Help & Manual Capabilities

Please post all questions and comments regarding Help & Manual 7 here.

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LinBrowne
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Joined: Tue Mar 08, 2016 3:19 pm

Help & Manual Capabilities

Unread post by LinBrowne »

Hi there
I'm a brand new user - never worked on H&M until today and I have a few questions that I couldn't find answers to on the internet.

The first one is - does H&M interact with Captivate?

The second one is - can you allocate sections of the Help file or Manual to certain users? For instance - Only Managers have access to Reports - so if they open up the Help menu only they can see the section on Reports. Or If Clerks have access to a certain part of the system but Nurses don't - the Clerks can see it but not the Nurses. Is there a way to 'tag' sections for certain Users?

I'd appreciate some feedback on this.

Thank you
LinBrowne
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Joined: Tue Mar 08, 2016 3:19 pm

Re: Help & Manual Capabilities

Unread post by LinBrowne »

Hi guys
I really need a reply on this please. We only have an evaluation copy of the system and in order to persuade management that this is the one i want I need to find out if it will meet out needs,

I like the layout of the system and the user-friendliness, but unfortunately with an evaluation copy I am not getting all the features that it has, so would like some input from regular users please.
Tobias Escher
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Re: Help & Manual Capabilities

Unread post by Tobias Escher »

To my knowledge with the trial you _do_ get all features.
At least I am sure I did when I trialed H+M6 two years ago.
LinBrowne
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Re: Help & Manual Capabilities

Unread post by LinBrowne »

Okay thank you for that, but still my questions remain unanswered,

Can you import a Captivate file into H&M? Or does H&M have another product similar to Captivate that can integrate?

And the other question about 'tagging' certain parts of the manual for certain user types?
Simon Dismore
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Location: London, UK

Re: Help & Manual Capabilities

Unread post by Simon Dismore »

Lin, you might get more/faster answers if you re-post your question in the main Help & Manual 7 forum, or ask Tim Green (forum administrator) to move this thread for you. This "off topic" forum isn't very active, and anyway your questions seem on topic to me. I don't work for ec-software, btw. What follows is just my personal opinion.

I believe Captivate can output a wide variety of file types. Perhaps when you re-post your question you could make clear what type of captivate output you want to present via Help & Manual, and using which of H&M's help formats (e.g. PDF, CHM, WebHelp etc). Captivate's online help says it can output as HTML5. That approach gives you a lot of possibilities when working with H&M's WebHelp format, including being able to embed lessons within topics. You might like to check out H&M's tutorial project for online video and media for ideas, and try the 'InteractiveMedia.hmxz' example installed with H&M.

As for the different versions of help for managers vs clerks etc. In the H&M editor you can tag source material by security role, product etc., and you can use this to create custom output for different audiences. See One Source - Different Versions and Conditions and Customized Output, and try the 'CondOutput.hmxz' example.

The fact that H&M can publish multiple versions of help for different audiences means that you have to publish each version in a distinct location, and find a way to distinguish which version each user should be connected to. That's not impossible, but it depends on details of how your application works, and in particular how it invokes help. If everything is local, you can just give the managers a different CHM or PDF. If it's a web app, you'd need to integrate webhelp with the app's Identity and Access Management (IAM). You'd need to ask the app developers whether that's feasible.

One other thought, if you won't be offended! It seems you're having to make an urgent procurement decision based on relatively advanced features of the product? If you do decide to go ahead with H&M there might be a non-trivial learning curve before you will be confident about these advanced features. That's fine if you have the time and bandwidth, but might be challenging if delivery is urgent.
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Tim Green
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Re: Help & Manual Capabilities

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Lin,

I've moved this topic to the Help & Manual 7 forum because it is actually off topic in the Off Topic forum.

On the question with Adobe Captivate: The answer to this depends a lot on the help format you are using and the type of Captivate content you want to embed. If you can output what you need as a single MP4 video file it is no problem at all.

If you want to include the entire Captivate "package" of files this is also possible, but the Captivate content needs to be on a web server. If you are using WebHelp for display in a web browser it just needs to be in another folder on the same server as your WebHelp. If you are using a CHM file it will need to either be on the Internet where it is always available when the user is viewing the file, or on a known local intranet server that is guaranteed to be available to the user when they are viewing the help file.

Depending on which method you want to use (single MP4 file or full interactive package) I can provide detailed instructions on how to do it. Just let me know.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

Private support:
Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
LinBrowne
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Joined: Tue Mar 08, 2016 3:19 pm

Re: Help & Manual Capabilities

Unread post by LinBrowne »

Thanks guys for the advice. I wasn't sure what topic to post it under. It wasn't a main-stream query from what I saw of all the other posts.

All the questions were answered thanks to Tim Green. He has cleared up all the queries. I have tested it and it does play Captivate video, and as for the query about being able to print according to job titles - it can do that too - I found that by re-reading the New Features section of the manual. Simon thanks for your help too - you showed me where to go looking for things next time.

