Cross-Topic References, Customizable AI Assistance, and Authoring Performance Improvements in HelpNDoc 10.3

We are pleased to announce the release of HelpNDoc 10.3. This new version refines the authoring experience with a strong focus on structured cross-referencing, improved HTML customization, more controllable AI assistance, and a variety of UI, performance, and reliability improvements.
As always, HelpNDoc is free for personal use and evaluation, so you can download the new version now and explore all the improvements firsthand.

🔗 Reference Items: Reliable Cross-Topic References Across All Outputs

HelpNDoc 10.3 introduces a brand-new Reference item, designed to create reliable, format-aware cross-references between topics.

One of the main additions in HelpNDoc 10.3 is the new Reference item. It lets you insert a format-aware reference to another topic without creating a hyperlink. Rather than generating a link, the Reference item is replaced at build time by one of two user-defined formatted texts, depending on the output type.

For HTML-based documentation formats (CHM, HTML, ePub, Kindle, Qt Help, and Markdown), the reference uses an format template that can include the %topic_title% placeholder, replaced with the target topic’s title.

For report-based formats (Word DocX, RTF, and PDF), the reference uses a separate report-format template that can include %topic_title% and %topic_page_nb%, with the page number resolved in the final output. In Word DocX and RTF, page numbers are exported as fields, so they automatically update when the document is printed or when fields are manually refreshed in Word.

Reference items are particularly useful for structured manuals, technical specifications, and regulatory documentation where precise cross-referencing is required across multiple output formats.

🏷️ IDs and Classes for Image Maps, Barcodes, and Equations

HTML-based documentation gains finer control with support for custom IDs and CSS classes on more item types.

Building on recent improvements to HTML customization, HelpNDoc 10.3 now allows image maps, barcode instances, and equation instances to define unique IDs and CSS class names. These attributes are preserved in HTML-based output formats, enabling more precise styling and scripting.

This enhancement is especially valuable for users who integrate HelpNDoc output into existing websites, documentation portals, or web applications. Developers and technical writers can now reliably target specific generated elements with CSS or JavaScript, improving layout control, accessibility, and interactivity without post-processing hacks.

🤖 Project-Specific AI Assistant Instructions

AI conversations can now be tailored to the current project using custom instructions.

HelpNDoc 10.3 adds the ability to define project-specific instructions for the AI Assistant. These instructions are automatically applied whenever a new AI chat is started while the project is open.

This allows teams to guide AI behavior using project-specific terminology, writing conventions, formatting rules, or domain-specific constraints. For instance, a project can instruct the AI to use particular product names, adhere to a specific tone, or prevent it from generating content outside the project’s scope.

By grounding AI interactions in the context of the current project, this feature improves consistency, reduces post-editing, and makes AI assistance more predictable and useful in professional documentation workflows.

🖥️ UI Improvements and Editor Performance Enhancements

HelpNDoc 10.3 includes multiple UI refinements focused on comfort, performance, and visual consistency.

The content editor now supports zooming, making it easier to work comfortably on high-resolution displays or when editing visually dense content. This zoom capability applies not only to topics, but also to snippets and report template elements, including headers, footers, and cover pages.

Several rendering issues have been corrected, including cases where bold or italic captions appeared larger than expected, and instances where ribbon button captions were incorrectly scaled on systems using Windows DPI scaling. Condition-tag rendering has also been optimized to reduce memory usage and improve drawing performance in complex topics.

Additionally, the Open and Save file dialogs have received stability and performance improvements, and memory usage has been reduced when repeatedly opening the content editor, for example when editing snippets or template components.

🧩 Scripting and Template Debugging Improvements

New diagnostics features make script and template debugging clearer and more precise.

HelpNDoc 10.3 introduces new script and template compilation instructions: {$hint}, {$warning}, {$error}, and {$fatal}. These provide clearer and more consistent feedback during compilation, enabling authors to distinguish between informational messages, recoverable issues, and critical failures.

To further assist with debugging, two new runtime objects — CurrentSourceCodeLocation and CallerSourceCodeLocation — are now available in scripts and templates. These objects expose precise source-location information, making it easier to identify where an issue originates, even in complex call chains or reused templates.

🛠️ Additional Fixes, Performance, and Reliability Improvements

This release also delivers a wide range of fixes and internal improvements.

Several issues related to WinHelp (.hlp) importing and decompilation have been resolved, including problems that could prevent imports based on file paths or trigger string-length errors during decompilation. The Find and Replace feature has been improved to be more reliable by fixing memory leaks and correcting cases where regular-expression searches could skip valid matches.

Memory usage has been further reduced through the application. This includes improvements when reopening editors and enhancements to the project’s underlying data storage engine, resulting in better performance and reliability for large or long-lived projects.

As always, the full list of changes is available in the detailed release notes below.

🎉 Happy New Year 2026!

We wish you a productive, successful, and inspiring year ahead.

As we kick off 2026, we’d like to thank all HelpNDoc users for their continued trust, feedback, and support. Your real-world use cases and suggestions continue to shape the evolution of the product, and we look forward to delivering even more refinements and innovations throughout the year.

🚀 Download HelpNDoc 10.3

HelpNDoc 10.3 is now available free for personal use and evaluation.

Whether you’re building structured manuals with reliable cross-references, customizing HTML output, or working with AI-assisted authoring, HelpNDoc 10.3 offers practical improvements that make everyday documentation work smoother and more dependable.
👉 Download HelpNDoc 10.3 and discover what’s new.

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