Premium Pack 3 and Help & Manual 7.0.8 Released

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Tim Green
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Premium Pack 3 and Help & Manual 7.0.8 Released

Unread post by Tim Green »

We are proud to announce the release of the all-new Premium Pack 3 with advanced responsive skins. These skins support desktop, tablet and phone browsers on a single site. New technologies make it possible to handle large TOCs and indexes even on phone browsers. They also support embedded help (add your help to an existing page like embedding a YouTube video) and field-level popups (formatted popups in your own pages from your WebHelp).

This is accompanied by Help+Manual 7.0.8 with new features to support the new skins and a set of demo Premium Pack 3 skins. Help & Manual 7.0.7 or higher is required to use the new responsive skins.

See the Premium Pack product page and the news blog for more details on Premium Pack 3 and visit our online store to purchase.
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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chfrmeyer
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Re: Premium Pack 3 and Help & Manual 7.0.8 Released

Unread post by chfrmeyer »

Hi,

I just went through the procedure of installing Version 7.0.8, with 7.0.7 being the version I had before.

The whole procedure semms to have run fine and successfully, however:

When restartung Help&Manual (and on subsequently inquiring the "about" info) I am told that it is Version 7001 build 3771. Why?

(When that is calrified the next step for me would be to update premium pack...)

Regards

Christoph
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Re: Premium Pack 3 and Help & Manual 7.0.8 Released

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Christoph,

It looks as though you may have accidentally run an old copy of the Help & Manual installer. Please get the latest installer here and make sure that is the one you select to update:

http://www.helpandmanual.com/downloads.html?upd
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Paul Elbertse
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Re: Premium Pack 3 and Help & Manual 7.0.8 Released

Unread post by Paul Elbertse »

Hi Tim,

Where can I download Premium Pack 3?
I only have a link for premium pack 2.
I understood that premium pack 3 is free if you already have a licence for premium pack2.

Thanks

Regards,
Paul
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Re: Premium Pack 3 and Help & Manual 7.0.8 Released

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Paul,
Paul Elbertse wrote:I understood that premium pack 3 is free if you already have a licence for premium pack2.
That depends on when you bought it. Version 3 is free if you just purchased version 2 recently, and all those customers have received their upgrade licenses by mail. However, as I remember you purchased quite a while ago so you will need to get the upgrade here.
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Paul Elbertse
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Re: Premium Pack 3 and Help & Manual 7.0.8 Released

Unread post by Paul Elbertse »

Tim,

Thanks for your reply.

Paul
Paul Suderman
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Re: Premium Pack 3 and Help & Manual 7.0.8 Released

Unread post by Paul Suderman »

EC Software,

Those Premium Pack Responsive Skins look GREAT on my Android phone. I'll be testing out a few more mobile devices, but my first impression is to say well done. Well done indeed!

Thanks,

Paul
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Re: Premium Pack 3 and Help & Manual 7.0.8 Released

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Paul,
Paul Suderman wrote:Those Premium Pack Responsive Skins look GREAT on my Android phone. I'll be testing out a few more mobile devices, but my first impression is to say well done. Well done indeed!
Thanks a lot for the feedback! I really put a lot of work into that aspect of it, and to tablets as well. I did all my testing on actual hardware because emulators never provide really accurate results. You will find that the skins even work on Windows Phone, including both Windows Phone 8/8.1 AND current Windows Phone 10 devices.

Instead of just creating a size-adjusting skins that contain all the code all the time and just adjust for screen size, these skins load separate resources for the user's specific device type (desktop, phone or tablet), with an individual layout for each device type. That means there is never unnecessary code hanging around in the background, which significantly increases performance.

The TOC and keyword index only load the visible branches and unload them again as soon as they are closed. This makes it possible to handle very large TOCs and indexes effectively, even on mobile browsers. Similarly, the scripts for additional functions like social sharing and even toggles are only loaded when they are actually used, after which they remain available for the rest of the session, which significantly increases page load times. For example, the slight delay you see when you load the social sharing popup is time that you are saving every time a topic is being loaded: With a normal approach to scripts, that time would be unnecessarily added to the topic load time every time you open a topic, even if the user never used the social sharing buttons. 8)
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Louise Schelin
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Re: Premium Pack 3 and Help & Manual 7.0.8 Released

Unread post by Louise Schelin »

Hi, a stupid question .. Is there a time limit on the free download? The guy responsible for our server installation has gone for vacation and will not be back until January, should I try to find someone else to do it, or can I wait until he's back?
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Re: Premium Pack 3 and Help & Manual 7.0.8 Released

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Louise,

No time limit: the program download is always free. If you don't enter a license key it will install in free trial mode, which is fully functional. Adding your license key unlocks the purchased version. :)
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Louise Schelin
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Re: Premium Pack 3 and Help & Manual 7.0.8 Released

Unread post by Louise Schelin »

I was thinking about the premium pack upgrade :) I got an email that I can upgrade now for free, but I would preferably not do it until next year..
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Re: Premium Pack 3 and Help & Manual 7.0.8 Released

Unread post by Tim Green »

Louise Schelin wrote:I was thinking about the premium pack upgrade :) I got an email that I can upgrade now for free, but I would preferably not do it until next year..
If you got a free upgrade then you have version 3 and can get it any time you like. Getting the upgrade now will be useful even if you don't use the new skins directly, however: You get new versions of the V2 WebHelp/Ewriter skins and the V2 CHM skins with some small improvements (better scrolling on touch tablets for the WebHelp skins, better menu display on high-resolution devices in the CHM skins). In addition to that you also get the new configuration utility that also works for the older skins: It lets you configure all your setup variables in your skins with popup help for every variable and a validity check that makes it much more difficult to enter incorrect values.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Paul Elbertse
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Re: Premium Pack 3 and Help & Manual 7.0.8 Released

Unread post by Paul Elbertse »

Hi Tim,

In one of your replies you say:
If you got a free upgrade then you have version 3 and can get it any time you like. Getting the upgrade now will be useful even if you don't use the new skins directly, however: You get new versions of the V2 WebHelp/Ewriter skins and the V2 CHM skins with some small improvements (better scrolling on touch tablets for the WebHelp skins, better menu display on high-resolution devices in the CHM skins). In addition to that you also get the new configuration utility that also works for the older skins: It lets you configure all your setup variables in your skins with popup help for every variable and a validity check that makes it much more difficult to enter incorrect values.
Does this mean:
As long as I do not upgrade to PP3, I will NOT have:
- new versions of the V2 WebHelp/Ewriter skins;
- the new configuration utility that also works for the older skins: It lets you configure all your setup variables in your skins with popup help for every variable and a validity check that makes it much more difficult to enter incorrect values.

Regards,
Paul
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Re: Premium Pack 3 and Help & Manual 7.0.8 Released

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Paul,
- new versions of the V2 WebHelp/Ewriter skins;
These are going to be updated in the Premium Pack 2 package as well, but not until after Christmas. The modifications are very minor, however.
- the new configuration utility that also works for the older skins:
That is only available with version 3, that is correct.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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chfrmeyer
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Re: Premium Pack 3 and Help & Manual 7.0.8 Released

Unread post by chfrmeyer »

Thanks, Tim

For a week I was busy otherwise but todayaI followed the link you rovided here and repeated the Installation with the declared resulting Version being correct. Whatever the reason for the previous failure or seeming failure may have been.

Best regards

Christoph
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