News and Articles about HelpNDoc

Launch bug fixed and enhanced documentation generation in HelpNDoc 3.9.1

IBE Software — Tue, 21 May 2013 11:49:11 +0000

We are glad to announce the immediate availability of HelpNDoc 3.9.1 which fixes the problem some were experiencing when starting HelpNDoc, saying that a control had no parent window. We also took this opportunity to update the default CHM template to provide a way to customize the base color as it is already possible to do with the default HTML template. This minor update also fixes a rare problem with the HTML search engine which could do infinite loops and another issue where the ePub generator couldn't correctly generate the eBook's cover picture. Learn more in the detailed change log bellow and download your free version of HelpNDoc now.

Change log:

CHM generator's base color can be customized in the template properties
An exception could be displayed when the application is launched indicating that a control had no parent window
ePub generator didn't always correctly generate the cover picture
HTML search engine did infinite loops after clicking on the result when it ended with a space character

Import folders and improved documentation authoring productivity with HelpNDoc 3.9

IBE Software — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 08:00:00 +0000

We are glad to announce the release of HelpNDoc 3.9 which features an enhanced importer and includes many great productivity enhancements as well as bug fixes. The new importer can import whole folders and sub-folders including multiple file formats, thus reducing the time required to create a new project out of existing documents. To speed up documentation authoring, this new update provides additional keyboard shortcuts, fast incremental search in all trees, enhanced user interface and resource usage. Read on to learn more about this update and download the free version of HelpNDoc 3.9 right now.

Convert multiple files and folders to documentation projects

Use the new folder importer to import multiple types of files at once to speed up the creation of new help, documentation or manuals.

HelpNDoc's updated importer is able to locate all readable files in a directory and import them all at once: each file is added as a new topic and its content imported. Starting a new project is now faster and easier than ever!

Faster and easier documentation authoring

Many enhancements have been added to this new update to provide an easier and faster help authoring experience.

HelpNDoc 3.9 introduces many shortcuts to quickly navigate throughout the user interface: use the CTRL+F2 through F6 keyboard shortcuts to quickly focus the table of contents, topic editor, library, keyword editor... Use the space keyboard shortcut to associate the currently focused keyword with the current topic. Incremental searching has been added: start typing a node caption to focus it in any of the trees.
Additionally, you can now customize HelpNDoc's user interface layout as you like and it will be saved an restored when the program restarts. The styles gallery will also resize itself to fit the whole available space.
Finally, many performance improvements and bug fixes made it in this update. Learn more in the detailed change log bellow and download your free version of HelpNDoc now.

Change log:

Enhanced importer: import multiple files at once into a new project and import various file types
Incremental search in various places: start typing a node caption to search for it and focus it
New keyboard shortcuts to navigate through the user interface: CTRL + F1 through F6
Use the SPACE keyboard shortcut to associate a keyword with the current topic
Panels positions and sizes are now persistent and will be restored when HelpNDoc is restarted
Use the /reset command line option to reset forms size and position as well as panels layout
Installer and uninstalled now warns if HelpNDoc is already running
Greatly reduced memory usage when generating documents with large number of pictures except for Word generator
The styles gallery now resizes itself to fit the whole available space
Command line silent mode wasn't working correctly anymore
Better error message when the project file is locked by another application or instance of HelpNDoc
Reduced flicker in the ribbon bar when resizing the main window
Removed XSS vulnerability in HTML generated documentation
Fixed possible error of the Javascript search engine in the default HTML template

Analyze and optimize documentations, help and manuals with HelpNDoc 3.8

IBE Software — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 07:00:00 +0000

This is with great pleasure that we announce the immediate availability of HelpNDoc 3.8! This new update introduces a very powerful tool called the project analyzer and we believe you will be amazed by how easily it will help you pin-point potential issues with your existing and upcoming documentation projects and how powerful the optimization capabilities are: project statistics, topic hierarchy chart, project-wide hyperlink analyzes, library item duplicate finding and merging... you will instantly fell in love with HelpNDoc's new project analyzer. Read on to learn more about this update and download the free version of HelpNDoc 3.8 right now.

Getting valuable information with the project analyzer

HelpNDoc's project analyzer concentrates many detailed information about the current project and can be used for reporting, inspection, optimization or troubleshooting purposes.

HelpNDoc's new project analyzer provides centralized information about project statistics, topic hierarchy, hyperlinks and library items details. The topic hierarchy is displayed as a chart to rapidly spot unbalanced hierarchies or hard to find topics.

