The latest version of WebHelp includes new features that give you a more sophisticated level of control over your projects. Also, added navigation features make your projects easier for end users to navigate.
WebHelp gives you cross-platform, browser-independent HTML-based Help. Virtually any browser can be used to access WebHelp. Your Help projects can be accessed from a variety of platforms including UNIX, Linux, Macintosh, and Windows 3.1, 95, 98, NT 4.0, and 2000. WebHelp is designed for application Help projects, standalone projects, online documentation, and intranet/Internet Web pages.
WebHelp has been thoroughly tested with Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator on a wide variety of platforms, ensuring that WebHelp projects run seamlessly on all end-user configurations.
Customizable in-topic navigation bar: The in-topic navigation bar in WebHelp is now completely customizable. Pick and choose from different elements such as a hide/show navigation pane button, browse sequences buttons, or a WebSearch button. You can further customize each element by assigning your own image or text.
Sync TOC: Another customizable element you can add to the in-topic navigation bar is the Sync TOC (synchronize table of contents) button. As users navigate to various topics through links or jumps in the right-hand (topic) pane, the table of contents no longer reflects the current topic. Pressing the Sync TOC button fixes this problem by synchronizing the table of contents with the topic currently displayed in the topic pane.
Compressed table of contents, index, and full-text search: Behind the scenes, WebHelp now compresses your table of contents, index, and full-text search files. Compression can reduce the size of these files a dramatic 65-95%. This in turn reduces the size of your WebHelp project and makes distribution easier. The smaller size also decreases the amount of time that is required to download these files to your users, which can be significant for large projects.
JavaScript: RoboHELP uses JavaScript to manage compatibility issues related to the various browser and operating system differences that occur in your end users' environment. In previous versions of WebHelp, RoboHELP embedded this JavaScript into each topic page. This JavaScript addition increased the size of each individual file. To alleviate this problem and remove the extra code, JavaScript used for this purpose is now referenced in an external JavaScript file. Any custom scripts you add, and any added by the program for such things as Dynamic HTML, will continue to be embedded into the topic page itself.
Smart Publishing Wizard: After you generate WebHelp files, you have the option to copy or "publish" the files. The Smart Publishing Wizard enables you to easily publish files or folders to different locations such as a corporate intranet, Internet site, or even a local or network drive. The publishing wizard is "smart" because it only publishes files that are newer and different than the last time the files were published.