Help+Manual News

With version 7.3.4 released last week, we had introduced a really bad bug: tables with background images could not be read anymore. This problem has been fixed with the new version 7.3.4 build 4380.

Changes in build 4380

• Tables with background images could not be read. If a topic contained a table with a background image, Help+Manual issued an error and said it could not read the XML data. The topic was truncated starting with this table.
• AuthorIT import: bug fix for embedded images – some embedded images could not be extracted when importing an AuthorIT project.
• Insert Conditional Text: with 7.3.4 we introduced a feature to remember the last condition used, to make it simplier to insert new conditional text tags. This feature turned out to have a backlash – other users complained about this feature being counter-productive and not supporting the workflow. The remember function has been removed with build 4380.

Download the Help+Manual Update:

Please download the update to Help+Manual 7.3.4 from our download page and install over your existing installation of Help+Manual.

First of all: a Happy New Year to everybody who’s reading this newsblog!

We have been busy during the holiday season and completed Help+Manual 7.3.4, a free maintenance update for all 7.xx users. We encourage you to install this maintenance release over your existing version of Help+Manual.

New Features and Bug Fixes

• Insert Image Hotspots: the hotspot editor now supports a zoom function to make it easier to work on hotspots on high-resolution monitors.
• PDF/Print Manuals: the manual template designer has an extra option for keyword index separators (normally, those A – Z sections in the keyword index). Keyword sections can be created automatically from the actual keyword index. This improves the compatibiltity of PDF templates with projects in multiple languages.
• Topic Editor: optical glitch removed when zoom was > 150%
• Project Report: moving unused images to a backup folder did not work if the folder path contained an ampersand character.
• Publishing Windows eBooks: additional check implemented whether the output file can be replaced/overwritten. Publishing an eBook could have triggered an error, if the target file was opened before the publishing task completed.

Download the Help+Manual Update:

Please download the update to Help+Manual 7.3.4 from our download page and install over your existing installation of Help+Manual.

We are glad to announce the release of Help+Manual 7.3,3, which is a free update for all 7.xx users. We encourage you to install this maintenance release over your existing version of Help+Manual.
At the same time we have also released version 3.41 of the Help+Manual Premium Pack with three small but important corrections. See further below for details.

Delayed Execution on Windows 10 FCU

If you have installed the latest Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (FCU), you might notice a general slowdown in some situations, not just with Help+Manual, but with a large range of Windows software including Microsoft’s own tools and utilities. One particular situation, where this can be observed is the publish options configuration page for MS Word export. Opening this page on Win 10 FCU might have taken several seconds, it looked as if Help+Manual had frozen:

Version 7.3.3 fixes this problem and should revert to normal speed.

New Features and Changes

• Keyword Idex Tool: improved display when searching for a particular keyword
• Insert Snippet Dialog: remembers the option to insert a snippet inline or on a new line
• Webhelp full-text search: the default word length limit of 35 characters has been extended
• Code Editor for Baggage files: support for .PHP and .ASP implemented
• AuthorIT Import: context numbers were missing in some cases
• Inline text toggles: when printed expanded, it was possible that the hidden text was inserted twice, depending on certain conditional-text options.
• MS Word / DOCX Export: small bug with invalid characters in text fixed
• XML keyword index: when the XML data contained whitespace in second-level keywords, the whitespace was interpreted as a blank keyword

Download the Help+Manual Update:

Please download the update to Help+Manual 7.3.3 from our download page and install over your existing installation of Help+Manual.

Premium Pack 3.41 Maintenance Update

This update includes these three fixes:

• Compatibility with new Firefox: A change was needed in the V3 skins to prevent some clickable items from being disabled on Windows touch screen devices in the major new Firefox update.
• Index entries with multiple references: If a keyword index entry has multiple entries the list is now displayed in a positioned box with scrollbars.
• Removal of internal window name: An unnecessary internal window name in the V3 skins prevented opening successive URLs to the WebHelp in the same window from a web application.

You can download the Premium Pack update with the link and credentials you received when you purchased. If you no longer have these please contact support and we will send you a copy.

As part of our commitment to continuous improvement, we have released a maintenance update for Help+Manual 7.3,2 and the Premium Pack 3.35. We encourage you to install this maintenance release over your existing version of Help+Manual.

Help+Manual New Features and Changes

• Automatic recovery: Help+Manual 7.3.2 includes a new feature to automatically recover unsaved changes after a crash or a power failure.
• SVG images in HTML Help (.chm): the HTML export options dialog has a new option to optionally convert SVG images to PNG.
• HTML Help (.chm) and YouTube videos: the standard skins have been modified to avoid Javascript errors with YouTube and Vimeo web videos in CHM files.
• Webhelp standard skins have been updated.
• EWriter eBooks: The Premium Pack update now includes a new set of V3 skins for the EWriter format, which can also be used as an alternative to CHM.
• TidyXML option is now enabled for repositories
• PDF: anchor hotspots have been moved a little bit higher along the y position to improve deep jumps to topic anchors.
• Improved Insert Link dialog: the drop-down width for the anchor combobox now has a dynamic width to accommodate even very long anchors
• Improved list dialog

Known Issues and Bug Fixes

• TidyXML: if TidyXML was off, protected text was not saved as protected.
• TidyXML: bug in white-space filter (at XML read) fixed
• Table editing: splitting a table into 2 separate tables could have led to an error
• PDF/Print: text with character spacing <> 0 was wrong positioned., strike-through text had strike-through line slightly shorter than the text
• Multi-user refresh: refreshing secondary TOCs did not work in multiuser-mode
• Topic editor: topic status combo was not updated after adding a custom topic status  in Config > Common, also fixed: a rare word break bug with Russian texts
• SVG images in Word/DOCX export: image quality has been improved, the converted PNG will have the actually displayed size of the SVG (or the original SVG size, whichever is larger)
• Invalid characters in style names: Some characters like the hyphen (-) that can cause problems in CSS style names are no longer allowed when naming styles. In existing styles they will be converted to underscores (_) on publishing.

Download the Help+Manual Update:

Please download the update to Help+Manual 7.3.2 from our download page and install over your existing installation of Help+Manual.

Premium Pack 3.35 with V3 EWriter Skins

Together with the Help+Manual 7.3.2 maintenance update we are pleased to announce the release of Premium Pack 3.35. This update introduces a new set of  V3 skins for Help+Manual’s increasingly popular EWriter help format. The new skins bring V3’s lighting-fast topic browsing to EWriter, along with a wide range of advanced functions.

See the Premium Pack Change Log for a full list of changes and improvements in this update.

How to Get the Premium Pack Update:

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 Premium Pack 3. 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.