The hyperlinks report is a great way to go through all hyperlinks used throughout the project, indicate where they are found, filter them by kind, and spot problematic or duplicate hyperlinks. It will automatically detect and indicate broken hyperlinks which are linked to a missing topic.

The library items report will display all used and un-used library items. It can be used to filter broken library items, which are inserted in a topic but not in the library anymore and un-used items. The most advanced features include automatic similar item selection, where HelpNDoc will automatically analyze all items and select the similar ones, as well as items merging where all items are merged into one throughout the project.

Other additions and enhancements

HelpNDoc 3.8 also provides an history of browsed topics with previous and next buttons to navigate between them. Many other additions and fixes are also available in this update: learn more in the detailed change log bellow and download your free version of HelpNDoc now.

Change log:

Project analyzer will report various useful information about the current project: broken links, merge library items...
History of viewed topics with previous/next buttons
New project dialog is now resizable and will store its size
The "Show Special Characters" feature is now persistent and will be restored each time HelpNDoc is opened
An exception could occur at application start time
Importing some CHM files could result in empty imported topics: anchors in the table of contents were not correctly handled
When deleting a selected topic, the newly selected topic seemed randomly chosen. It is now either the next or previous one

New HelpNDoc review finds it essential!

IBE Software — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 10:21:52 +0000

"If you are looking for a reliable solution for creating a manual or other documentation files, HelpNDoc is an excellent choice". That's what a new HelpNDoc review from FindMySoft concludes after testing HelpNDoc. On the "Pros" side of thing, the review notes that "The software is simple and easy to use and it allows you to export your project in various formats. It provides many familiar features, as well as its own unique functions. HelpNDoc works on multiple Windows platforms and it is free for personal use". While it cannot find any "Cons" for HelpNDoc, noting that "There are no serious issues to mention".
Try HelpNDoc for yourself and benefit from its easy to use yet powerful features by downloading your free personal edition of HelpNDoc right now.

Huge 40% discount on HelpNDoc from Friday 23rd of November 2012 till Monday 26th of November 2012 only!

IBE Software — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 08:28:40 +0000

Edit: The promotion is now over. Thank you to all who participated.
Fellow HelpNDoc users, we are really glad to offer a 40% discount on both HelpNDoc Standard and Professional Editions starting now and till Monday 26th of November 2012 included! We believe this Black Friday till Cyber Monday discount is a great opportunity to purchase your full version of HelpNDoc and benefit from its amazing features at an amazing price. This is also a good opportunity for existing customers to purchase extra licenses for team mates, friends and family. But hurry up as this discount is only available till Monday included.

Purchase HelpNDoc Professional Edition with a 40% discount at the price of 149 Euros instead of 249 Euros
Purchase HelpNDoc Standard Edition with a 40% discount at the price of 59 Euros instead of 99 Euros

Updated Word, CHM and HTML documentation generation with HelpNDoc 3.7.1

IBE Software — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 13:28:02 +0000

We are glad to announce the immediate availability of HelpNDoc 3.7.1: this minor update brings some fixes in Word, CHM and HTML based documentation formats and can be downloaded for free for personal use and evaluation purposes. HelpNDoc 3.7.1 fixes various problems with the Word documentation, provides better look and feel when printing the CHM documentation and fixes problems with the recent projects and places list. Have a look at the detailed change log to learn more and download you free version right now.

Change log:

HTML documentation could not always select the first displayed table of contents item when viewed from a remote server
A frame was displayed around the content when printing a CHM topic
Word generator always compressed bitmap pictures even if the option for automatic compression was not checked
The Word documentation wasn't generated if the used template didn't show the table of contents
Word documentations could add extra empty lines before topic titles
French translation errors in the documentation generation log
The recent projects and places lists weren't correctly saved to the registry which could lead to incorrect entries

Produce multiple variations of a master documentation with ease

IBE Software — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 13:08:13 +0000

Thanks to HelpNDoc's powerful conditional generation feature and its amazing build system, it is easier and faster than ever to produce multiple variations of a master documentation. Just imagine writing a complete help file, manual, book or documentation and then choosing which parts to include in each final product: you'll begin to understand how powerful this feature can be to provide different variations of your master documentation to multiple clients, customers, partners... Read on to learn how to effectively use HelpNDoc's conditional generation system.

Create a base documentation and add conditions

As an example, let's say that we are building a documentation for a software product and we would like to provide two documentation files: one will target the end-users and another one will target the support team by providing additional information throughout the documentation.

