Document! X and HelpStudio 2019.1 Released

We are delighted to announce the release of Document! X and HelpStudio 2019.1.

You can find more information on how to upgrade to 2019.1 in the full release note:

Document! X 2019.1 Release Note:
http://www.innovasys.com/release/dx2019.1

HelpStudio 2019.1 Release Note:
http://www.innovasys.com/release/hs2019.1

What’s New in 2019.1

Visual Studio 2019 Help Viewer

The output that targets Microsoft Help Viewer will automatically register with Microsoft Help Viewer if it is installed locally, a link to view the generated output will be included in the Build Results and batch files will be generated with the commands necessary to deploy help to Microsoft Help Viewer on other machines.

Azure DevOps 2019 Support

Support for Source Control integration with Azure DevOps 2019. A local installation of Visual Studio 2017 or 2019 is required to use Azure DevOps Source Control integration.

Visual Studio 2019 Integration

Integration with the release version of Visual Studio 2019 (all versions), including the Visual Comment Editor for authoring C#, Visual Basic and C++/CLI code XML comments.

Azure DevOps 2019 Support

Support for Source Control integration with Azure DevOps 2019. A local installation of Visual Studio 2017 or 2019 is required to use Azure DevOps Source Control integration.

Compatibility

Compatibility with older versions

Installing 2019.1 will automatically remove 2018.1 (or earlier) if you have it installed.

Projects can be opened in 2019.1 without any conversion.

Document! X and HelpStudio 2018.1 Released

We are delighted to announce the release of Document! X and HelpStudio 2018.1.

You can find more information on how to upgrade to 2018.1 in the full release note:

Document! X 2018.1 Release Note:
http://www.innovasys.com/release/dx2018.1

HelpStudio 2018.1 Release Note:
http://www.innovasys.com/release/hs2018.1

What’s New in 2018.1

Editions and Versions

The new Editions and Versions functionality helps you to publish multiple variations of your Browser Help output and allows the end users of your Browser Help outputs to switch between the different Editions and/or Versions you have published.

Editions define the variants of Browser Help output that you generate using Build Profiles. (e.g. Standard, Professional and Enterprise Editions). Versions define the chronological published versions of your documentation (e.g. 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0 versions). You can use just Editions, just Versions, or define them both if you would like your documentation users to switch between both Editions and Chronological Versions of your published Browser Help output.

All documentation that you publish with Editions and Versions functionality enabled will automatically show any Editions or Versions you publish in the future without having to republish the earlier documentation, minimizing the amount of effort in managing multiple documentation Editions and Versions and making it simple for users to find their way to the most relevant and up to date content.

Key Sequences Widget

A new Key Sequences Widget has been added to support the common documentation task of graphically illustrating a hotkey or other key sequence.

Documentation of Authenticated Web Services

Web services that use a definition URI protected by basic or NTLM authentication are now supported. New authentication properties are available on the Web Service properties dialog when adding or modifying a web service.

Customizable Configuration Location

The Configuration Data folder can now be customized to support OneDrive, Google Drive, DropBox etc. integration. The folder in which Templates, Content Item Types and other application Configuration Data is stored can now be customized on the Paths page in the Options editor. This feature will allow Configuration Data to be stored in a folder that is synchronized with a cloud storage provider such as OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox etc. This functionality can be thereby leveraged to back up and synchronize your Configuration Data and also to keep your Configuration Data synchronized between multiple users working within a team environment.

Recent Items on Project Quick Start

A list of Recently accessed Project Items (e.g. Topics, Images, Stylesheets etc.) is now shown on the Project Quick Start page shown by default when you open a Project; providing a quick and easy way to pick up working with items from your last session.

 

Document! X and HelpStudio 2017.1 Released

We are delighted to announce the release of Document! X and HelpStudio 2017.1.

