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We are glad to announce the availability of Help & Manual 5.2! Despite classified as a minor
update, this new version really has a long feature list. Many of the new features have been suggested by you in the recent Help & Manual user survey. Check it out!
http://www.ec-software.com/press_20090623.html
We are happy to be able to announce the results of the 2009 Help & Manual User survey conducted from May 18 to May 25, 2009. We received 592 responses (555 full responses, 37 responses with some question omitted). We sent survey invitations to all registered users with recent licenses for Help & Manual version 5.
http://www.ec-software.com/press_survey09.html
This is a maintenance update for Help & Manual 5 which fixes two important problems
found in the recent 5.1 release.
[Read on...]This is a maintenance update for Help & Manual 5 which fixes two important problems
found in the recent 5.1 release.
This update implements improved character and word spacing in PDF output and corrects duplicate entries
in the configuration section of help projects, that might have been saved by accident with an earlier version of Help & Manual 5.
http://helpman.it-authoring.com/viewtopic.php?p=33130
EC Software announces the immediate availability of Help & Manual version 5.11!
[Read on...]EC Software announces the immediate availability of Help & Manual version 5.11!
This update implements minor changes and features, which were found and requested in the last couple of weeks and did not make it into the 5.1 release.
http://helpman.it-authoring.com/viewtopic.php?p=33130
It looks to me like the developers of Help & Manual have looked at the best liked features in other Help programs and said, "Let's take the best of them all and combine them."
[Read on...] It looks to me like the developers of Help & Manual have looked at the best liked features in other Help programs and said, "Let's take the best of them all and combine them."
Read the full review
here (Initial Impressions) and
here (More thoughts).
http://techwr-l.com/blog/3248
EC Software announces the immediate availability of Help & Manual version 5.1!
[Read on...]EC Software announces the immediate availability of Help & Manual version 5.1!
The most important new feature of this new version is the integrated support for version control and the new EPUB output format.
Recent changes:
Forum linkhttp://www.ec-software.com/press_20081221.html
EC Software announces the release of Help & Manual 5.0.6.
[Read on...]EC Software announces the release of Help & Manual 5.0.6.
This is a maintenance update with minor bug fixes. We recommed this update for all 5.x users.
Recent changes:
Forum linkhttp://helpman.it-authoring.com/viewtopic.php?t=7906
The new Help & Manual 5 Premium Pack contains 14 professionally-designed "skins" with which you can transform the appearance of your HTML-based output with a single click.
[Read on...]
The new Help & Manual 5 Premium Pack contains 14 professionally-designed "skins" with which you can transform the appearance of your HTML-based output with a single click.
You just select one of the skins in the Publish dialog and click OK to publish, that's all there is to it. The templates in the skins are merged with your project to give you tabbed navigation, non-scrolling headers and a stylish design, as in these examples below.
Learn more about the Premium Pack
View an online Flash demo
Purchase the Premium Pack (requires Help & Manual)
http://www.ec-software.com/products_hm_pluspack.html
EC Software announces the availability of Help & Manual 5.0.5.
[Read on...]EC Software announces the availability of Help & Manual 5.0.5.
This is a maintenance update with lots of improvements and a couple of minor bug fixes. We recommed this update for all 5.x users.
Recent changes:
Forum linkhttp://helpman.it-authoring.com/viewtopic.php?p=30980
EC Software announces the availability of Help & Manual 5.0.4.
[Read on...]EC Software announces the availability of Help & Manual 5.0.4.
This is a maintenance update that introduces several minor improvements. This update is recommended for all 5.x users.
Recent changes:
Forum linkhttp://helpman.it-authoring.com/viewtopic.php?t=7628
EC Software announces that its flagship product Help & Manual 5 has just won the
Shareware Industry Award 2008 in the category
Best Overall Utility.
This follows on the consecutive 2004 and 2005 wins in the
Best Vertical Market Tool category for the product's predecessor, Help & Manual 4.
