Below you will find the full list of enhancements and fixes of HelpSmith 5.0:
A New Ribbon Style User Interface
- More comfortable working with a modern and intuitive user interface.
- Added a Mini toolbar to quickly format text while working with the built-in word processor.
A Single Table of Contents Tree
Now HelpSmith uses a single Table of Contents tree to edit and organize the help project structure instead of the separate Topic and TOC trees used in previous versions.
Added Adobe PDF Output Format
- Hyperlinks to topics, to bookmarks, and hyperlinks to external URLs now work in PDF documents.
- Added a special system build tag (“PDF”) that corresponds to the given output format.
- Added a PDF-related tab to re-define the view of a dynamic style.
- The possibility to create PDF Outlines (Bookmarks Tab in Adobe Reader).
- Now it is possible to apply compression, encryption, and font embedding options to a PDF document.
- Added the possibility to save an individual help topic as a PDF document.
Added MS Word (RTF) Output Format
- Hyperlinks to topics, to bookmarks, and hyperlinks to external URLs now work in Word documents.
- Printed Manual document’s Header and Footer can now be exported to a Word document.
- Added a special system build tag (“Word”) that corresponds to the given output format.
- Added a Word-related tab to re-define the view of a dynamic style.
- Added the possibility to save an individual help topic as a Word document.
Improvements to the Media Repository
- Significantly lower use of memory on help projects containing a big number of images, fixed the “out of memory” error on large help projects.
- Opening and saving help projects containing a big number of images is now faster.
- The files and folders that have been deleted from the media repository are now also deleted from the project’s media folder when the help project is saved.
- Fixed the problem after renaming the project file and its media folder, the program did not open the images.
- A help project with empty media repository now does not create a media folder.
- Searching for files by name is now available in the media repository window.
- Now it is possible to view the selected image in its actual size.
- Added sorting of files and folders.
- Added drag-and-drop support.
Web Help
- On the Index tab in a Web Help system it is now possible to enter and search for nested keywords separated with a comma.
- The Web Help system ignored the #anchor name in a direct link to help topic’s file.
- Nested keywords are now sorted as well as root-level keywords on the Index tab.
HTML Help
- Some help projects could not be compiled as HTML Help due to an internal error of the HHC.exe compiler. A workaround has been implemented.
- Other optimizations to avoid potential issues when compiling large help projects as HTML Help.
Printed Manual
- Added the possibility to automatically fit big images in the printed manual document to the page size.
- Hyperlinks now work in the Print Preview window when viewing the generated printed manual.
- Dots in the Table of Contents did not display properly on some scale values.
Compilation from the Command Line
- Added switches for the PDF and Word formats.
- Added the possibility to apply build tags.
- Added a switch (/nc) to close the console window without a confirmation after a successful compilation.
- Command line compilation did not process some system variables in the help project.
Import from HHP and CHM files
- Bookmarks in imported Table of Contents and Index are now supported.
- The #include keyword in FILES, MAPS, and ALIAS sections of a HHP file is now supported.
- Better support for relative paths.
Other improvements and changes
- New customizable topic statuses that can be indicated with different colors.
- By default, the style tree now does not display the automatically created styles. This parameter can be changed in program options.
- The variables whose format depends on the regional standards (e.g. date, time) are now processed using the project’s Language parameter.
- The list of recent help projects now allows you to pin frequently used files and folders. Also, it is now possible to delete unnecessary items.
- Added the possibility to search topics in the Project Merge dialog box.
- Bookmarks are not ignored anymore when importing an HTML file.
- The RTF export engine now supports hyperlinks, bookmarks, horizontal lines, and document header and footer area.
Bug fixes
- An alternative view of a style defined for a specific output format did not work in some cases.
- Fixed an error message that appeared after editing properties of a style.
- The program hanged up when choosing a code page when importing a text file.
- Word processor: A line break symbol disappeared when selecting it in the “Show Non-Printing Characters” mode.
- Word processor: The program hanged up after deleting all cells, rows or columns of a table and going to another help topic.
- After adding a word to the user dictionary in the Spell Checking window, the word is no longer indicated as misspelled in the word processor.
Download HelpSmith
You can download the latest HelpSmith version by clicking this link.
How to Upgrade?
If you are a registered HelpSmith user for less than a year, you can get a free upgrade. In other cases, if you have a license for a previous HelpSmith version, you can upgrade to the latest version with a 50% discount! You can place your upgrade order by visiting this link.