HelpStudio [3.0 5-Users with Subscription Windows]

Multiple Language Authoring

• HelpStudio is the only mainstream Help Authoring Tool to allow you author multiple languages within a single project.
• Define your Topics, Table of Contents, Index Keywords once and manage each language you wish to localize to within the same project. Easily switch between locales, open the same Topic in different locales and track localization tasks all from within HelpStudio.
• Use the enhanced XML Import / Export wizard if you need to send content for localization. Content timestamps ensure that you are always on top of what content requires localization.

Widgets

• Widgets are a revolutionary concept in help content authoring, unique to HelpStudio. Widgets allow you to create and edit complex content (such as drop down sections, expand-in-place images, note boxes, includes etc.). Widgets are stored as XML but are edited in a WYSIWYG environment.
• Widgets reduce authoring effort, encourage consistency and allow you to easily enhance or adjust content over time without requiring rework. Widgets can be defined or modified at the template, project or Build Profile level, providing the ultimate in authoring flexbility and productivity.

Feedback

• HelpStudio includes comprehensive support for gathering and analyzing feedback from the users of your help system. The standard templates include the ability to generate a feedback form within your Topics, which works in combination with a .NET web application (a license for which is included with HelpStudio) to allow users to provide rating and feedback information directly from the help system.

Source Control

• Team Foundation Server and SourceGear Vault are now natively supported, along with generic support for MSSCCI providers including Subversion and Perforce.

Working with Styles

• Style Editor: Integrated Style editor dialog provides a rich UI for creating and editing style information.
• Style Picker: A new Style Picker window provides a WYSIWYG preview of the available styles for the current selection. Simply click on a style to apply it to the current selection.
• Stylesheet Editor: A fully integrated Stylesheet editor is now included.

Topic Editor

• Page Map: Selecting, moving and manipulating content elements in HTML editors can be fiddly and frustrating. The page map has been designed to provide a clear visual indication of the elements in the page being edited, together with quick and simple ways of selecting and manipulating each element. The position of the elements in the page map corresponds with their position in the page, thereby providing a map of how content is structured, with the current element highlighted. Elements in the page map can be moved using drag and drop, and a context menu provides simple access to element properties, Cut/Copy/Paste, Remove functionality and editing of the elements HTML source.
• Element Bar: The Element Bar provides a view of the current selections element hierarchy in the content editor. Elements that appear in the Element bar can be selected, edited and manipulated using a right-click context menu.
• HTML Source Intellisense: The HTML source editor now includes basic intellisense for tags and attributes.
• Undo/ Redo history preserved: Undo / Redo history is preserved (where possible) when switching between Visual, HTML edit and Preview modes.
• Convert Row to Header: A new table command has been added to allow a table row to be converted to a table header row with one click.

See Also Links

• Auto See Also Links: See Also links can be defined as derived from Topic Categories (a See Also link for each member of a category) or other Topics (a See Also link created for each link defined in a particular other Topic.
• Auto See Also Category: See Also links can be set to automatically use the Topic Category assigned to the target topic, to reduce maintenance if categorizations change over time.

Topic Properties

• Custom Topic Properties: Can be defined to allow non content information to be tracked against Topics.
• Custom Topic Status Codes: The options dialog now includes a page to allow Topic Status codes to be customized.
• Property Filters: The Node Properties, Topic Properties and Booklet Properties grids now include a toolbar to allow the displayed properties to be filtered. This feature allows you to conserve screen space and focus on the properties that you are working with at a particular point in time.
• Help 2.x XML Island: A new property and editor for defining Help 2.x attributes in Topics has been added to the Topic Properties when working in a project containing at least one Help 2.x build profile.

