Help & Manual Toolbox 1.26 Beta

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Tim Green
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Re: Help & Manual Toolbox Beta

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Nicolas,

OK, fixed it. It was just a minor thread ownership conflict for some processes that were running at the same time. You can download the updated installer from the normal place:

http://www.it-authoring.com/info/HMToolboxSetup.exe

Another small change is that when you are doing a test compile with the current skin the "Delete all files/folders in output folder" setting remains set for the current session, so you don't have to reset it every time you recompile with the skin you are working on.

Thanks for reporting this!
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Re: Help & Manual Toolbox Beta

Unread post by Tim Green »

Update to 1.0.110 Beta

Changes and improvements in this update (expires February 15, 2014):

Changes:
  • The setting for deleting files and folders in the output folder when test-publishing is now persistent for the current session. You no longer need to activate it manually every time you re-publish for the current project.
Fixes:
  • A thread ownership conflict message was displayed when you tried to add or remove topic ID prefixes on HMXP projects.
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Tim Green
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Re: Help & Manual Toolbox Beta

Unread post by Tim Green »

Update to 1.0.111 Beta

Changes and improvements in this update (expires March 15, 2014):

Fixes:
  • New build options were not saved automatically when auto-save was activated
  • Error displayed when using Add/Remove Topic ID Prefixes function on HMXP projects
  • Safer check for multiple instances of the program when starting with proper shutdown if another instance is already open
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Bruce Conway
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Re: Help & Manual Toolbox Beta

Unread post by Bruce Conway »

Nice call on Notepad++.

Is there a way to print out Comments in H&M? (eg. print all Comments to text file - possibly each tagged with the Topic Heading1's (and Heading2's, etc, option).

Useful for reviewing with the boss (or CTO, as mine is called).

Cheers!
(nice program too, one that seems to evolving rapidly ...runs very quickly as well)
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Tim Green
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Re: Help & Manual Toolbox Beta

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Bruce,

We've added a Wish List item for printing comments for the next version of Help & Manual. I suppose I could add something like that to HM Toolbox, but it will have to wait at the moment because I'm currently totally focused on developing the base technologies for responsive WebHelp skins that will adapt themselves to any size and shape of mobile or desktop devices. 8)
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Re: Help & Manual Toolbox Beta

Unread post by Tim Green »

Update to 1.1 Beta

Changes and improvements in this update (expires April 15, 2014):

Changes:
  • Export user comments: There is a new option in the Tools menu with which you can extract all the author comments stored in the current project and save them to a text file for printing or archiving.
    Limitation: The comments are currently exported in file order, i.e. the order that topic files are listed in the Topic Files section, not in TOC order.
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Tim Green
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Re: Help & Manual Toolbox Beta

Unread post by Tim Green »

Update to 1.1.1 Beta

Changes and improvements in this update (expires April 15, 2014):

Changes:
  • Export user comments updated: Author comments export is now complete and full featured:
    • Sorting: Sort the comments in TOC order, by topic ID or in the natural file order (as listed in Topic Files)
    • Export format: Export as plain text, RTF or CSV with headers for Excel
ExportComments.png
ExportComments.png (35.98 KiB) Viewed 13595 times
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Re: Help & Manual Toolbox Beta

Unread post by Tim Green »

Update to 1.1.2 Beta

Change log for this update (expires May 15, 2014):

Fixes:
  • Add baggage files: In some projects adding baggage files added the file to the project physically but did not actually list it in the baggage files list in the project. This happened when the Auto-Save feature was on.
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Tim Frost
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Re: Help & Manual Toolbox Beta

Unread post by Tim Frost »

In 1.1.2 beta, with auto-save off, if I add a Zoom config file to a skin file in HTML options, and check Activated, the Save Project button and the File/Save menu item do not become enabled. I tried to do a Save As, but the result was an exact copy of the original, without my change. The workaround was to click on Activate on the include index row. This turned Zoom Config File red and allowed me to save.

It is also worth noting that my single click on activate on the Include Index row did NOT uncheck it. Clicking twice did uncheck it, after which it worked normally. But the row did not turn red until I clicked on a different row's activate button, which then behaved in the same (incorrect) way as the first.

Finally, in checking the modified skin against the original in Beyond Compare, I noticed that the first line (<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>) had been lost from the hmxp file.
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Tim Green
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Re: Help & Manual Toolbox Beta

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Tim,

I'll look into the issue with saving but I can't reproduce this at the moment. I tried it with both skins and projects and the red update highlight appears immediately in both cases.

You're right about the XML tag at the beginning. It looks as though the .NET XML routine is doing something it shouldn't when parsing the XML back out to the file. I'll fix that asap. 8)
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Re: Help & Manual Toolbox Beta

Unread post by Tim Green »

Update to 1.1.3 Beta

Change log for this update (expires June 1, 2014):

Certificate update May 23, 2014:
  • Installer and program updated with new digital signing certificate because the previous certificate was due to expire. No other changes, version no. etc. also remain the same. You only need to get this installer if you are getting messages that the certificate is expired.
Fixes:
  • XML tag in compressed skins and projects:
    The <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> tag was stripped from first line of the edited internal XML files of on saving. This was really only cosmetic because it did not cause any problems with the files in Help & Manual.
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Tim Frost
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Re: Help & Manual Toolbox Beta

Unread post by Tim Frost »

I understand my difficulty with saving, now, but I still find it counterintuitive. When I change a couple of fields on a screen and see each acknowledged, by the appearance of the text I type and the appearance of a tick in the box I clicked, I expect the changes to be known to the application and ready for me to save. In fact, in your toolbox, the application is [u]not[/u] ready to save them until I move focus away from the entry row and it becomes red. This is highly unusual, but now I know how it is coded, I can live with it. It is also unusual that the 'move away from this row' click affects the original row (making it red) but does [u]not[/u] affect the new row at the point of the click (which in the case I described earlier, happened to be on a checkbox).

You could fix this anomaly by enabling the Save button and Menu as soon as any change is made in a row, instead of after the first appearance of a red row. I have established that a click on the save button (if enabled after an earlier change) makes the latest change turn red and stick, so this should also work on the first change. Just a suggestion.
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Nicolas Wicke
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Re: Help & Manual Toolbox Beta

Unread post by Nicolas Wicke »

Hi Tim,

Is there still an update coming for the Toolbox Beta?

Thx

Nicolas
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Tim Green
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Re: Help & Manual Toolbox Beta

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Nicolas,

I just updated the security certificate because it was about to expire but there are no special plans for this at the moment. This is free software that has already cost me about several months of unpaid work, so there are limits to the amount of time I can put into it. 8)
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Nicolas Wicke
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Re: Help & Manual Toolbox Beta

Unread post by Nicolas Wicke »

Tim Green wrote:This is free software that has already cost me about several months of unpaid work, so there are limits to the amount of time I can put into it. 8)
Of course Tim, I didn't expect additional features or something, but can't we use the great tool anymore then?

The last trial beta version has expired on June, 1 :).

Thank you.
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