Current Premium Pack for H&M5 Build No: 1.53

HM5 served us well, now its time has come and it has been replaced... If you have HM5 questions, please post them here.

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Malcolm Jacobson
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Re: Current Premium Pack Build No: 1.31

Unread post by Malcolm Jacobson »

Hi Tim,

I've just tried using the Premium Pack Updater to upgrade our skins to v1.31. When I try to load one of our skins as a "Source Skin or Template" I get an invalid file error message. The error text says "Premium Pack configuration variables not found or invalid. The selected file is not a valid Premium Pack skin or template".

The skin opens fine in Help and Manual. I think it was created with version 1 of the Premium Pack.

Any ideas why this isn't recognised as a valid file?

Cheers,

Malcolm.
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Tim Green
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Re: Current Premium Pack Build No: 1.31

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Malcolm,

Try opening and re-saving the skin in Help & Manual before using it as the source. Some old skins were still saved with a different zip tool and need to be re-compressed by Help & Manual before they will read properly with the zip tool used in PPUpdater. You will also get this message if you have changed or reduced the number of variables stored in the skin, as that's how it checks whether it's valid or not.

Note that you only need to use PPUpdater to transfer your variable settings from an old skin to a new one. It doesn't update old skins, they will remain untouched. :)
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Malcolm Jacobson
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Re: Current Premium Pack Build No: 1.31

Unread post by Malcolm Jacobson »

Hi Tim,
Tim Green wrote:Try opening and re-saving the skin in Help & Manual before using it as the source. Some old skins were still saved with a different zip tool and need to be re-compressed by Help & Manual before they will read properly with the zip tool used in PPUpdater.
Yeah, I'd already tried this, without success. I haven't changed or reduced the number of variables. Looks like I will have to copy the settings by hand.

Cheers,

Malcolm.
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Tim Green
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Re: Current Premium Pack Build No: 1.31

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Malcolm,

That's odd. I can only imagine that it's a very early skin version that contains something that fails the tests I built into the updater. If you mail me a copy at the EC support address I can look into it for you.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Francis Anthony
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Re: Current Premium Pack Build No: 1.41

Unread post by Francis Anthony »

Tim said: "The new version automatically displays a warning that the help is not compatible with Android and less capable mobile devices (Blackberry, Windows CE, Series 60, Symbian). Optionally, you can also enter a web address to which users should be redirected when they view your help with one of these devices. You can also enter redirect addresses for iPhone and iPad users if you want."

I have the following questions:
  • If a reader tries accessing the mobile Help in Android and less capable mobile devices, is the Help content displayed at all? Or does H&M just display an incompatibility warning and not show the content?
  • If I specify a Web address to which users should be redirected when they view the mobile Help from less capable devices, what would this Web address be? A link to the conventional PC-optimized Help? Or something else?
  • Why would I want to specify redirect addresses for iPhone and iPad users if the mobile Help is already compatible with these devices?
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Tim Green
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Re: Current Premium Pack Build No: 1.41

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Francis,
If a reader tries accessing the mobile Help in Android and less capable mobile devices, is the Help content displayed at all? Or does H&M just display an incompatibility warning and not show the content?
You just get an incompatibility warning. It's hopeless trying to display the help on these devices so it's better to display nothing.
If I specify a Web address to which users should be redirected when they view the mobile Help from less capable devices, what would this Web address be? A link to the conventional PC-optimized Help? Or something else?
That's up to you. 8)
Why would I want to specify redirect addresses for iPhone and iPad users if the mobile Help is already compatible with these devices?
Because although it's compatible it's not optimal. A dedicated iPad skin is included with the Premium Pack that provides a radically better user experience on the iPad. This is not yet available for the iPhone but you still might want to redirect iPhone users to give them some meaningful information in another form.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Tony Corman
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Re: Current Premium Pack Build No: 1.41

Unread post by Tony Corman »

Can I simply recolorize a skin? I'm happy with layout but want to match the corporate palette. I see folders of graphical skin elements in the Source folder but no doc about how to edit them and recompile a recolored skin.
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Tim Green
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Re: Current Premium Pack Build No: 1.41

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Tony,
Tony Corman wrote:Can I simply recolorize a skin? I'm happy with layout but want to match the corporate palette. I see folders of graphical skin elements in the Source folder but no doc about how to edit them and recompile a recolored skin.
This is actually covered in the PP help chapter added to the main H&M help. The colors set with CSS values can all be adjusted with the configuration variables stored in the skin, you don't need to do any code editing there. The source graphics are all included in the source folders with the original PhotoShop multi-layer versions. You can edit those, generate new GIFs and then add them to the Baggage Files section of the skin, replacing the existing versions. That's really all you need to do. 8)
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Nancy Buckner
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Joined: Wed Jul 03, 2013 9:14 pm

Re: Current Premium Pack for H&M5 Build No: 1.53

Unread post by Nancy Buckner »

Tim Green wrote:This sticky topic lets you know the current build of the Help & Manual Premium Pack for Help & Manual 5. You can check the build that you have installed by looking at the title of the PP help chapter in the main Help & Manual help, which automatically displays the current PP build number in its title.

Getting the Download Link:
Since the introduction of the updated Premium Pack versions for Help & Manual 6, H&M 5 users need a new download link for their version of the Premium Pack. Please contact support AT ec-software.com (replace the AT with @) for details if you do not have this yet.

