9/7/2005 - already a Category Pick, EC Software has released Help and Manual
4 and improved on great product!
Help and Manual 3.6 - Editor's
Choice for Creating End User Documentation
I don't know about you, but I have always found writing end user
documentation for my software to be one of those essential tasks I have found
most tedious. In fact, I often put documenting my software right up there
with marketing as those things I least like about the software development
business. The trouble is both of these tasks are necessary and may be
directly related to financial success.
Some kind of documentation is almost essential and this is most often in the
form of context sensitive on-line help. This is the bare minimum that
should be included with any application and I hate to admit that I have been
guilty many time of including just that - the minimum required. One reason
for this is that creating documentation has often mean at least a two step
process. The first is to create the online help file, and the next is to
take the output and then create an end user manual. With many help
authoring programs the production of a manual which can be printed, or provided
in a form the end user can print (let them use their own toner and paper), has
been an afterthought. Yes, they may allow you to export your help file to
a word processor type format, but then you have to go back and insert screen
shots and reformat the manual before it is remotely attractive.
Enter Help and Manual! from EC
Software ! I have spent a good bit of time with this program and have to say
that the more you use, the more you will wonder how you ever got a long without
it! Don't get me wrong, I may never consider writing end user
documentation fun, but it can certainly be much less of a chore with the right
program.
EC Software has another program which will be reviewed here in 2005, TNT
Screen Capture, but that program is included as an option within Help and
Manual and makes including screen shots from your application in the end user
documentation effortless. With the release of version 3.6 you can also
easily include Flash format files in certain of the output formats to bring your
documentation to life.
Now if you had to use to one tool to create on line help and another tool to
create a manual for printing chances are you would find the extra effort not
worth the trouble. However, with Help and Manual creating multiple output
from the same source is just a click away. Options for your documentation
are:
 | Printed Manual |
| Adobe PDF |
| Browse Based HTML Help |
| HTML Help |
| Classic Winhelp |
| e-Book |
| and yes Word (rtf) format. |
This is with no extra effort on your part.
Not only does Help and Manual provide an array of output options, you can
also import help files from a variety of sources. In evaluating this
program for this review, I decided to try and import a help file I had created
with another, lower cost help creation program.
When you start a new help project you get the options seen below:
If you download a trial version of Help and Manual, and have already created
some help files with other programs try the Import a Compiled .hlp file and see
what you can do with Help and Manual to create a new and improved help file, AND
manual or other documentation format. I think you will be pleased with the
results.
In order to demonstrate this program, I wrote a kind of mini-review using
Help and Manual then created the output in several formats. It was quick
and easy. You can view the web based help
file I created, or download the help file as a .PDF
file, or as Windows .CHM Helpfile, as an E-Book,
or download a .zip file which contains the above
plus old fashioned or Classic Winhelp.
The bottom line is if you want to create professional end user documentation
and you want to do it quickly and easily, then you want Help
and Manual from EC-Software.