The project library is a centralized location within HelpNDoc’s projects where technical writers can store and manage their help content, such as images, documents, videos, bar codes, equations, HTML code…
Reusing items from the library in multiple topics within a help documentation project has several benefits. It improves consistency, saves time and effort, reduces the risk of errors, saves disk space, and keeps the project organized. By using the same items, users can create documentation more efficiently and make changes more easily.
Overall, the library is an essential tool for creating high-quality, well-organized documentation.
Your library is always at your fingertips. If it is not displayed on your desktop, there are two simple ways to access it: Option 1 Click Library along the side of your page. This displays your Library panel. Option 2 Press the control key on your keyboard, and then press F4. This displays your Library panel. To pin the Library panel, click the thumbtack in the upper right-hand corner. To collapse the Library Panel, click the thumbtack again.
Your library supports several multimedia file formats, including: Images and photographs (e.g. PNG, JPEG) Movies (e.g. MOV, MPEG4, AVI) Documents (e.g. DOC, DOCX, RTF, TXT) Raw HTML code Variables which are placeholders for simple textual data Snippets which are placeholders for complex formatted texts There are two steps to add an item to your library. Both are outlined below. Step 1 You have two options to complete the first step:
There are four easy ways to rename a library item: Option 1 Select the item in your library panel and then click Rename in the Library section of the Home ribbon tab. This switches the item name into “edit mode” allowing you to update it. Enter the new name and press enter to save it. Note: Some items such as system variables can’t be renamed. Therefore, if you select a system variable in the library panel, Rename remains gray, prohibiting you from clicking it.
When you need to remove a library item, there are two easy ways to delete it: Option 1 Select the item in your library panel and then click Delete in the Library section of the Home ribbon tab. This displays a window, confirming that you’d like to permanently delete the item. Click Yes. This removes the item from your library panel. Option 2 Right-click the item in your library panel that you’d like to remove.
To update an item, you have three simple options. Option 1 Select the item in your library panel and then click Item properties in the Home ribbon tab. This opens the window that displays the properties you had defined for that item. Enter your update and click OK to save your change. Option 2 Right-click the item in your library panel that you’d like to update. This displays a popup menu.
Note: When you insert a library item into your topics, you are actually inserting a pointer to that item in your library. As a result, when you update an item in the library, all occurrences of that item automatically reflect that update. You do not need to manually update each occurrence. You have three easy options when inserting an item from your library into your documentation: Option 1 Place your cursor in the topic editor where you’d like the library item to be inserted.
Note: Image maps are only compatible with the CHM and HTML documentation formats as well as some ePub readers. Step 1: Access image map editor You have two options to complete the first step: Option 1 Click Add item in the Home ribbon tab. This displays a menu. Select Add image map. Option 2 Right-click your library panel to display a menu. Select Add item. This displays a menu. Select Add image map.
To access the Project Analyzer, click Analyze Project in the Project section on the Home ribbon tab. Then click Analyze in the lower left-hand corner to view project stats and other helpful information. You can then click the Library items tab to review library items in the current project. Each library item, its properties, and its usage are displayed in four columns: Kind displays the type of library item Caption is the name assigned to the item in the library Source refers to the way in which the library item is rendered.
HelpNDoc, the popular help authoring software, has just released its latest version, HelpNDoc 8.5, packed with several new features and improvements to help authors create even better documentation. Among the new additions are an Equation library item that allows mathematical expressions to be defined and reused throughout a project, a project analyzer that lists individual characters and their number of occurrences throughout the project, and an updated build actions panel that saves and restores properties group positions and column widths.
Managing media assets such as pictures throughout help files, documentation projects or ebooks can be a daunting task and this is why the HelpNDoc help authoring tool implements a centralized library: media assets are managed from the project’s library, and changes are automatically applied to every instances throughout the project. But some settings (such as dimensions, positions, alterative texts…) can be customized for each instance, making them hard to update for frequently used assets.