Hyperlink Designer

• Hyperlink Title Synchronization: Hyperlinks can now automatically synchronize the caption with the target Topic title. A new option has been added to the hyperlink dialog - 'Automatically synchronize link caption with target Topic title'. This option ensures that the link caption is always the same as the target Topic title, avoiding having to update links when the target Topic changes.
• Help 2.x link designer: A redesigned Help 2.x link designer allows you to view and click on the Table of Contents of any installed Help 2.x namespace to choose the link target. The link designer will suggest the link type (URL or associative keyword) depending on the content of the target topic.
• Document! X Filtering: Document! X items that have been excluded from the Included Modules list in the Document! X project are now excluded from the tree in the hyperlink designer dialog.

Booklets

• Booklet Index: PDF Booklets can now contain a full Index.
• Booklet Glossary: PDF Booklets can now contain the Glossary.
• New Booklet Templates: 2 new Booklet Templates have been added to provide a range of different booklet styles.

Output

• Breadcrumbs: The default templates now include a Breadcrumbs Bar. The Breadcrumbs Bar is a line of text below the title banner identifying the current Topics parent nodes in the Table of Contents.
• Browser Help Toolbar: A toolbar is now included in Browser Help output providing access to new functionality including quick search, print, refresh, back, and forward as well as quick access to the Table of Contents, Index, Full Text Search and Favorites.
• Browser Help Index Search: The index can now be searched by typing a term into a text box at the head of the Index page.
• Browser Help Search Highlight: Search terms can be highlighted when navigating to the results of a full text search in Browser Help output.
• XHTML Output: An option has been added to the Build Profile to allow the generation of XHTML output.

New Project Tools

• Glossary Preview: The Glossary can now be previewed without having to build the output.
• Project Index Editor: Allows Index Keywords to be edited from a project wide viewpoint. Keywords can still be created, edited and removed from the Topic Index Keywords window when working with a particular Topic.
• Unused Images Tool: A new Tool has been added to allow the identification of images that are included in the Project Explorer but are no longer used in the project content.

Project Explorer

• Clone Topics, Build Profiles and Booklets: A new clone command has been added to the Project Explorer toolbar to make it quick and easy to create new items based on an existing item.
• Topic Caption: A new option has been added to allow the caption used for Topics on the Project Explorer to be customized.
• Filter: The Project Explorer can now be filtered on Build Profile and / or Topic Status. The filter can also be used to show only Topics that have not been included in the Table of Contents.

Other New Features

• Runtime merge: Support for runtime merging multiple help files, both in HTML Help 1.x and Help 2.x.
• Print Topic: A Print command has been added to allow Topics to be printed from HelpStudio when in preview mode.
• Thumbnail Options: An options dialog is now displayed when 'Convert to Thumbnail' is used, allowing the thumbnail and drop shadow options to be confirmed or modified.
• Regular expressions in Find and Replace: Project Find and Replace now supports the use of Regular Expressions, as does the Find and Replace box (in HTML source mode).
• Build Flags for Other Files: It is now possible to apply build flags to other files (images, stylesheets etc.) to avoid including them in a particular output.
• Build Flags against Keywords and See Also links: Build flags can now be assigned to individual Index Keywords or See Also links.

Output

• Pure HTML Output For cross-platform help or where a browser based help system is required, HelpStudio delivers the same level of functionality you would find in a compiled help system including index, table of contents and full text search (with search term highlighting).
• PDF Booklets HelpStudio can generate PDF Booklets natively. Adobe software or a PDF printer driver are not required.
• Microsoft HTML Help Microsoft HTML Help is the windows standard help format.
• Microsoft Help 2.x Microsoft Help 2.x is the help format used in Visual Studio .NET and MSDN. As well as native Help 2.x output support, HelpStudio includes an advanced Help 2.x link designer that makes it quick and easy to link to content in other Help 2.x help files.
• Dynamic Help HelpStudio allows you to create dynamic help files, for integration directly in to your applications user interface using the HelpStudio Dynamic Help SDK, or for integration with the Visual Studio.NET dynamic help system. Dynamic help windows are a highly effective way of providing context sensitive help to your users.
• Popup Help For Visual Basic applications, the HelpStudio Popup Help designer can be used to create simple popup help to complement a full help system.
• Build Profiles Build to multiple different outputs, using different Build Flags to control conditional content. Great for producing 'Lite' and 'Professional' versions of a help system from a single project (for example).