We'll start by creating a new project and add our initial topics and contents. We will now define a conditional section, only be visible by the support team, which we'll call a "technical" section.

Place the cursor in the topic editor before the technical part of the documentation
From the "Insert" ribbon tab, click "Insert / Edit condition"
Make sure the "If" operation is selected and click the "Manage tags" link to edit the tags for this project
In the newly opened "Manage build tags" window, add a tag named "Technical" to the list and hit OK
In the "Insert conditional operation" window, check the newly added "Technical" tag and hit OK

To close the technical section, it is possible to add an "END" operation: every previously opened "IF", "IF NOT" or "ELSE" operations will be closed and all the content following the "END" operation will be included in every builds. To do so, just place the cursor after the technical section, click "Insert / Edit condition" in the "Insert" ribbon tab, choose the "End" operation and hit OK.

Setup the builds to generate multiple variations

We will create two PDF builds: one will be distributed to the end user and will not contain any technical information while the second one will only be distributed to the support team and include all technical sections.

Now that the content is ready, we'll need to generate multiple variations of the final documentation. To do so, we will create two different PDF builds.

From the "Home" ribbon tab, click the top part of the "Generate help" button
Delete all the existing builds in the build list except the "Build pdf documentation" one by selecting each of them and clicking the "Delete" button
Add another PDF build to the list by clicking the "Add" button
Select the first build and rename it to "PDF for the end-users". Do the same with the second build and rename it to "PDF for the support team"
Select the "PDF for the support team" build and click the "customization" hyperlink in the "build settings" section if it is not already visible
Go to the "Included tags" tab and check the "Technical" tag for this build: this will include the technical sections for this build
Click "generate" and review both generated PDF documentation files

Using its unique conditional generation system, HelpNDoc is the perfect tool to provide multiple variations of a documentation, manual, book or help file targeted at specific audiences. As we've seen in this quick overview, it is both extremely easy yet amazingly powerful to create many versions of a single documentation thanks to HelpNDoc. But don't just take our words for it and download your free version of HelpNDoc right now to try it on your own!

Generate multiple versions of your documentation with the new conditional system of HelpNDoc 3.7

IBE Software — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 07:55:52 +0000

The new HelpNDoc 3.7 has just been released and we are glad to announce that it is bringing the documentation generation process to a whole new level where you can choose which parts of your documentation appear in each build and therefore generate an unlimited number of variations out of your master documentation! HelpNDoc 3.7 also features many enhancements and bug fixes which makes this new update a must have for both existing and new HelpNDoc users. Read on to learn more about this new release and download the completely free version of HelpNDoc 3.7 right now.

Conditional generation of your documentation content

HelpNDoc's conditional build system provides an easy way to choose which parts of the documentation is included in each specific build: write once, publish multiple versions out of it.

The whole new HelpNDoc conditional build system is a great way of creating multiple versions of your documentation, manual or help file: just create conditional sections within your topics and choose which sections are included in your builds: you're done, HelpNDoc will remove any part which has nothing to do in the currently generated build. By leveraging this system, it is now easier than ever to create multiple versions for different clients, different variations of a product, versions both advanced and novice users... The possibilities are endless and the number of variations is infinite.

User interface refinements and documentation generation enhancements

This new HelpNDoc 3.7 provides keyboard shortcuts to manage the keywords and library items as well as easier management of the build list through pop-up menus. It is now faster to enable only the currently selected build and the options dialog provides a way to clear recent projects and places.

HelpNDoc 3.7 also provides an enhanced HTML template where the table of contents now correctly shows on all web-browsers (including Google Chrome) even when viewed locally. The CHM generator has been fixed for some Central European characters which weren't correctly generated in the table of contents and correctly generates table backgrounds as well as bullet lists images. The PDF generator contains fixes for some fonts with custom spacing which could produce overlapping characters and adds better support for bookmarks.

Many other fixes made their way into this new version: learn more in the detailed change log bellow and download your free version of HelpNDoc now.