You can find more information on how to upgrade to 2017.1 in the full release note:

Document! X 2017.1 Release Note:
http://www.innovasys.com/release/dx2017.1

HelpStudio 2017.1 Release Note:
http://www.innovasys.com/release/hs2017.1

What’s New in 2017.1

New “Light” Templates

A new set of templates have been introduced inspired by the latest Microsoft Documentation style. These new templates introduce a simplified and fresh layout and typography featuring a frameless design with in-page Table of Contents navigation, a right hand action bar with automatic “In this Topic” support and a page layout that is responsive to the available screen width.

The new Templates are available for every supported documentation type.

Move and Rename Other Files

It is now possible to move and rename Other Files directly on the Project Explorer. References to the moved and renamed Other Files (e.g. images, Widgets and links) are automatically updated. To round off this new functionality, it is now also possible to create new Other Files folders from the Project Explorer. Source Control integrated projects are fully supported.

Improved Copy to Clipboard

The support for Copy to Clipboard in Colorized Example Code widgets has been improved and removes the dependency on Adobe Flash. Copying to clipboard now results in a subtle notification that appears beside the “Copy Code” button when clicked.

Microsoft Help Viewer 2.3 Support

Support for Microsoft Help Viewer 2.3, the updated version of Microsoft Help Viewer included with Visual Studio 2017. The output that targets Microsoft Help Viewer will now automatically register with Microsoft Help Viewer 2.3 if it is installed locally, a link to view the generated output will be included in the Build Results and batch files will be generated with the commands necessary to deploy help to Microsoft Help Viewer 2.3 on other machines.

Visual Studio 2017 Integration

Integration with the release version of Visual Studio 2017 (all versions), including the Visual Comment Editor for authoring C#, Visual Basic and C++/CLI code XML comments.

Document! X and HelpStudio 2016.1 Released

We are delighted to announce the release of Document! X and HelpStudio 2016.1.

You can find more information on how to upgrade to 2016.1 in the full release note:

Document! X 2016.1 Release Note:
http://www.innovasys.com/release/dx2016.1

HelpStudio 2016.1 Release Note:
http://www.innovasys.com/release/hs2016.1

What’s New in 2016.1

Updated and Modernized Templates

The 2012 Style Templates (now named “Classic”) have been comprehensively updated to optimize the underlying styles and javascript. The Classic Templates use the latest supported versions of jQuery for the various output formats in order to optimize performance and deliver the best possible experience for both Browser Help and Compiled Help. The new style and script core is common for both the Classic and new Material Templates in order to make it easier to override common Template styles and script in a way that is not Template specific and to provide a modern base on which further new Templates can be created in future.

For the end user using the content you generate, the Classic Templates are functionally and visually identical to the old 2012 Style templates. Any projects that currently use the 2012 Style Templates will be automatically migrated to the Classic Templates the first time the project is opened. Migration includes automatic updates to any existing stylesheets that reference the old 2012 Style CSS Class Names and Ids.

You can find out more about the 2012 Style to Classic Template change here: http://www.innovasys.com/support/templateinfo/2012

New “Material” Templates

A new set of Templates have been introduced inspired by the Google “Material” design style. The templates feature a clean and crisp serif font and bold header colouring that helps frame the main content area of each page. These new Templates make subtle changes to layout and typography in response to the available display width, as well as including full responsive support on touch enabled devices.

The Material Templates are available for every supported documentation type. The new Material Browser Help Template features styling to match the content Templates and includes vector icons for the Table of Contents that scale without loss of quality on high resolution displays.

Enhanced Style Picker

The Style Picker has been significantly enhanced. It is now possible to apply and remove multiple Style Rules to selected content by simply ticking and unticking available Rules. Style Rules can be created in a specific Project or Template Stylesheets directly from the Style Picker. Style Rules can be edited and deleted directly from buttons next to each Rule in the Style Picker.

If you are making use of a custom Template, the Style Picker now includes the ability to save custom Style Rules in a Template Stylesheet, so that rules can be shared across multiple projects.

