects did not export help context numbers
• Bug fix for horizontal lines which could not be deleted
• When copying styles from another project, styles were not saved correctly
• HTML based outputs: topic init script has been moved to the end of the section to avoid wrong encoding with some browsers
• Topic title in CHM files: variables were not replaced
• HMX converter now always converts with compile-time merging option
• Keep lines and Keep next were not highlighted when active
• Template editors: find & replace activated
• Template editors: new context menu item to insert HTML color
• Impict: restore glitch with screen capture fixed

Help & Manual 5 released!

The wait is over! Help & Manual 5 was released in the early hours of June 9 CET, as promised. In addition to now being the best help authoring tool available, Help & Manual 5 is the first XML editor on the market that can be used in the same way as a word processor. You don’t need to know anything about XML to gain all the benefits, but you also have full access to the XML code if you need it.

Features include:

• Saves in pure XML, either in a folder with sub-folders or in a compressed single-file archive format for convenience.
• Concurrent multi-user editing with everything built in — no database or other components required. Work on your projects in teams in both local and wide-area networks. Save on any server type, including Linux, XServe and Unix providing they support SMB.
• Save directly in version control repositories
• Use Snippets to create libraries of reusable content which you can insert in Paste or Link mode. Paste is editable, Link updates automatically when the source files are changed.
• Insert topics from the current project and other projects in the same way as snippets.
• Skins: Apply professional layouts to your project on the fly when you compile with skins, without touching the project itself.
• MS Office 2007 Ribbon interface: Use the familiar and fast interface of Office 2007 for help authoring as well as all your other office tasks
• Localization and translation: Use XML-aware localization and translation tools to process your project source code directly. No conversion necessary.
• New Project Explorer that gives you direct access to all the files and settings in your project.
• Literally hundreds of other major and minor improvements and new features…

See here for more information.[break]