Change Log

New features, fixes and changes in versions 1.53
  • Blank page in WebHelp
    In some cases WebHelp would open with a blank page in Internet Explorer 9 in Standards mode.
  • Toggles becoming hidden
    Toggles after the current toggle would sometimes become hidden in IE9 and IE7 on pages with multiple toggles directly after each other. Resizing the topic window would make the toggles reappear. This affected both WebHelp and CHM on computers with IE9 installed.
  • Missing horizontal scrollbar on opening toggles with large images
    In IE9 the horizontal scrollbar would sometimes not appear when a toggle containing an image wider than the current window was opened. This affected both WebHelp and CHM on computers with IE9 installed.

New features, fixes and changes in versions 1.50
  • URL switches for navigation panes
    Addition of optional switches that can be used in WebHelp URLs to open the help with the keyword index or search panes and optionally perform a search for a specified keyword or search term. Specific topics can also be opened at the same time with the same link.
  • iOS 5 compatibility
    Apple has corrected the Safari browser history bug in iOS 5, so the Previous and Next buttons in the Safari web browser now work correctly on the iPad and iPhone. This version of the Premium Pack checks for the presence of iOS 5 on these devices and activates the Previous and Next buttons if it is present. In addition to this, single-finger scrolling now also works in the ordinary Premium Pack skins on the iPad and iPhone in iOS5, not just in the dedicated iPad skin. Performance in the iPad skin is still better, but the normal skins are now more usable on the iPad.
  • Sortable tables
    In some cases date columns in certain formats were incorrectly sorted as text or normal numbers.
  • Animated toggles
    Small refinements in animation routines, including bug handling for Internet Explorer.
  • Toggle Jump
    Small corrections for links to anchors in toggles from search and index entries.
New features, fixes and changes in version 1.41:

This is really just a maintenance update but it does add one nice little feature: animated toggles.
  • Animated toggles
    Expanding text and inline text toggles now animate smoothly instead of "snapping" open and shut. This is quick enough so that it doesn't get in the way but it provides a valuable visual cue to the user, making it easier to see the content that has become visible. The logic also handles nested toggles correctly. This is also supported in the dedicated iPad skin. Here, opening one toggle automatically closes the other toggles on the page for smoother browsing. We experimented with this for the desktop skins as well but it didn't work so well there, so we decided to restrict it to the iPad skin where topics are generally smaller. On the desktop skin the user can always close the other toggles with the Toggle Toggles button.
  • Better handling of Windows CE browsers
    The browser on some versions of the obsolete Windows CE mobile operating system sometimes pretends to be Internet Explorer 6 on Windows XP, even though its capabilities are quite different. The initialization script now identifies this browser and switches off the Show/Hide TOC feature, which the Windows CE browser is incapable of handling. The version of the browser that identifies itself honestly as Windows CE is still blocked, however, as it is not capable of handling WebHelp correctly.
  • Meta tags to prevent search engines from indexing navigation pages
    The Table of Contents, Search and Keyword Index pages in WebHelp now contain meta tags to prevent them from being included in search engine indexes. The TOC is set to "noindex, follow" so that its own contents are not indexed but all the pages referenced in the TOC are indexed. The keyword index and search pages are set to "noindex, nofollow" to prevent both indexing of the pages themselves and the links they point to (this would make the search engine spiders generate unnecessary traffic).
  • Help corrections
    A couple of typos and oversights in the Premium Pack help have been corrected.
  • Toggle bug in dedicated iPad skin
    In the dedicated iPad skin opening a toggle closed any other toggles on the page that were open. However, it was then not possible to close the current toggle without opening another toggle. This has been corrected and toggle animation has been added.
  • Second vertical scrollbar in Webhelp print preview
    On some browsers a second vertical scrollbar was visible in the print preview window in WebHelp. This wasn't printed but it didn't look very good in the preview. It now no longer appears.
  • iPad skin adjustments
    • Tapping on the current topic in the TOC no longer reloads the topic.
    • Similarly, the Top, Next and Previous buttons no longer reload the current topic if the target is the current topic.
    • The default indent for the TOC levels has been increased slightly to make sub-chapters/sub-topics easier to see.
New features, fixes and changes in version 1.40:
  • Dedicated iPad skin
    We have added a dedicated webhelp iPad skin for producing an iPad version of your WebHelp. This provides an iPad style interface and full touch support, including:
    • Single-finger scrolling in TOC and topics.
    • Pinch to zoom in topics.
    • Zoom button for displaying topics in their own window.
    • Automatic reformatting on orientation change (landscape/portrait).
    • Opening a toggle auto-closes all the other toggles on the page to save space.
    • Automatic redirect to a page of your choice when opened in another browser.
  • User comments using IntenseDebate or Disqus
    You can now add user comments to your WebHelp using IntenseDebate or Disqus as your comment provider. You just need to sign up for a free account with IntenseDebateor Disqusand add the ID from your provider and the URL of your WebHelp to the configuration variables.
  • New configuration variables for index and search high light colors
    Toggle headers without icons did not open when scrolled to with ATOC entries.
I need the download link urgently. Is there anyone who can give me the link ?
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Tim Green
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Re: Current Premium Pack for H&M5 Build No: 1.53

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Nancy,

I'm mailing the link to your email address, you should be receiving it shortly. (By the way: You really didn't need to quote the entire announcement just to ask the question... 8) )
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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