Template Override Style Creation

2016.1 introduces functionality that makes it quick and easy to override the default styles applied to various page elements, directly from the context menu in the Content Editor or from a new “Template Style Rule Overrides” section in the Style Picker. As an example, simply right click on the page title in the Topic Editor and choose “Override Template Style\Page Title” from the context menu in order to create a custom Style Rule that will apply to the Page Title in each generated page.

As with other regular Style Rules, Template Style Rule Overrides can be edited and deleted directly from the Style Picker.

Simplified Template Selection

The Templates page in the Build Profile Editor has been simplified and enhanced to make it quick and easy to changes the Templates used. The new Templates page allows you to create or open to edit a custom Template directly.

Enhanced Browser Help Full Text Search

Browser Help Full Text Search has been comprehensively improved. Specific improvements include searching for words chained with “+” or “.” characters (e.g. MyNamespace.MyType), searching in Example and Syntax content (all page content is now included in the search), searching for numbers, wildcard (* or ?) search, phrase search (multiple words surrounded with quotes), improved ranking of search results and a fix for secondary page titles in search results (e.g. Members pages).

Google Analytics Universal Analytics Support

The script code automatically generated by Document! X and HelpStudio if the Google Analytics integration option is enabled in the Build Profile Editor has been updated to the latest Google Universal Analytics, in preparation for the eventual deprecation of the earlier ga.js based script. No action is necessary to take advantage of this update.

Microsoft Help Viewer 2.3 RC Support

Support for Microsoft Help Viewer 2.3 RC, the updated version of Microsoft Help Viewer included with Visual Studio 2017 RC. The output that targets Microsoft Help Viewer will now automatically register with Microsoft Help Viewer 2.3 RC if it is installed locally, a link to view the generated output will be included in the Build Results and batch files will be generated with the commands necessary to deploy help to Microsoft Help Viewer 2.3 RC on other machines.

Team Foundation Server 2017 RC and Visual Studio Team Services Support

Support for Team Foundation Server 2017 RC and the latest version of Visual Studio Team Services for Source Control Integration.

 

Support for documenting WinRT and UWP (Universal Windows Platform) assemblies

Initial support has been introduced to support documenting assemblies targeting the current WinRT version as well as Universal Windows Platform assemblies.

Visual Studio 2017 RC Integration

Experimental integration with Visual Studio 2017 RC, including the Visual Comment Editor available for C#, VB and C++/CLI files.

Document! X and HelpStudio 2015.2 Released

We are delighted to announce the release of Document! X and HelpStudio 2015.2. This update includes Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server 2015 Support, Microsoft Help Viewer 2.2 Support, Compatibility with Windows 10, Community Integration (Disqus, Facebook etc.) amongst a range of other features and fixes.

If you have a current subscription license or purchased on or after 22nd June 2015, the upgrade to 2015.2 is free. If you don’t have an active subscription and purchased 2015.1 before 22nd June 2015, or you have a 2012, 2013 or 2014 license, a discounted upgrade is available at http://www.innovasys.com/store

You can find more information on how to upgrade to 2015.2 in the full release note:

Document! X 2015.2 Release Note:
http://www.innovasys.com/release/dx2015.2

HelpStudio 2015.2 Release Note:
http://www.innovasys.com/release/hs2015.2

Document! X and HelpStudio Bundle 2015.2 Release Note:
http://www.innovasys.com/release/ds2015.2

What’s New in 2015.2

Visual Studio 2015 Integration

Integration with Visual Studio 2015, including the Visual Comment Editor available for C#, VB and C++/CLI code files.

Microsoft Help Viewer 2.2 Support

Support for Microsoft Help Viewer 2.2, the updated version of Microsoft Help Viewer included with Visual Studio 2015. Output that targets Microsoft Help Viewer will now automatically register with Microsoft Help Viewer 2.2 if it is installed locally, a link to view the generated output will be included in the Build Results and batch files will be generated with the commands necessary to deploy help to Microsoft Help Viewer 2.2 on other machines.