Content Authoring

• Import HelpStudio can import existing content from HTML files, HTML Help projects, Help 2.x projects, other HelpStudio projects or Word documents.
• Topic Editor With a wealth of time saving features, the HelpStudio topic editor makes it quick and easy to create your help content.
• Content Widgets Customizable Content Widgets speed the creation or complex help content, including drop down sections, expand in place images or tip boxes. Content Widgets are fully extendable - add common content to improve consistency and save time.
• Dynamic Spell Check Dynamic spell check (red wavey line) in the Topic editor, Table of Contents editor and Project Explorer.
• Hyperlink Designer Point and click definition of hyperlinks and See Also links, including links to Document! X content (if Document! X integration is used).
• Glossary Editor Create a set of Glossary terms and HelpStudio will automatically create a formatted Glossary and replace use of the terms within topic content with a popup box containing the glossary term definition.
• Conditional Content Mark content, Table of Contents nodes or Topics with a build flag in order to create multiple versions of the same help system from a single project.
• Multi Language Authoring HelpStudio allows you to work with any number of additional languages in addition to the primary language of your project. Define the project structure and Table of Contents just once and then localize for the additional languages in the same familiar HelpStudio environment or work with 3rd party translation providers using the HelpStudio XML Import / Export Wizard.
• Project Properties Create properties containing common information (e.g. a support email address, or a product name) that can then be used in Topic content, Topic Titles or Table of Contents nodes. If the common information changes, it only then needs updating in one place.
• Full Unicode Support HelpStudio supports Unicode throughout, including Japanese, Chinese and Korean.
• Custom Topic Properties Define custom properties that you would like to track against Topics. Work with the properties alongside the built in ones in the Topic Properties window.

Project Tools

• Find and Replace Find or Replace across the whole project, including Table of Contents node captions, Topic titles, Glossary terms.
• Spell Check Check the spelling of the entire project with a single click. Save time and effort by only checking topics changed since the last project spell check and adding technical terms to the project 'Ignore word' list.
• Link Verifier Ensuring that all the hyperlinks and See Also links used within your project is key to delivering a quality help system. The HelpStudio Link Verifier makes this quick and simple. Each suspect link can be easily edited directly from the results list.
• Task Management Create and manage outstanding tasks, associated with a particular Topic if required. Use tasks statuses to track completion of outstanding tasks.
• Unused Images Easily identify any 'legacy' image files that are no longer used in any content using the Find Unused Images tool. Remove them from the project with a single click.

Working with Images
Screen Capture Integrated screen capture functionality allows you to effortlessly capture screen shots, including the generation of thumbnails. HelpStudios unique 're-capture' feature makes it quick and easy to update screen shots when your applications user interface changes.
Image Editor An image editor containing a range of image manipulation functionality ideally suited to help authoring tasks.
User Interface Mapper A unique tool for adding annotation and effects (mosaic, gray scale, color wash) to screen shots.

Integrating Help

• Context ID Mapper If your application already has a .h file containing help context IDs (i.e. if you are developing in Delphi or C++), the integrated Context ID mapper can be used to relate topics to your applications user interface.
• Visual Basic 6 Topic Mapper Visually map Topics to your Visual Basic applications from directly within the Visual Basic IDE.
• Dynamic Help Window Dynamic help windows are a highly effective way of providing context sensitive help to your users. Integrating a dynamic help window within your application is possible using the HelpStudio Dynamic Help SDK.
• Visual Studio .NET Integrate end user help with your .NET application using the .NET Help Provider component. Easily Integrate your .NET component or AddIn Help system into Visual Studio .NET using InnovaHxReg, a freely distributable Help 2.x registration tool. Create content for the Visual Studio .NET Dynamic Help Window using the HelpStudio Dynamic Help Editor.

