HelpConsole 2008 Features

HelpConsole 2008 was designed to provide rich functionality, but with an easy to use, intuitive authoring environment. Use the features listed below to create professional online help systems and printed documentation using a standard web browser.

Easy to Use

	Intuitive User Interface 'HelpConsole' was designed to be extremely easy to use. Any employee at any skill level can immediately use the software with no prior training.			Easy to Install Simply install HelpConsole to a standard Web Server and provide the URL to your technical writers.
	True WYSIWYG interface What you see in edit mode is exactly what you see when the help system is published, with the exception of the design toolbar.			Drag & Drop Page Management Quickly add pages to the table of contents. Rename pages by simply clicking and typing. Drag and drop pages to build your contents structure.
	Drag & Drop Page Elements Change the position of text, images, flash animations, tables, etc. by simply dragging and dropping them.			Cut and paste from Word Quickly cut and paste content from other applications such as Microsoft Word, or cut and paste content from any website.

Product Functionality

	Text Search Readers can search for pages within the Help System containing specific text.			Add to Favorites Click 'Add to Favorites' to bookmark the current page so that you can quickly open it later in design mode.
	Index & Page Keywords HelpConsole generates an index based on keywords specified for each page.			Fully compatible with .NET 2.0 HelpConsole supports both the .NET Framework 1.1 and 2.0.
	Table of Contents Create a table of contents with an unlimited number of folders and pages.			Customizable Skins Use the 'skin editor' to customize the look and feel of your Help System.

Publish Your Help System

	Single source authoring Generate HTML-based help systems in various formats as well as PDF manuals from one source project.			Publish Help System Publish a pure HTML version of your Help System which can be distributed with your software application, hosted on your website, etc..
	PDF Manuals Publish a PDF manual from your HelpConsole project. Easily customize the PDF template to suit your requirements.			All browsers Supported The Help System detects if the user is running an older browser and automatically displays a legacy version of the Help System.
	Context Sensitive Help Create links from your web application to display specific pages within the Help System, and optionally display anchors within the page.			Conditional Content Control which pages are displayed based on the specified skin. This is useful if you have multiple versions of a product where the featureset is slightly different.
	XHTML 1.1 Compliant Output The HTML content created by the page editor is XHTML compliant.			Webpage style Help Create a help system where the skin, table of contents and page content are merged for each page that is generated. No frames or iframes are used.
	Section 508 Compliance The page content will be "Section 508" accessible if the author fills in  fields marked with a special accessibility icon. In the case of a table, the Windows Narrator tool uses this information to produce a tooltip message for each table cell. Users with impaired vision can hear those Tooltips as they hover over the cells with the mouse.

Design Environment

	Cascading Style Sheets Easily apply styles to page content such as text, images, tables, etc. Select from a list of predefined styles or define your own.			Text Variables Use text variables to insert text such as 'company name' or 'product version' that may change in the future.
	HTML Variables Use HTML variables to insert graphical elements such as your company logo that may change in the future.			Spellcheck Use this feature to check the spelling of each page within your Help System.
	Author Sticky Notes Add sticky notes to pages in edit mode to remind your self to complete certain tasks later. This can also be used by a manager to provide feedback to the author.			Complex table creation Use the Table wizard to create complex tables with any number of columns and rows. Set the background color, background image, style, border, etc.
	Screenshots & Images Use the 'Image Manager' to insert screenshots and other graphics into your Help System. Create and insert smaller thumbnails from existing images. Easily upload images to your webserver from your computer or network.			Page links, Internet links Insert links to other pages within your Help System, or links to external pages or documents on the internet.
	Hotspot Editor Use the hotspot editor to create clickable areas within an image that can be linked to various other pages.

Dynamic Content

	Flash Animations & Movies Easily add flash or media animations to your help system to demonstrate product functionality.			Dynamic Image & Text Effects Apply styles or add DHTML to HTML elements to create mouseover effects, or other dynamic effects.
	Include external HTML pages Add external pages to your help system, such as a page on your website. This external page will also be included when the PDF Manual is generated.			Embedded Topic Pages You can create reusable content by embedding one page inside another page using an <iframe> HTML tag.