The award was presented at the
Software Industry Conference in Boston on July 19.
Runners-up were Registry First Aid from Rose City Software, WinRAR from win.rar GmbH and WinZip from WinZip International. The Software Industry Awards are chosen by a jury of several thousand shareware authors, journalists, reviewers and representatives of companies that develop, package, sell or distribute shareware products in 87 countries worldwide.
http://www.ec-software.com/press_20080726.html
EC Software announces the availability of Help & Manual 5.0.3.
[Read on...]EC Software announces the availability of Help & Manual 5.0.3.
This is a maintenance update that fixes one critical bug that caused problems when deleting and renaming topics in a newly created help project.
This update is recommended for all 5.x users!
Recent changes:
Forum linkhttp://www.ec-software.com/downloads.html
We just released an updated build of Help & Manual 5 which is available from our download page. The most important changes concern the overal speed of Help & Manual 5, especially when working with large projects and even more so if you use the compressed XML format (.hmxz). This update also addresses all currently known issues.
[Read on...]We just released an updated build of Help & Manual 5 which is available from our download page. The most important changes concern the overal speed of Help & Manual 5, especially when working with large projects and even more so if you use the compressed XML format (.hmxz). This update also addresses all currently known issues.
We recommend this update to all 5.x users!
Recent changes:
Forum linkhttp://www.ec-software.com/downloads.html
Pure XML, true single-source, concurrent multi-user editing. Just when you thought Help & Manual couldn't get any better, we have a surprise for you that will change the way you think about writing and managing technical documentation: Help & Manual Version 5 is not just an improvement on the current version, it is going to redefine single-source authoring.
[Read on...]
Pure XML, true single-source, concurrent multi-user editing. Just when you thought Help & Manual couldn't get any better, we have a surprise for you that will change the way you think about writing and managing technical documentation: Help & Manual Version 5 is not just an improvement on the current version, it is going to redefine single-source authoring.
Information for version 4 users:
You will need new license codes for version 5 - you cannot upgrade with
your version 4 license codes. If you purchased version 4 after 1
December 2007 you should receive free upgrade codes within the next few
days. Otherwise you will need to purchase an upgrade here:
http://www.ec-software.com/order.html?promotion=upgrade
Help & Manual 5 does not "upgrade" version 4. When you install Help & Manual 5 you must install it in a separate directory of its own and you
can leave version 4 installed so that you can use both versions on the
same machine -- you can even run them at the same time. We also
recommend this as you may want to have access to both versions while you
are making the transition.
http://www.ec-software.com/products_hm_new.html
This update is recommended for
all users of Help & Manual version 4.x and includes three minor fixes.
[Read on...]
This update is recommended for
all users of Help & Manual version 4.x and includes three minor fixes.
- The "lock treeview" command disabled creating links by drag and drop as well.
- Multiple spaces were exported as alternating spaces and non-breaking spaces, but starting with the wrong character
- In some rare cases, an automatic line break has turned off the current text format while writing
http://www.ec-software.com/products_hm_v45.html
Help & Manual 4 comes with an integrated visual designer for print and PDF templates used in combination with help projects.
[Read on...]
Help & Manual 4 comes with an integrated visual designer for print and PDF templates used in combination with help projects.
To make translations of help projects easier and and complete the translation roundtrip, the Print Manual Designer is now available as a stand-alone application as well. This separate setup is aimed on external translators who do not have Help & Manual installed.
The application is a free download, no license is required.
Download link:
http://www.ec-software.com/downloads.html
http://www.ec-software.com/downloads.html
A minor maintenance update is available for Help & Manual 4.50. We have fixed a few small annoyances and bugs with this update.
[Read on...]
A minor maintenance update is available for Help & Manual 4.50. We have fixed a few small annoyances and bugs with this update.
- XML export: changes to a-keyword tags and comments.
