HelpSmith is a

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

-based

help authoring tool A Help Authoring Tool or HAT is a software program used by technical writers to create online help systems. Functions The basic functions of a Help Authoring Tool (HAT) can be divided into the following categories: File input HATs obtain their s ...

published by Divcom Software. HelpSmith allows a

technical writer A technical writer is a professional information communicator whose task is to transfer information between two or more parties, through any medium that best facilitates the transfer and comprehension of the information. Technical writers researc ...

to create documentation in various formats, such as HTML Help (CHM), Web Help (

HTML The HyperText Markup Language or HTML is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It can be assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and scripting languages such as JavaScri ...

-based help system),

PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...

, and

ePub EPUB is an e-book file format that uses the ".epub" file extension. The term is short for ''electronic publication'' and is sometimes styled ''ePub''. EPUB is supported by many e-readers, and compatible software is available for most smartphones ...

. Also HelpSmith includes screen capture and image annotation tools.

History

Version 1.0 of HelpSmith was released in 2007 as a help authoring tool that had support for a single HTML Help (CHM) format. On February 7, 2008, HelpSmith was presented on the Giveaway of the Day website where the product received initial feedback and feature requests from its users. Over the past few years, HelpSmith has obtained support for the major documentation formats, support for High DPI displays, improvements to the user interface, and other enhancements.

Key features

Similarly to common help authoring tools, HelpSmith includes a

word processor A word processor (WP) is a device or computer program that provides for input, editing, formatting, and output of text, often with some additional features. Word processor (electronic device), Early word processors were stand-alone devices ded ...

to edit the content of help topics, customizable templates, user-defined variables, the ability to import existing documentation, media files management tools, support for various output formats, conditional compilation capabilities, and other functions.

Image editing capabilities

The integrated Image Tool can be used by a technical writer to capture screenshots of an application or website, and to add annotations for elements demonstrated on a screenshot. The Image Tool also has support for control annotations which can be used for creation of

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine f ...

documentation.

Awards

* On the

G2 Crowd G2.com, formerly G2 Crowd, is a peer-to-peer review site headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It was known as G2 Labs, Inc. until 2013. The company was launched in May 2012 by former BigMachines employees, with a focus on aggregating user reviews ...

website, HelpSmith has been marked as a high performer (Fall 2020, Winter 2021) in the category of "help authoring tool" (HAT) software, and is placed in the list of top help authoring tools. The G2 Crowd score is based on the ratings from real users, which takes into account the factors, such as the ease of use, ease of setup, quality of support, compliance with requirements, and others. * On October 30, 2019, Visual Studio Magazine announced the winners of its 26th annual Reader's Choice Awards where HelpSmith was chosen as the Silver winner in the "help authoring" category. * On January 27, 2021, Visual Studio Magazine announced the winners of its 27th annual Reader's Choice Awards where HelpSmith was chosen as the Silver winner in the "help authoring" category.

Licensing terms

HelpSmith is available as a free trial version that can be downloaded for evaluation purposes from the official website. A single-user (per seat) license allows a customer to install HelpSmith Standard or HelpSmith Professional Edition on the main computer, and on a second computer, such as laptop. A multiple-user (floating) license allows a customer to install HelpSmith Terminal Server Edition on a

terminal server A terminal server connects devices with a serial port to a local area network (LAN). Products marketed as terminal servers can be very simple devices that do not offer any security functionality, such as data encryption and user authentication ...

in the client/server environment for concurrent usage by multiple users.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official website
Online help Technical communication tools Screenshot software