Posted by tim green in Browsers, Scripting, Software Updates, WebHelp on February 12, 2018
Versions 3.42/3.43 of the Help+Manual Premium Pack add-on is primarily a maintenance update. It is recommended for all Premium Pack users because it corrects several small but potentially annoying issues.
You can download and install the updated version with the credentials you received when you purchased. If you no longer have this please contact support@ec-software.com and we will help you out. See the Premium Pack product page for more details on Premium Pack 3 and visit our online store to purchase.
See the Premium Pack information page for general details and purchase information and the Premium Pack web-based documentation for full instructions.
Posted by Alexander Halser in Browsers, CHM HTML Help on June 20, 2017
With Help+Manual 7 we have introduced web-based videos like YouTube and Vimeo for embedding videos in help files. Especially YouTube worked like a charm in CHM files – until recently.
After a change in the YouTube scripts, the videos – when clicked to play – might trigger a Javascript error. The reason for this error is, that the script expects a “newer” version of MS Internet Explorer, it requires MSIE 9 as the minimum.
The Windows HTML Help viewer internally uses the rendering engine of MS Internet Explorer to display CHM files. By default, it runs with MSIE 7, even if a newer version is installed. To force the CHM viewer to use a newer rendering engine, it can be elevated with a HTML meta tag. We do this with all our CHM templates and skins, and the default elevation for CHM files was MSIE 8 so far. With the recent change in the YouTube scripts, it requires MSIE 9 or higher.
To fix the YouTube problem, you need to apply a small change to the skins or HTML templates that you publish your CHM files with. Here is a step-by-step instruction:
Old:
Modified:
This modification will be part of the next update of Help+Manual. However, your customized skins will need a manual tweak though – just follow the steps described above.
Posted by tim green in Browsers, CHM HTML Help, Scripting, Software Updates, WebHelp on December 10, 2015
We are proud to announce the release of the all-new Premium Pack 3 with advanced responsive skins. This is accompanied by Help+Manual 7.0.8 with new features to support the new skins and a set of demo Premium Pack 3 skins. Help & Manual 7.0.7 or higher is required to use the new responsive skins.
See the Premium Pack product page for more details on Premium Pack 3 and visit our online store to purchase.
A single WebHelp site now works smoothly on desktop, tablet and smartphone browsers, with an optimized user interface for each device type. Even large TOCs and keyword indexes are handled well on smartphones. And browsing has been optimized for lightning-fast topic loading. These skins represent the first iteration of our new online help format, which we call WebHelp 3. This has been made possible by a number of new technologies that we have been working on for the last eighteen months.
The Premium Pack now also comes with a configuration utility with direct help for every configuration setting when you select it. This also works with older Premium Pack skins and comes with a large number of additional advanced features for power users. For example, you can add features to skins that are normally only available in your project settings. And you can edit your templates and baggage files directly in your favorite code and graphics editors.
Help+Manual 7.0.8 comes with a set of demo Premium Pack 3 skins that you can try out, plus support for the new features in the Premium Pack 3 skins. Help+Manual 7.0.7 or higher is required for using the responsive skins in Premium Pack 3.
Posted by Alexander Halser in Browsers, WebHelp on January 22, 2015
A new vulnerability in the latest Adobe Flash player (Flash version 16.0.0.257) is already being actively exploited. One can expect older versions of Flash player to be affected as well. At risk are Windows users from Windows XP to Windows 8.
Disabling Flash player for some days might be a good idea.
No, not generally. Help & Manual does not use Flash. Even the Webhelp output of Help & Manual 6 does not rely on Flash anywhere, it is entirely built on standard web technology with HTML5 and Javascript.
However, if you include videos in Adobe Flash format into your documentation, keep in mind that users might not be able to view the content, because they may disable Flash player in general until a fix becomes available.
http://malware.dontneedcoffee.com/2015/01/unpatched-vulnerability-0day-in-flash.html
Posted by tim green in Browsers, Software Updates, WebHelp on November 12, 2014
Premium Pack 2.5 for Help & Manual adds a major new feature: “Timed Browser Cache” ensures that web browsers always display the latest versions of your topics instantly. Visitors no longer need to clear their browser cache or reload multiple times to view new and updated topics. If you don’t yet have the Premium Pack this is one of the best reasons ever to start using it. If you do, you’ll want to update to version 2.5 right away. Timed Browser Cache is available in the WebHelp skins, smartphone skins and the new combined iPad and Android tablet skin.
The dedicated iPad skin receives a major upgrade and is now also compatible with current Android tablets. This also includes offline web app mode, which allows users to save their WebHelp documentation locally and view it without an Internet connection.
Premium Pack 2 also includes a number of other major improvements in the all the web-based skins. See the full change log further below for details.