- HTML export: changes to table width tags and text with colored background
- Batch export with external variable sets: the TITLE variable was not overloaded in one particular situation
- Webhelp export: image names of custom TOC icons were not automatically lowercase, that could have led to broken image references in the Webhelp TOC
- Project synchronization: new synchronization option to help synchronize older help projects
http://www.helpandmanual.com/downloads.html
ComponentSourceŽ, reseller of EC Software products and the world's largest marketplace and community for reusable software components, today announced the launch of its new annual Awards program. At the launch ComponentSource announced the winners of the second annual awards for 2007 for both leading publishers and also their individual products.
[Read on...]ComponentSourceŽ, reseller of EC Software products and the world's largest marketplace and community for reusable software components, today announced the launch of its new annual Awards program. At the launch ComponentSource announced the winners of the second annual awards for 2007 for both leading publishers and also their individual products.
Help & Manual and EC Software have been honored with the ComponentSource Bestselling Product Award and the ComponentSource Bestselling Publisher Award for 2007.
http://www.ec-software.com/press_20080208.html
HHReg, our popular free HTML Help registration utility has been updated to version 1.2 and now comes with a dual-language binary that contains English and German. HHReg is designed for end users and security is a critical issue! For this reason, HHReg detects the system language and automatically switches the user interface language.
http://www.ec-software.com/products_hhreg.html
EC Software Help Suite (EHS) has been updated and now includes packages for Delphi 2007 as well. EHS is a component suite for Borland Delphi that builds a bridge to HTML Help (.chm files) for older Delphi versions and add-ons for context sensitive What's This? help.
http://www.ec-software.com/downloads_delphi.html
We are glad to announce the release of Help & Manual 4.5.0!
[Read on...]
We are glad to announce the release of Help & Manual 4.5.0!
This update is recommended for
all users of Help & Manual version 4.x and introduces a couple of new features as well as a fix for a cross-browser scripting vulnerability issue in Browser-based Help. See link for details.
- Impict adds XML export & import for image translation
- Cross-browser scripting vulnerability in Browser-based Help
- Creating topics with Drag & Drop
- Inserting special characters
- Miscellaneous fixes and enhancements
http://www.ec-software.com/products_hm_v45.html
The demo page features two new online demos with video and sound.
http://www.ec-software.com/products_hm_demos.html
In this article, we will review one particular HAT, Help & Manual, but we'll try to explain a bit about Help Authoring in general too, for the developer who is also required to get involved with the production of application help.
For the end user, it doesn't matter how well an application has been written if the help and documentation is poor.
In the hothouse, geeky culture of an IT development team, the way an application works must seem obvious. In the real world outside it often isn't, but well-crafted help and documentation can ease the cultural gap remarkably well.
The Technical Author is generally responsible for the Help Text, the printed manual, the 'white papers' and the material on the website. It is a daunting task. Increasingly, the work has to be sent to a bureau for translation into other languages; and the content has to survive translation into written languages that go from right-to-left, or vertically, as well as left-to-right. There may still be a demand for the production of a printed manual or PDF file too.
To make the task possible, technical content must have a single source that can cater for all these demands. This is where a HAT (Help Authoring Tool) comes in, and any technical author who works with Windows applications will be familiar with HAT software.
http://www.simple-talk.com/dotnet/.net-tools/top-hat/
UBIT - the Austrian National Professional Organisation for Management Consultancy and Information Technology has created the
CONSTANTINUS award to promote excellence in consulting and IT-services.
[Read on...]
UBIT - the Austrian National Professional Organisation for Management Consultancy and Information Technology has created the
CONSTANTINUS award to promote excellence in consulting and IT-services.
EC Software has been nominated for the Constantinus award with its consulting project
DIALOG Infosystem in cooperation with
Jaeger & Schmitter Dialog, Germany.
