Doc-To-Help 2012 Offers Mobile HTML5-based Output and New Language Format
Friday, January 27, 2012 4:37Doc-To-Help 2012 Offers Mobile HTML5-based Output and New Language Format
Help Authoring Tool Produces Content for Mobile Devices & Documentation for Right-to-left Languages
Doc-To-Help, the trusted name and award-winning product in the Help authoring tool market, today announced the release of Doc-To-Help 2012. This first release of the New Year offers a brand new output designed for mobile devices.
Doc-To-Help’s Mobile Help turns any content into a self-contained website designed for mobile devices. The process is simplified into three easy steps. First, write (or import) content, then publish, and finally post it online. This keeps with the Doc-To-Help legacy of the being the “all-in-one-authoring and publishing solution.” The mobile HTML5-based output offers complete navigation, table of contents, index, and multi-touch (i.e., swipe and pinch) support.
Doc-To-Help’s Product Manager, Dan Beall stated, “We’ve created a sample and short video that shows how users may produce web-based Help designed specifically for mobile browsers, making the task of producing mobile content less daunting.”
“The emergence of mobile devices as a content delivery mechanism for millions of users has prompted the technical community to also support these on-the-go users. By using Doc-To-Help, the content creators can deliver the information to the users in the format most suitable for them,” said Beall. “Additionally, we have enabled Word users to create output for mobile devices. You can import virtually any Word document and have a mobile site in minutes.”
The 2012 release of Doc-To-Help also includes support for Microsoft Office 365, a right-to-left output, Eclipse Help, and enhancements to its popular NetHelp output. Doc-To-Help already integrates with Microsoft SharePoint for content management and output hosting, but users can now use Office 365 and SharePoint online.
The new right-to-left output makes it very easy for communicators who need to produce documentation in languages such as Hebrew or Arabic. Users simply choose the appropriate theme and they get a fully designed right-to-left output. In a blog post titled, “NetHelp Goes Right-To-Left,” Doc-To-Help’s Documentation Product Specialist, Brad Keller writes that, “One of the biggest challenges facing any organization that needs to create content in right-to-left (RTL) format is making sure that Help and Web content make sense in context and are easy to navigate and use. For years, forcing a desktop or web-based Help system to follow RTL rules and conventions required a great deal of ‘post-production’ work and hard coding, with the results often falling short of expectations.”
Keller shares that in this 2012 release, Doc-To-Help’s web-based Help format supports RTL languages and is available in RTL format. He also details a sample project featuring this new RTL format, “Using a Hebrew document that Alex Masycheff from WritePoint gave me, I followed the same instructions I outlined in my Take Any Word Document and Publish it in Minutes post to create a Doc-To-Help project, followed the RTL instructions, and posted the sample RTL project here.”
The company’s famous NetHelp 2.0 received some enhancements worthy of mention in the 2012 release of Doc-To-Help.
Optimized Performance: Doc-To-Help now optimizes index and search result loading and automatically hides or shows the index tab. This ensures that your end-users have an efficient and pleasant user experience.
Section 508 Compliance:NetHelp 2.0 is now Section 508 compliant. The additions include keyboard shortcuts, screen reader compatibility, and more.
Topic HTML Wizard: Specify boilerplate content or code to insert in every topic. Easily insert headers, footers, or code needed for technology such as analytics.
Source: http://www.marketwatch.com
