EC Software has released Help & Manual version 4, a major upgrade of their popular help authoring application.

Help & Manual is a stand-alone help authoring tool (HAT) that simplifies the production of Windows help files, PDF manuals and documentation in general. It lets authors and programmers create and edit online help projects and export them to a variety of file formats: HTML Help, Winhelp, Microsoft Help 2.0, Adobe PDF, Word documents, e-books and a completely new platform independent web-based help.

This new web-based format is HTML with JavaScript and includes a dynamic navigation pane. It has a collapsible table of contents, a keyword index and full-text search. The format works with all languages, including all Asian languages, and is truly cross-browser and cross-platform. The navigation functionality is dynamic at runtime: If the browser supports JavaScript the web-based help offers full JavaScript functionality. But if the browser doesn't, it gracefully downgrades the functionality, guaranteeing that readers can view the content, no matter which operating system or browser they use. In a word, it is the perfect online help format for the growing range of web applications.

Help & Manual handles all the complexities of help formatting with its built-in WYSIWYG editor. The word-processor-style interface is clear and easy to use. Designing a table of contents, a keyword index, and context-sensitive help are fully integrated. Using simple drag-and-drop, you can create hyperlinks to other topics and quickly compile your entire project or individual pages to test your work. The program's text editor has been completely redesigned, and contains all of the features that you would expect in a top-flight help authoring tool. Version 4 includes full Unicode support. It has cascading style sheets for different media types, conditional text, supports embedding of content fragments and  customizable build options.

Experienced help authors can get under the hood and insert their own HTML code, change the code the program uses to generate projects and manipulate topic templates. It gives you the best of both worlds: A simple interface to write the content while effectively separating the content from the layout.

Help & Manual comes with several additional tools rarely found in other packages. There is a built-in screen capture function, an image editor optimized for screen shots and a manual designer to customize the layout of print and PDF manuals.

The tool's import capabilities have been much improved with version 4. Help & Manual supports all popular input formats, including HTML and text files, compiled HTML Help, Winhelp, Word and RTF documents, and Macromedia RoboHelp projects.

Help & Manual runs under Windows 98SE/Me/2000/XP/2003 Server. Prices start at $299(US) for the standard version and $459 for the Professional Edition. You can download a fully-functional 14-day trial version from http://www.helpandmanual.com. For more information, contact:

EC Software, Suedtirolerstrasse 1, 5201 Seekirchen, Austria. Phone +43 6212 30235 Fax +43 6212 30236 Email: sales@ec-software.com Internet: http://www.ec-software.com/