Customization

• Template based Topic Layout HelpStudio Topics are based on a page layout template that makes it easy to create a professional layout quickly and to customize and adapt the layout over time without having to modify each Topic individually.
• Automation and Extensibility HelpStudio offers an unrivaled documented API for creating, manipulating and building projects and extending / automating the User Interface.
• Customizable Toolbars and Windows The Helpstudio toolbars and dock window layouts are preserved, allowing you to customize the User Interface to your requirements.
• Widgets Customizable content helpers that speed the creation of dynamic help content. Widgets are fully extendable - add common content to improve consistency and save time.

Team working and Collaboration

• Source Control Integration HelpStudio integrates with Visual SourceSafe, Team Foundation Server, SourceGear Vault as well as other source control systems implementing an MSCCI interface for version control, access control and collaboration functionality.
• Task Management Create and manage outstanding tasks to track and guide team efforts on a help project.
• Topic Status Use the Topic status indicator to track the completion of Topics.

User Interface: The HelpStudio user interface includes advanced features such as collapsible dock windows, customizable toolbars and a Tabbed MDI document area. The Tabbed MDI as implemented in HelpStudio allows you to split the document area into Tab Groups in order to work with multiple topics or other document windows side by side - that's a feature you may not find elsewhere.

• The Template Concept: HelpStudio leverages HTML based page templates so that common page elements such as page header and footers are automatically generated. This feature is a crucial time saver, and ensures that as you evolve the look and feel of your help systems you don't have to go back and rework individual topics.
• Project Tools: HelpStudio can verify links, check spelling and Find / Replace across an entire project.
• Content Editor: The HelpStudio content editor provides powerful authoring functionality including table editing (row, column or cell cut/copy/paste, resize), unlimited undo, hyperlink designer and build flag highlighting.
• Content Widgets: Delivering great help content often requires a trade off between the time invested in creating dynamic content and the benefits it brings to the users of the content. With HelpStudio, you no longer need to comprimise - Widgets allow you to deliver dynamic content (e.g. drop down sections, enlarge in place images, colorized example code) without requiring any manual authoring effort and with no need to have HTML or Javascript knowledge. Simply drop a pre-defined Widget in your content and HelpStudio will take care of the rest.
• Multi Language Authoring: HelpStudio allows you to work with any number of additional languages in addition to the primary language of your project. Define the project structure and Table of Contents just once and then localize for the additional languages. Easily switch between locales, track the localization status of any project item and work with 3rd party translation providers using the HelpStudio XML Import / Export Wizard.
• Dynamic Help SDK: HelpStudio allows you to integrate a Dynamic Help window (as implemented in Visual Studio.NET) into your application. The Dynamic Help SDK includes an integrated Dynamic Help editor and a redistributable Dynamic Help control. You can also create content for integration in the Visual Studio.NET dynamic help window.
• Automation and Extensibility: HelpStudio includes a comprehensive automation and extensibility API. Automate help system builds and extend the HelpStudio IDE - the possibilities are endless.
• Team working: Working in a team and want several members to contribute to or review the help system? HelpStudio has fully integrated support for Source code Control systems (Visual SourceSafe, Team Foundation Server, SourceGear Vault as well as other source control systems implementing an MSCCI interface). Unlike other Help Authoring tools, HelpStudio does not require that you check the project in and out as a whole - individual team members can independently work with different Topics, even the Table of Contents and Glossary in the same project - simultaneously. The source control functionality is integrated directly into the HelpStudio user interface.

HelpStudio is available with or without a subscription. A subscription license provides you with the following benefits:

• Unlimited priority support for the duration of the subscription license
• Product enhancement updates for the duration of the subscription license
• Guaranteed free update to the next major release, even if that release falls outside the period of your subscription license