Team Foundation Server 2015 Support

Support for Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2015 for Source Control integration.

Windows 10 Support

Full support for use on the new Windows 10 operating system.

Integration with cloud based discussion/community services (Disqus/Facebook/Solidopinion/Livefyre)

It is now possible to enable Discussion/Community Features in the generated output using one of several third party cloud based Community/Discussion services. Community Features allow you to create a community around the content that you author with Document! X and HelpStudio by allowing your end users to post feedback and threaded comments. Integrating with the established best of breed Community/Discussion services in this way enables you to choose the service that makes the most sense for your particular scenario. Community Features are enabled using the Community Features page in the Project Profile Editor, are supported throughout the standard templates and are visible when you are authoring.

Enhanced shortened filename generation options

Additional Short filename generation options have been added to Project Settings to enhance this important area of functionality. It is now possible to save the generated filenames between builds so that the same filename will always be generated for a given item. There are also additional options to shorten / transform the default generated filenames using a regular expression find and replace, or by removing a common file prefix. Shortening can now also be restricted to those filenames that would otherwise exceed a particular length (e.g. the windows path and filename length limitation of 260).

New Table of Contents node types that automatically populate the ToC based on Topic Category/Topics

The new "All Topics Categories" Table of Contents node will automatically generate a Table of Contents structure at build time based on the Topic Category / Topic structure on the Project Explorer. A new "Topic Category" node type will do the same but just for a specific Topic Category. These new node types will save time and effort in arranging the Table of Contents if your Project Explorer already reflects the structure you would like to see on the Table of Contents.

Custom Build Configuration Event Actions

Build Configuration Event Actions allow you to define actions you want to perform when building a particular saved Build Configuration. Actions can be executed before or after the Build or Publishing operations. Actions can invoke an external program or script, or show/log a custom build message.

Document! X Placeholder for a specific item Table of Contents Node

Although a fully automatic Table of Contents containing nodes for all of the items in your documentation project is a huge time saver for reference documentation items, there are times where you might want to divide up the ToC in a more specific way. For example, you might want to include the nodes for a specific assembly or namespace under the a part of the ToC that contains the conceptual topics (introductions, tutorials) that relate to it. This new ToC node type allows you to do that – the portion of the ToC generated for a specific item can thereby be placed anywhere on the ToC. The nodes that are automatically generated for the item can also be customized if required, in the same way as the regular Document! X placeholder node.

New filtering rule to allow filter of all items belonging to a particular documentation type

This new rule kind makes it easy to create filters in a Build Profile to include/exclude all items from specific documentation types. For example, in a project that contained .NET, COM and Database documentation items you could create a Build Profile that outputs everything apart from .NET documentation, or a Build Profile that only outputs database documentation. This rule kind can also be useful to create a "Topics only" Build Profile (by adding a rule to exclude all reference documentation types) in order to quickly build only conceptual Topic output (e.g. for review).

Some useful keyboard shortcuts

There are a wide range of keyboard shortcuts you can use throughout Document! X and HelpStudio. This movie demonstrates a few that you might find useful, including some really useful Ribbon and Style shortcuts that you might not be aware of.

(Click above to view the movie)

Including content managed in External Sources

In an ideal world, all of the content for your documentation or help system would be included directly within the Document! X or HelpStudio project in order to get maximum value from the built in Project Tools such as Find and Replace, Spell Check and Link Check.

However, in the real world we know that isn’t always practical. There is often some isolated content that is managed as part of an existing web site (perhaps a privacy policy or support information) or as part of some other authoring workflow.

There might also be users who own certain parts of the content who don’t want to use Document! X or HelpStudio, or to whom you don’t want to give access to the project using the Source Control Integration features (which would otherwise be a great solution for team working and multiple authors).

