Help+Manual 8.3 Released

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Tim Green
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Help+Manual 8.3 Released

Unread post by Tim Green »

Help+Manual 8.3 has just been released with a large number of improvements and corrections of issues reported by users. The two main changes are significant improvement in the handling of Asian fonts and comments in Help+Manual projects and the handling of HelpXplain presentations in eBook output.

See this blog posting for full details:

Help+Manual 8.3 Release Notes

You can download the new installer on the regular update page:

Help+Manual update installer page

We recommend that all users update as soon as possible.
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Martin Wynne
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Re: Help+Manual 8.3 Released

Unread post by Martin Wynne »

Hi Tim,

Can you clarify this apparent contradiction in dates? Thanks.

hm8p3_date.png
hm8p3_date.png (9.97 KiB) Viewed 16092 times
cheers,

Martin.
Simon_Dismore
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Re: Help+Manual 8.3 Released

Unread post by Simon_Dismore »

Tim Green wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 10:49 amhandling of HelpXplain presentations in eBook output.
Hi Tim

Do you have a demo or test ePub you can share with this feature? Or an updated version of the ePubConfiguration.hmxz example with an xplain in the baggage?

Thanks,
Simon
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Re: Help+Manual 8.3 Released

Unread post by Tim Green »

Simon_Dismore wrote: Sat Jan 23, 2021 10:43 am Do you have a demo or test ePub you can share with this feature? Or an updated version of the ePubConfiguration.hmxz example with an xplain in the baggage?
Why don't you just give it a try yourself? For the time being, however, I wouldn't really consider putting Xplains or any dynamic content in ePubs to be a viable option yet. It's there now for the couple of arcane readers that will support it (I'm only aware of the Lithium reader for Android) and anyone who only wants to target those readers, and for possible broader support in the future. For the rest of the world it would be unwise to put an Xplain in an ePub for general distribution, since it will fail for the great majority of users.

Note that you have to activate dynamic Xplain export for ePub in Publishing > eBooks > ePub: General Settings.
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Re: Help+Manual 8.3 Released

Unread post by Tim Green »

Martin Wynne wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 2:41 pm Can you clarify this apparent contradiction in dates? Thanks.
No contradiction: There's a grace period of a couple of days when maintenance expires, you're just slipping in under the finish line. I'm not quite sure how many days it is exactly at the moment, however. 8)
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Re: Help+Manual 8.3 Released

Unread post by Simon_Dismore »

Tim Green wrote: Mon Jan 25, 2021 8:57 amWhy don't you just give it a try yourself?
Because if it didn't work, I wouldn't know whether it was because of my xplain and/or how it was embedded. Having a reference example from you would mitigate that risk.
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Re: Help+Manual 8.3 Released

Unread post by Tim Green »

Simon_Dismore wrote: Mon Jan 25, 2021 10:00 am Because if it didn't work, I wouldn't know whether it was because of my xplain and/or how it was embedded. Having a reference example from you would mitigate that risk.
The embedding is automatic so that shouldn't be an issue, so long as your ePub output is fully configured and you activate the option for turning on dynamic Xplain output as I mentioned. If you do have problems it would be something we need to know about anyway. 8)
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Re: Help+Manual 8.3 Released

Unread post by Martin Wynne »

Tim Green wrote: Mon Jan 25, 2021 8:59 am No contradiction: There's a grace period of a couple of days when maintenance expires, you're just slipping in under the finish line. I'm not quite sure how many days it is exactly at the moment, however. 8)
Thanks Tim.

8.3 installed.

Martin.
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Re: Help+Manual 8.3 Released

Unread post by Simon_Dismore »

I bought a maintenance upgrade on 29/11/2020 (30% discount day) and applied it today. The 21/01/2021 date got extended one year as expected.
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