Change log:

Conditional build system: control which part of the documentation is present in each build through conditional tags
Added keyboard shortcuts to insert/move/delete/edit properties of keywords and library items (CTRL+INSERT, CTRL+ARROW, CTRL+DELETE, CTRL+ENTER)
Some Central/Eastern European characters may appear broken in the CHM search result list: fixed with the CHM template option "Use project charset for topics"
Option to enable only the selected build and rename a build in the build generation list
Popup menu for easier and faster build management in the build generation list
It is now possible to clear recent projects and places from the option dialog
Some fonts with custom spacing could produce overlapping characters in PDF documents
Better support for bookmarks in PDF documents
Some Central European characters were not correctly generated in the CHM table of contents
Better support for some OpenOffice.org dictionaries
Creating a new blank project didn't set up default project language which could lead to empty title for CHM documentation
Google Chrome now correctly displays the table of contents for HTML documentations when viewed locally
Topics with large caption could have duplicate auto-generated help IDs
Word and PDF documentation didn't add requested page breaks when topic titles were hidden
Parts of the table of contents of some rare CHM help files could not be imported
CHM documentation didn't correctly display table background images and bullet lists images
Recent projects and places could contain invalid paths

New review finds HelpNDoc a powerful help authoring tool with thoroughly enjoyable experience

IBE Software — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 09:55:06 +0000

The 3D3F.com software directory reviewed HelpNDoc to find it "a powerful help authoring tool with a beautiful interface" which makes the task of preparing help materials a "thoroughly enjoyable experience": "Unlike many competitors that are either good-looking, but useless, or powerful, yet hardly pretty, this software efficiently combines these qualities and offers a stunning interface that helps you get you work done a lot faster!"

Read the whole 3D3F.com HelpNDoc review or other HelpNDoc reviews and download HelpNDoc completely free for personal use to see for yourself how easy and fast you'll create your next help, manual, documentation or eBook.

Build multiple versions of your help and manuals with HelpNDoc 3.6

IBE Software — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 09:06:32 +0000

We are glad to announce the immediate availability of HelpNDoc 3.6 with great new features such as a whole new build system which can generate multiple versions of your documentation, support for hidden topics which won't be generated in the final documentation and various enhancements and fixes. HelpNDoc 3.6 can be downloaded and used for free for personal and evaluation purposes.

Customize your documentation generation workflow painlessly

HelpNDoc's new build system provides an easy way to define the order and settings of your documentation generation process: producing a new version of your documentation is as easy as adding a new build.

Not only can HelpNDoc generate multiple documentation formats, it can now generate multiple versions for each of those formats thanks to the new build system. This gives you total control over the documentation generation process as each build can be named, ordered, enabled and have its settings customized very easily.
Wonder if your HTML documentation would be better with an expanded table of contents or without ? Or want generate a CHM documentation with a specific template for one client and use a different one for another client ? Just create new builds and adjust their settings: HelpNDoc will produce multiple versions of your documentation for you. It's that easy.
We believe existing users of HelpNDoc will instantly love the new build system and will rapidly feel at home as we have gone through great lengths to make it as similar to previous versions as possible while providing an easy way to access and customize the build settings. New users won't believe how fast and easy it has been to produce their first multi-format help files, documentations and eBooks.
Warning: If you are using HelpNDoc's command line option, you'll need to update your scripts/process as it has changed due to the new build system.

Hide work-in-progress topics from public eyes

Need to provide a development version of your documentation but some of your topics are not as polished as you'd like ? Just mark them as hidden and they won't be generated at all.

HelpNDoc 3.6 lets you hide topics from the final generated documentation: each topic marked as hidden, as well as their children, won't be generated and won't appear in the table of contents of any documentation format or build. This much requested feature provides a great way of managing work-in-progress topics or documentation specific instructions hidden from public eyes.

Various enhancements and fixes

HelpNDoc is now able to correctly open and include relative external library items and provides better editing support for bullets and numberings. Most documentation formats have been enhanced and fixed based on discovered issues. Learn more in the detailed change log bellow and download your free version of HelpNDoc now.

Change log:

New build system: create as many customized build of any documentation format as needed. Warning: command line changes
Added support for invisible topics: invisible topics and their children won't be generated in any documentation format
Relative external library items are now imported at generation time
It is now possible to indent bullets and numbering with the TAB key
EPub and Mobi generators didn't correctly generate link topic kinds
EPub generator didn't correctly escape Some characters which could lead to errors on the iPad
Norwegian dictionary from OpenOffice.org didn't install correctly
The default HTML template generated un-balanced HTML comments
RTF importer didn't correctly import relative hyperlinks
Empty topics could produce corrupted PDF table of contents
HTML documentation could cause errors when tabs where hidden
HTML search engine didn't find words containing the "T" character
Color dialog now saves custom colors
HTML based generators will correctly update topic files when the character case has changed