For those scenarios we have introduced new functionality for including content from External Sources in our 2015.1 release. Rather than manually trying to manually import content from a source external to the project (i.e. by downloading as HTML and importing), you are now able to add Topics to your project that automatically obtain the content as a seamless part of the build, or when previewing in the editor. You can also use the new external content Widgets to include external content directly within an existing Topic or in the Document! X Content File Editor.

In the initial release we support Web Pages (or rather any url that can be called to return HTML) and Quip Documents as external content sources. If you have content in other kinds of external sources that would like to see supported in a future update, please let us know.

(Click above to view a demonstration movie)

Using existing content from Web Pages

Including content from a Web Page rather than importing it is a good option when the content in the Web Page is managed outside of Document! X and HelpStudio and may be updated in future; the up to date content will be downloaded and included whenever you Preview a Topic or build the documentation.

Using a Web Page as the source for a Topic in your help system allows you to re-use existing content that is managed externally without having to re-import each time the external content is updated.

Using Quip Documents for collaborative editing

One of the external content sources we support is Quip; a simple web and mobile document editor. Because Quip is quick and easy to use and supports collaboration and change tracking it can be a great solution for users that only require very basic authoring functionality and won’t be hyperlinking to other parts of the project content or working on other project content.

Multiple users can collaborate, discuss and revise documents in Quip and the latest content will always be used whenever you Preview or Build the generated output.

Publishing to a web site, ftp server or network location

Our 2015.1 release of Document! X and HelpStudio includes new Publishing functionality that makes it really easy to automatically publish you generated documentation or help system to a web server, ftp server or local network location.

You can define one or more Publishing Targets in the Build Profile Editor and then either publish automatically as part of the build process, or manually at some point after building using the Publish command on the Ribbon.

Publishing is able to determine which files have changed since you last published, minimizing the amount of time and bandwidth required to publish your content.

If you are using Azure to host your content, you can download and directly import a publishsettings.xml file from Azure to automatically configure a Publishing Target. All of the publishing targets are quick and easy to create and can be configured in a Build Configuration for automatic publishing when building either in the UI or using the Command Line build.

(Click above to view demonstration movie)

Document! X and HelpStudio 2015.1 Released

We are delighted to announce the release of Document! X and HelpStudio 2015.1.

If you have a current subscription license or purchased on or after 14th November 2014, the upgrade to 2015.1 is free. If you don’t have an active subscription and purchased 2014.1 before 14th November 2014, or you have a 2012 or 2013 license, a discounted upgrade is available at http://www.innovasys.com/store

You can find more information on how to upgrade to 2015.1 in the full release note:

Document! X 2015.1 Release Note:
http://www.innovasys.com/release/dx2015.1

HelpStudio 2015.1 Release Note:
http://www.innovasys.com/release/hs2015.1

What’s New in 2015.1

Publishing (Network Path, ftp, IIS, Azure)

Publishing features help you to publish your generated output to a web site or network share. You can define one or more Publishing Targets in the Build Profile Editor and then either publish automatically as part of the build process, or manually at some point after building using the Publish command on the Ribbon. Publishing is able to determine which files have changed since you last published, minimizing the amount of time and bandwidth required to publish your content.

If you are using Azure to host your content, you can download and directly import a publishsettings.xml file from Azure to automatically configure a Publishing Target. All of the publishing targets are quick and easy to create and can be configured in a Build Configuration for automatic publishing when building either in the UI or using the Command Line build.

External Topic Content Sources (Web Page and Quip)

It is now possible to derive the content for a Topic from an external source (Web Page and Quip initially supported).

Using a Web Page as the source for a Topic in your help system allows you to re-use existing content that is managed externally without having to re-import each time the external content is updated. This is particularly useful for scenarios in which key portions of content must be managed external to Document! X or HelpStudio.