At the same time, we have also updated Premium Pack 1 to version 1.63. This includes the new combined iPad + Android tablet skin, which version 1 shares with version 2, and new dedicated redirects for Android tablets. The WebHelp skins in version 1 do not support Timed Browser Cache, but it is included in the iPad/Android skin.
You can download and install the updated version with the same download link and installation password from the mail you received when you purchased your copy of the Premium Pack. If you no longer have this please contact support@ec-software.com and we will help you out.
Continue below for the full change log.
Posted by tim green in Browsers, Scripting, Software Updates, WebHelp on August 5, 2014
The Help & Manual Premium Pack download packages for Help & Manual 6 have been updated to versions 2.42 and 1.62. In addition to this, the old package for Help & Manual 5 has been updated to 1.58. These are minor maintenance updates with fixes for some reported issues.
You can download and install the updated version with the same download link and installation password from the mail you received when you purchased your copy of the Premium Pack. If you no longer have this please contact support@ec-software.com and we will help you out.
Posted by tim green in Browsers, Scripting, Software Updates, WebHelp on May 13, 2014
The Help & Manual Premium Pack download packages for Help & Manual 6 have been updated to versions 2.40 and 1.60a. The version 1 update has just been given an “a” suffix because the changes there are very minimal: The main skins have not changed at all; the only real change is the updated version of the iPad skin that is shared with version 2.40.
In addition to some minor changes, the 2.40 package includes a new “Samurai Red” WebHelp theme in response to requests from many users, who wanted the color scheme of this theme from the old 1.x skins.
You can download and install the updated version with the same download link and installation password from the mail you received when you purchased the Premium Pack. If you no longer have this please contact support@ec-software.com and we will help you out.
Posted by tim green in Browsers, Software Updates, WebHelp on November 5, 2013
The 2.30 update to the Help & Manual Premium Pack is now available and adds several important and valuable new features. Many of these features have also been added to the simultaneous 1.57 update for the original Premium Pack 1 skins for Help & Manual 6.
You can download and install the updated version with the same download link and installation password from the mail you received when you purchased the Premium Pack. If you no longer have this please contact support@ec-software.com and we will help you out.
Both the dedicated WebHelp skins and the Classic Dual-Mode skins are now compatible with current Android tablets and smartphones, with fast touch response and rotation support. With Firefox or Opera for Android it is even possible to use them with older Android devices, back to 2.3.6 Gingerbread. The dedicated smartphone skins are also still available, of course.
Similarly, the skins will now also work with Windows 8 touch devices like the Microsoft Surface and other Windows 8 tablet/laptop hybrids and Windows 8 laptops with touch screens. This will work best with Windows 8.1, which has radically improved support for this functionality.
The WebHelp, Classic Dual-Mode, iPad and Smartphone skins now all show the real URL to the current topic in the browser Address: bar as soon as the topic is loaded (index.html?topic.htm#anchor). This works in all modern browsers and Microsoft Internet Explorer 10 and higher. IE 9 and earlier do not support this function and show the same static URLs as before.
Google no longer indexes pages that automatically reload themselves. To accommodate this, topic pages in WebHelp now no longer automatically reload themselves with the table of contents when they are linked to directly, for example from search result links. Instead, the topic opens on its own with a highlighted link or button at the top with which the user can display the table of contents.
As a result of the Google change, it is now also possible to use the browser’s “open in new tab” function to open topics in a new tab or window from the links in the TOC. Changes have been made to ensure that this works smoothly.
A number of smaller issues reported by some users have also been fixed in this update.
Disqus comments in Google Chrome displayed incorrectly due to changes in Disqus’ iFrame behavior.
Topics opened on their own without the TOC displayed incorrectly in some versions of Internet Explorer
On some systems it was necessary to activate Compatibility Mode in Internet Explorer 9 to prevent the Classic skins from displaying a blank page in WebHelp. This is now no longer necessary.
Posted by tim green in Browsers, Software Updates, WebHelp on August 1, 2013
The Premium Pack 1.x and 2.x packages have both been updated for compatibility with Help & Manual 6.3. This was necessary to support the new option that makes it possible to link to CHM context ID numbers with URLs in WebHelp, so that your programmers can use the same IDs for linking to both CHM help files and the WebHelp versions. In addition to this all three packages (including 1.x for HM5) have also been updated to correct a couple of very obscure potential cross-site scripting vulnerabilities that we have become aware of (to the best of our knowledge, these have never been exploited). And as an additional freebie, the 1.56 update package for HM6 now also includes the full 2.20 version of the iPad skin with offline web app support.
If you are a registered user of any of these Premium Pack packages (1.x for HM5, 1.x for HM6, 2.x for HM6) you can get the new 1.56 and 2.20 versions with the download link and installation key you received when you purchased the Premium Pack. If you have misplaced those please contact support AT ec-software.com (replace the AT with @) and we will help you out.
In addition to the above, the following minor fixes and improvements are included in the updates: Read the rest of this entry »