HelpNDoc ( ) is a
Windows
Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
-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 ...
published by French compan
IBE Software
Features
HelpNDoc allows the writer to create a
single source text which it then converts to a number of target formats such as:
* CHM (
HTML Help)
*
PDF
Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...
*
RTF
*
DocX
*
Qt Help
*
HTML
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It defines the content and structure of web content. It is often assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets ( ...
*
EPUB
EPUB is an e-book file format that uses the ".epub" file extension. The term is short for ''electronic publication'' and is sometimes stylized as ''ePUB''. EPUB is supported by many e-readers, and compatible software is available for most smart ...
(including
Amazon Kindle
Amazon Kindle is a series of e-readers designed and marketed by Amazon. Amazon Kindle devices enable users to browse, buy, download, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines, Audible audiobooks, and other digital media via wireless networking ...
compatible E-books)
* Markdown
HelpNDoc integrates a
WYSIWYG
In computing, WYSIWYG ( ), an acronym for what you see is what you get, refers to software that allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed document, web ...
editor which aims to look like popular word processing software such as
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word is a word processor program, word processing program developed by Microsoft. It was first released on October 25, 1983, under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platf ...
or
OpenOffice.org Writer. HelpNDoc has the ability to include variables and external files. It also has the ability to generate code for the
C++,
Delphi
Delphi (; ), in legend previously called Pytho (Πυθώ), was an ancient sacred precinct and the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient Classical antiquity, classical world. The A ...
,
Fortran,
Pascal and
Visual Basic Visual Basic is a name for a family of programming languages from Microsoft. It may refer to:
* Visual Basic (.NET), the current version of Visual Basic launched in 2002 which runs on .NET
* Visual Basic (classic), the original Visual Basic suppo ...
programming languages for integration of the generated CHM help files with the application being developed. As of version 4 HelpNDoc comes with a project analyzer that can track the document’s layout, provide statistics and identify potential problems such as broken links or problems with media items. HelpNDoc can also be used to publish mobile websites, using the table of contents as a navigation menu, the content of the topics with navigation buttons, the keyword index menu, a built-in search engine, and mobile-specific user interface elements.
Licensing terms
HelpNDoc's licensing model offers a free version of the program (Personal Edition) for personal use and three paid Editions for commercial use:
* Standard
* Professional
* Ultimate
The ''free'' version includes an advertisement at the bottom of each generated documentation page,
while the Professional / Ultimate Editions do not. The Standard Edition removes those ads from the CHM- and HTML-generated documentation.
The Ultimate Edition was first released with version 8.0 of the software. It allows you to "Encrypt and sign Word and PDF documents". These are new features that were released with 8.0.
History
* 1.0 was released to the public in December 2004 and only provided CHM and HTML documentation generation.
* 2.0.0.25 was released on May 16, 2009. Other 2.x versions followed during 2009 - 2010.
* 3.0.0.223 was released on August 23, 2011. Other 3.x versions were released during 2011 - 2013.
* 4.0.3.164 was released on October 9, 2013. Other 4.x versions were released during 2013 - 2016.
* 5.0.1.188 was released on March 7, 2017. Other 5.x versions were released during 2017 - 2018.
* 6.0.0.154 was released on March 7, 2019. Other 6x versions were released during 2019 - 2020.
* 7.0.0.199 was released on December 8, 2020.
* 7.1.0.253 was released on February 2, 2021.
* 7.1.1.256 was released on February 3, 2021.
* 7.1.2.266 was released on February 12, 2021.
* 7.1.3.270 was released on February 15, 2021.
* 7.2.0.306 was released on March 24, 2021.
* 7.3.0.348 was released on May 4, 2021.
*7.4.0.390 was released on June 15, 2021.
*7.5.0.435 was released on July 27, 2021.
*7.6.0.479 was released on September 9, 2021.
*7.7.0.519 was released on October 19, 2021.
*7.8.0.569 was released on December 7, 2021.
*7.9.0.612 was released on January 19, 2022.
*7.9.1.631 was released on February 8, 2022.
*8.0.0.187 was released on July 19, 2022.
*8.1.0.243 was released on September 13, 2022.
*8.2.0.286 was released on October 25, 2022.
*8.3.1.337 was released on December 13, 2022.
*8.4.0.372 was released on January 17, 2023.
*8.5.0.413 was released on February 28, 2023.
*8.6.0.462 was released on April 18, 2023.
*8.7.0.500 was released on May 25, 2023.
*8.8.0.547 was released on July 11, 2023.
*8.9.0.604 was released on September 5, 2023 and is the latest release.
References
{{reflist
External links
HelpNDoc home page
Help authoring tools
Pascal (programming language) software