Using Quip Documents (Quip is a simple collaborative online content editor) as the source for some Topics in your help system allows you to have stakeholders directly contribute portions of content without having to install and use Document! X or HelpStudio. Multiple users can collaborate, discuss and revise simple documents in Quip and the latest content will always be used whenever you Preview or Build the generated output.

As well as being used as the entire Topic Content, you can use 2 new Widgets to include the external content within an existing regular Topic.

New Project Dialog Improvements

The New Project dialog has been re-organized to reduce confusion about what information is required to create a new project and to make is simpler to create new projects by only requiring a single value (Project Name) and defaulting values for the new project directory based on the provided Project Name and the default root directory defined in Options.

Enhanced "Backstage" Application Menu

Commands for creating and opening projects, as well as the Sample Browser and Movie list have been moved to the "Backstage" Application Menu (the page that shows when you click the Application Menu button at top left of the application window).

The Backstage menu provides more screen space to present the list of Project Types, Samples, Movies and Notifications and provides a consistent way to organize this application level functionality whilst freeing up Ribbon space for Project and Content functionality.

Javascript IE9 Load Context

In previous versions, Javascript documentation loaded the Javascript files being documented in an IE8 load context to maximize backward compatibility. Current versions of popular Javascript dependencies such as jQuery no longer support the IE8 javascript engine so this has now been changed so that Javascript is now loaded in an IE9 load context. Note that older Javascript and older dependency versions such as jQuery 1.x will still load in this newer context.

Introducing Project Search

Something that we constantly struggle with when designing new features or improvements to our products is discoverability. By discoverability I mean how easy or difficult it is for users to learn about the existence of a feature.

One of the ways we tried to improve discoverability in general was to introduce our Help Hub, which provides context sensitive help resources and also supports text searching throughout the help and our online knowledge base. We also added a Search Box in the title bar – this will search through all of the User Interface for text and is great for tracking down that elusive setting.

So when we decided to add the Project Search tool to HelpStudio and Document! X, we wanted to make sure that the powerful functionality it offers was as accessible and discoverable as possible. To that end, in the next update to Document! X and HelpStudio you will find “Where is this used?” commands on the context menu for Topics, Build Flags, Images and Other Files; invoking this command will create and open a Project Search pre-configured to search for places in which you have used that item in the current project.

Here is an example of a Build Flag usage search (created and run by selecting “Where is this used?” from the context menu for a Build Flag):

Example Build Flag Usage Search

Because the Project Search opened by the “Where is this used?” command is pre-configured you don’t have to get your hands dirty trying to create the search manually, but you do have an instant illustrated example of how Project Search works; so you can tinker, extend or save those searches if you wish. You can also create new empty Project Searches from the Tools ribon tab, and save them for later re-use (saved searches appear on the Project Explorer under a new Saved Searches node).

Powerful Rules Engine

Because Project Search uses the same Rules Engine as the Filters page in the Build Profile editor and AutoDoc in Document! X, it provides a considerable amount of power and flexibility. You can search for items using a range of Rules, including the Item Property Rule – which gives you access to all of the elements used in the generated output. You can also combine rules in logical AND / OR Rule Groups.

You don’t have to go too crazy at first of course – one of the most common searches will probably be on Item Name. Particularly in Document! X projects this provides a great way to quickly find items with a particular naming pattern throughout the project – e.g. a common member that requires some additional documentation.

Sample Item Name search – looking for items with “Rss” in the name

Navigating Search Results

You can open up any of the items in the Project Search result list by double clicking it. Doing so will open up the Project Search Navigation Bar so you can then step through the results without having to return to the Project Search screen each time.

Project Search Navigation Bar

You can also use the Ctrl+< and Ctrl+> hotkeys to navigate (tip: these hotkeys work for the Project Find and Replace, Project Spell Check and Project Link Check Navigation Bars too).

Availability

Project Search will be included in the next Document! X and HelpStudio update, available later this week (w/c 30th July 2013).