I've found an interesting application for creating helpfiles and more. Very interesting is the huge amount of output options. But there are many other interesting options. This tool is not freeware but the price is very affordable.
Here a little review of the application:
Program: Helpinator
Version: 3.10
Homepage: http://www.helpinator.com
Many output formats
Helpinator has the following formats:
- CHM (HTML Help)
- RTF
- WebHelp
- QTHelp
- JavaHelp
- EPUB (Open Ebook Standard)
- MobiPocket (Amazon Kindle format)
- OracleHelp
- Adobe Air Help
Multi-language
Helpinator supports to create multi language documentations. Within the editor you can switch between the languages and make language specific settings. To generate the output you only have to say what language should be used.
Text fragments
In Helpinator you have the option to save text fragments that you need to insert in your documentation e.g. a specific program name or a price. This snippet can be created within Helpinator and saved RTF-style formatted. For example a program title can be saved as snippet and the font Arial with 16pt and Style bold is applied. After creation of the snippet let's say the snippet has the title MyTestSnippet you only have to insert {%MyTestSnippet%} on that place where you wish it should be.
Source code snippets with Syntax Highlighting
Helpinator allows you to manage source code snippets for your help project. Similar to the management of the text snippets you can insert your code fragments. The syntax highlighting is defined for the main programming languages.
You can use the code snippet with {%CODE <name>%}.
I use it very often for documentation of my SQL Queries.
Imageeditor
With Helpinator you can create screenshots from your application. The images are saved within the help project. The images can be edited with the internal image editor that is included in Helpinator. You can draw text, arrows, shapes, ... onto the image and save it. So there is no need for an external program.
Screenshots can be recaptured. This means you replace a existing picture with a new one. This enables you to quickly replace all occurrences of a specific picture in your documentation.
Step-by-step Guides
Helpinator has the feature that help you to create step by step guides. For example: You can easily show how to install or configure your applications with it.
The content editor
Around all the features Helpinator has a nice rtf-based editor for the content of the help project. You don't need a additional word processor or html editor for creating the documentation.
Automatic image resizing
My favorite feature of Helpinator is the resizing of the screenshots in on pdf output when they do not fit onto the page. For documentations with many screenshots is this really a help because you don't have to crop them on your own - Helpinator does it for you.
File format
Helpinator supports two kinds of formats.
- Single-file project. All pictures and files the help projects needs are saved in a .hpz file. This file is good for small to medium projects. The content of the format is compressed. If you have a lot of big pictures the compression may take some time
- Folder-based project. All files for the help projects are saved on the filesystem under the project folder. This is good for large projects or when you work with subversion or cvs because in that system only the changed files are commited in a repository.
Conclusion
Helpinator is a great tool for creating documentations. The price I think is affordable if you want to create professional documentations. For me the single source publishing is one of the biggest advantages. Before I use Helpinator I was a DocBook user. But DocBook editors and the needed transforming tools for that number of formats are very expensive and you need a lot of knowledge to work with them.
To activate Helpinator no online activation is needed. You always have the chance to unlock Helpinator with your key. The graphical frontend is clear and well organized. You don't have a long time for learning how to work with Helpinator.
The support is really great. They really respond and assist you when you have problems. May they add the syntax highlighting for NeoBook Scripts.