Help & Manual
Encyclopedia
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:
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.
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
-based help authoring tool
Help authoring tool
A Help Authoring Tool or HAT is a software program used by technical writers to create online help systems.-Functions:The basic functions of Help Authoring Tools can be divided into the following categories:-File input:...
published by EC Software, a company based in Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
.
Like many help authoring tools, Help & Manual allows the writer to create a single source
Single source publishing
Single source publishing, also known as single sourcing, allows the same content to be used in different documents or in various formats. The labour-intensive and expensive work of editing need only be carried out once, on one document. Further transformations are carried out mechanistically, by...
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
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
files. Version 5.0 of Help & Manual was released June 2008. Help & Manual currently supports the following output formats:
- WinHelp
- Compiled HTML
- HTMLHTMLHyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
Web Page - Visual Studio Help
- Rich Text FormatRich Text FormatThe Rich Text Format is a proprietary document file format with published specification developed by Microsoft Corporation since 1987 for Microsoft products and for cross-platform document interchange....
(Microsoft Word) - eBook (Windows executableEXEEXE is the common filename extension denoting an executable file in the DOS, OpenVMS, Microsoft Windows, Symbian, and OS/2 operating systems....
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
Unicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
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
Ribbon (computing)
In GUI-based application software, a ribbon is an interface where a set of toolbars are placed on tabs in a tab bar. Recent releases of some Microsoft applications have embraced this form with a modular ribbon as their main interface. The Ribbon is a contextual interface that offers functionality...
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.
Version history
- 3.x - used RTFRich Text FormatThe Rich Text Format is a proprietary document file format with published specification developed by Microsoft Corporation since 1987 for Microsoft products and for cross-platform document interchange....
-based source files with a .HM3 extension. - 4.x - uses XMLXMLExtensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
-based source files with a .HMX extension - 5.x - uses XML-based source files with a .HMXZ extension