I am grateful for all the help.
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Tim Green
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Re: Help & Manual Capabilities

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Lin,

Glad to hear you got this sorted out. One important point: When you create an entire Captivate "package" with an HTML file and all the other files -- for example for one of their interactive demonstrations -- you need to use a special method for getting it integrated. We are going to make this easier in the future, but at the moment you have to do this:
  1. Put the entire "package" in its own folder on your web server. This needs to be accessible from the computer where you are doing your editing with Help & Manual because you need to run it while you are editing.
  2. In Help & Manual, select the "Custom Web Content" option.
  3. Enter the full URL to the HTML file in the package in the URL: field. This must include the http:// or https:// prefix. Then you will be able to play the presentation to get the poster image
If you can't get access to the package on the web server while you are editing you need to create the poster image manually by taking a screenshot of it while you are playing it, or using another image with the appropriate dimensions. Put the image file in your project folder (its name should contain no spaces!). Then you just enter the URL and choose Load Image from File instead of the play option.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

Private support:
Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
LinBrowne
Posts: 15
Joined: Tue Mar 08, 2016 3:19 pm

Re: Help & Manual Capabilities

Unread post by LinBrowne »

Hi Tim
Interesting. NOT how I would have done it. Thank you very much. Info saved for when I get to that section.
Lin
Simon Dismore
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Re: Help & Manual Capabilities

Unread post by Simon Dismore »

LinBrowne wrote:I am grateful for all the help.
My pleasure – I hope the project goes well for you.
LinBrowne
Posts: 15
Joined: Tue Mar 08, 2016 3:19 pm

Re: Help & Manual Capabilities

Unread post by LinBrowne »

One more thing - as we are just about to make the purchase for the full system. Is it necessary to spend the extra $99 for the Premium Pack? We have one product, for which we are going to produce 1 manual, 1 help file and 1 e-learning.
Thanks again
Simon Dismore
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Location: London, UK

Re: Help & Manual Capabilities

Unread post by Simon Dismore »

LinBrowne wrote:Is it necessary to spend the extra $99 for the Premium Pack? We have one product, for which we are going to produce 1 manual, 1 help file and 1 e-learning.
No doubt Tim will explain the advantages. FYI the Premium Pack webhelp (created using PP) can give some idea of what it can produce. I think you get a 25% discount if you buy the PP at the same time as H&M, i.e. it adds about $75 to the price.
Simon Dismore
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Location: London, UK

Re: Help & Manual Capabilities

Unread post by Simon Dismore »

Per this Mon Nov 16, 2015 post...
Tim Green wrote:You can see a beta demo here, which you can view on desktop, tablet or phones. This page demonstrates the embedded help and webhelp field level popup features.
LinBrowne
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Joined: Tue Mar 08, 2016 3:19 pm

Re: Help & Manual Capabilities

Unread post by LinBrowne »

Thanks for all the help guys. We bought the product and I'm learning the in's and out's of it. So far it is working a treat.

I still have a few questions but if I can't work them out myself by trial and error (there's a lot of that going around at the moment), I'll post again here. You've all been really helpful.

Lin
LinBrowne
Posts: 15
Joined: Tue Mar 08, 2016 3:19 pm

Re: Help & Manual Capabilities

Unread post by LinBrowne »

Tim Green wrote:Hi Lin,

Glad to hear you got this sorted out. One important point: When you create an entire Captivate "package" with an HTML file and all the other files -- for example for one of their interactive demonstrations -- you need to use a special method for getting it integrated. We are going to make this easier in the future, but at the moment you have to do this:
  1. Put the entire "package" in its own folder on your web server. This needs to be accessible from the computer where you are doing your editing with Help & Manual because you need to run it while you are editing.
  2. In Help & Manual, select the "Custom Web Content" option.
  3. Enter the full URL to the HTML file in the package in the URL: field. This must include the http:// or https:// prefix. Then you will be able to play the presentation to get the poster image
If you can't get access to the package on the web server while you are editing you need to create the poster image manually by taking a screenshot of it while you are playing it, or using another image with the appropriate dimensions. Put the image file in your project folder (its name should contain no spaces!). Then you just enter the URL and choose Load Image from File instead of the play option.
Hi Tim and others
I have another question please on this. We would like to LINK to the video rather than have it play in our webhelp. We'd like it to play in a pop up rather. The reason for this is because we want to use small videos in multiple places within the webhelp. Obviously we don't want these huge video's all over the place, and as you it plays the size it's created in the webhelp. So, for instance, they want to know how to save a document, click on the link in the manual and get the "saving a document" video clip.

Can I do this? The video clips that are being used are MP4's... unless you recommend another format. Obviously the link must point to where we are saving the videos on the webserver. Is it just a normal link then?

Thanks
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