The
DIALOG Infosystem is a web-based call center information system based on
Help & Manual. Since the introduction in 2005, Help & Manual and the web-based information system has become the central source of information and knowledge for JS Dialog, used by 700 employees and 70 authors in 4 different locations across Germany and Italy.
Out of 138 submissions, the project has been nominated in the category
Constantinus International. We are looking forward to the award ceremony, which will take place in Salzburg/Austria on June 21st, 2007.
Links: (in German)
Constantinus Award website
Jaeger & Schmitter Dialog website
http://www.constantinus.net/award/constantinus-international/introduction/
Jim Cheshire of Jimco Software and Books writes about Help & Manual: It's not often that a product comes along that is so impressive that it almost seems too good to be true. In fact, I think I can count all such products I own on one hand. After spending a few weeks with Help & Manual 4.3, I can truly say that it has earned a spot as one of those products that seems too good to be true.
http://www.jimcosoftware.com/reviews/hm/
We are currently testing version 4.31 of Help & Manual, a minor but important update. The key features in the update will be improved PDF font embedding, page break handling in table cells and more HTML Help output options. Version 4.31 is due to release by the end of May 2007. If you are interested in testing the new version, please
drop us an email.
http://www.ec-software.com/company_contact.html
Alessandro Carichini for
Programmazione.it, an Italian online magazine, reviews Help & Manual.
"
If we compare it to products like RoboHelp, then the price of 459 dollars is rather competitive, but when compared with open source software, the picture changes. However, we are talking about a high-level product that covers all the documentation needs of a company."
Click on the link below to read the full article (in Italian language).
http://programmazione.it/index.php?entity=eitem&idItem=35985
At $459.00 this product is a bargain. I's a fraction of the price of RoboHelp® and in my opinion it does the work just as well as RoboHelp®. Give the trial version a test drive and see if you don't agree.
http://www.free-downloads.net/articles/Help_and_Manual_Review
We are glad to announce the release of Help & Manual 4.3! This update includes many improvements frequently requested by our user.
[Read on...]
We are glad to announce the release of Help & Manual 4.3! This update includes many improvements frequently requested by our user.
- New directory structure for Samples and Templates
- Improvements in the Impict screenshot editor with a new Export As function, drag & drop support and better color reduction for GIF images
- Three-frame mode for Browser-based Help: you can now automatically create a 3-frame layout in Browser-based Help for better integration in your own website.
- New navigation options for Browser-based Help: single-click navigation and automatically expanding table of contents
- PDF export can embed files in the PDF
- Syntax highlighter for C#
- New variables for HTML templates, for better search-engine optimization
- Translation: configuration file for editing H&M XML with SDL Trados
http://www.ec-software.com/downloads.html
Sisulizer just released a new feature in their localization tool: Localization of compiled HTML Help files (.chm).
[Read on...]
Sisulizer just released a new feature in their localization tool: Localization of compiled HTML Help files (.chm).
Sisulizer Enterprise imports all translatable content directly from a .chm file. Text is automatically segmented into paragraphs for easy translation. You translate the text either in a WYSIWYG editor, or in a grid with separate columns for the source, and target language. HTML tags are retained in the translatable text.
Translations are saved in a so-called translation memory, a built-in database that remembers phrases that have been translated already. When you update your help file, Sisulizer's rescan function will detect the changes and attempt to automatically pre-translate unchanged content. Comfortable filters such as filters for untranslated text, changed or new paragraphs, help you to quickly update the translation as well.
Try the 30-days evaluation version from this link:
www.sisulizer.com/downloads.shtml
Special offer for Help & Manual users:
Until end of February, 2007 Sisulizer Enterprise is available for EUR 999 excluding VAT. Help & Manual customers are eligible for an extra discount of 100 EUR. Please contact
Sisulizer support for details on the discount.
About Sisulizer:
Sisulizer is a new software localization and translation tool, created by Sisulizer Ltd, Finland.
http://www.sisulizer.com
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