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Innovasys HelpStudio 3 Product Overview

You have worked hard to create your application; analyzing requirements, designing the user interface and feature set. HelpStudio can help you make sure that your applications help system is as impressive and effective as your application.

HelpStudio is the fastest, easiest way to create and publish help systems and integrate them with your desktop or web based applications or components, including .NET. Generate help output in cross-platform plain HTML, HTML Help, Help 2.x or printable PDF. Built in localization support means that you can take your help system to a global audience if required.


HelpStudio seamlessly combines a feature packed WYSIWYG authoring environment, HTML based layout templates and customizable Content Widgets to make it simple to create consistent, professional looking help systems with the minimum of effort. Help Authoring just got a whole lot easier.

Inside HelpStudio

The HelpStudio user interface is intuitive and full of time saving and productivity features designed to make Help Authoring an enjoyable experience. Creating the Table of Contents or Glossary, adding Index Keywords and See Also Links, capturing screenshots, adding drop down sections or tip boxes to content and designing PDF booklets are all fully integrated and simply achieved using a few clicks or drag and drop.

Find and Replace, Spell check and Hyperlink verification can be run on the entire project, ensuring that your help systems need never ship with spelling errors or broken links. Build flags (conditional content) can be used to mark content, files or table of contents nodes in order to create multiple versions of a help system (perhaps a 'Lite' and a 'Professional' version) from the same project. A single project can contain multiple languages, making it simple to take your help system to a global audience. Full unicode support means you can handle even complex languages including Japanese, Chinese and Arabic.

The features don't stop there. Additional tools include an image editor, integrated screen capture, a unique user interface screenshot markup tool, a popup help designer and help context id mapping Add-in for Visual Basic, integrated task management, a customizable content helper library (for automating the creation of common help content) all add up to the only Help Authoring toolset you will ever need.

Who can use HelpStudio?

HelpStudio provides you with an effortless way to create great help systems, which means that anyone who can use a word processor or HTML editor will be comfortable authoring help with HelpStudio. HelpStudio has been carefully designed to maximize your productivity whilst not requiring any knowledge of the technical aspects of help file compilation. You get to concentrate on pure content creation, saving time and money on every project.

HelpStudios unique Content Widgets make it possible to create complex content such as expand in place images, drop down sections and colorized example code with no knowledge of HTML or Javascript. The available Content Widgets can be extended to build a library of content that you can share with your colleagues and re-use in multiple projects.

What makes HelpStudio different from other products?

We know that you have a choice and encourage you to evaluate other help authoring products to discover for yourself the unique features that make HelpStudio an  obvious choice. There are several critical features that we believe distinguish HelpStudio most:

  • User Interface: The HelpStudio user interface includes advanced features such as collapsible dock windows, customizable toolbars and a Tabbed MDI document area. The Tabbed MDI as implemented in HelpStudio allows you to split the document area into Tab Groups in order to work with multiple topics or other document windows side by side - that's a feature you may not find elsewhere.
  • The Template Concept: HelpStudio leverages HTML based page templates so that common page elements such as page header and footers are automatically generated. This feature is a crucial time saver, and ensures that as you evolve the look and feel of your help systems you don't have to go back and rework individual topics.
  • Project Tools: HelpStudio can verify links, check spelling and Find / Replace across an entire project.
  • Content Editor: The HelpStudio content editor provides powerful authoring functionality including table editing (row, column or cell cut/copy/paste, resize), unlimited undo, hyperlink designer and build flag highlighting.
  • Content Widgets: Delivering great help content often requires a trade off between the time invested in creating dynamic content and the benefits it brings to the users of the content. With HelpStudio, you no longer need to comprimise - Widgets allow you to deliver dynamic content (e.g. drop down sections, enlarge in place images, colorized example code) without requiring any manual authoring effort and with no need to have HTML or Javascript knowledge. Simply drop a pre-defined Widget in your content and HelpStudio will take care of the rest.
  • Multi Language Authoring: HelpStudio allows you to work with any number of additional languages in addition to the primary language of your project. Define the project structure and Table of Contents just once and then localize for the additional languages. Easily switch between locales, track the localization status of any project item and work with 3rd party translation providers using the HelpStudio XML Import / Export Wizard.
  • Dynamic Help SDK: HelpStudio allows you to integrate a Dynamic Help window (as implemented in Visual Studio.NET) into your application. The Dynamic Help SDK includes an integrated Dynamic Help editor and a redistributable Dynamic Help control. You can also create content for integration in the Visual Studio.NET dynamic help window.
  • Automation and Extensibility: HelpStudio includes a comprehensive automation and extensibility API. Automate help system builds and extend the HelpStudio IDE - the possibilities are endless.
  • Team working: Working in a team and want several members to contribute to or review the help system? HelpStudio has fully integrated support for Source code Control systems (Visual SourceSafe, Team Foundation Server, SourceGear Vault as well as other source control systems implementing an MSCCI interface). Unlike other Help Authoring tools, HelpStudio does not require that you check the project in and out as a whole - individual team members can independently work with different Topics, even the Table of Contents and Glossary in the same project - simultaneously. The source control functionality is integrated directly into the HelpStudio user interface.