What's new

Version 9.1.0.198 – Release date: Mar 19, 2024 – Download

New Dynamic Content library item: HTML code and scripts inserted within topics are interpreted at generation time to produce dynamic content
Added ability to duplicate pre- and post-build actions from one build to another one
It is now possible to delete recent projects or recent places from the lists in the welcome page or file menu by right-clicking an item
Table background colors could sometimes be incorrectly exported to HTML-based documentation formats
It wasn't possible to paste or drop formatted HTML content within the topic editor, snippet editor or any other rich-text editors anymore
When opening an existing project, it could incorrectly be marked as modified when it wasn't
Navigating to the project options panel could set the project as modified when it wasn't
The insert library item popup menus have been redesigned to allow faster navigation and insertion from libraries with a large number of items
Duplicating a build didn't duplicate its pre-build and post-build actions
Duplicating a build didn't duplicate its list of overridden library items
The quick access toolbar's position above or below the ribbon wasn't correctly restored between sessions
Editing some image maps could lead to an empty image being displayed in some rare cases
Some rare very old projects which have been migrated to version 9 could be partially generated when they contained snippets
In the library item editor, the equation preview could be incorrectly placed at the bottom of the window when it should fit within the available space
Application could incorrectly notify the Windows system that projects in the "Recent projects" list were recently opened when they were not
HelpNDoc application's startup is now faster
Simplified dictionaries related API by removing unneeded methods

Version 9.0.0.156 – Release date: Feb 6, 2024 – Download

New build actions: upload generated files to FTP(S) and SFTP servers
Ability to override any library item types (pictures, documents, equations, variables, snippets...) in any build independently
Documentation generation process can now be canceled at any stage
Improved HTML importer which is now faster, more reliable and includes additional support for modern HTML and CSS features
The HTML library item's editor can now load and save its content from disk and includes a toolbar and popup menu
Project styles can now be imported from a DocX document or HTML web page in addition to HelpNDoc's own formats, and RTF files
Rewritten the script editor's log console: new hierarchical tree structure, includes icons, supports multiple lines, clearer and faster
Double-click an info, warning or error line in the script editor's log console to navigate to the problematic source code location
Use the CTRL-C keyboard shortcut to copy the selected line in the script editor's log console to the clipboard
Overridden build styles can now be copied from one build to another
The focused nodes of the table of contents, keywords and library trees are now saved within the HND project file and restored next time it is opened
New API methods to copy all build styles from one build to another, and to delete all build styles for a specific build
PDF generator produces smaller PDF files when font embedding is set to none or subset
PDF generator now better handles font embedding, including particularly for symbol fonts
Improved HTML/CSS generation: better code generation with additional modern style support
Improved Markdown import / export, which now supports loading and saving starting values of numbered lists
Some topics created with an older version of HelpNDoc could be blank when opened with latest versions
Importing CHM help files when a project is opened or recently closed could lead to the generation of sub-optimal or duplicate Help Ids and Help Context numbers
Strengthened documentation generation process to avoid crashes and correctly clean up in case of a problem
Cleaner HTML code generation for ePub and Kindle eBooks leading to less validation errors and warnings
Legacy framed HTML template did generate invalid breadcrumbs topic titles
Copying bullet lists from the topic editor to a text application now correctly pastes bullets
It wasn't always possible to clear the style format of select content within table cells
Improved drawing accuracy of various items when exported to PDF documents
Bullets with font symbols were not correctly exported to HTML based documentation formats
Better import of bookmarks in CHM and HTML imported files
Generation log could sometimes display bogus numbers for warnings and errors
Word and PDF generators could produce images which are larger than the page's width when images were included in library items such as documents or snippets
Improved and strengthened dictionaries import methods and fixed Luxembourgish dictionary import
Improved import of email hyperlinks from HTML documents
Automatic unique keywords and library items caption generation is now more reliable and generates better captions
New project templates were not always correctly loaded and displayed, resulting in an empty list
Faster and more reliable checksum calculation for topics, library items, and library items' sources
Improvements and refinements in user interface's skin engine
Fixed rare stack overflow exceptions related to the ribbon bars and buttons
Removed variable override command line option: use command line scripts to use the new library override feature instead

Version 8.9.0.604 – Release date: Sep 5, 2023 – Download

New project starter kits to help bootstrap a new documentation project's hierarchical structure based on best practices. Includes the following starter kits: API documentation, Cooking recipes, Mobile app, Software documentation
It is now possible to filter topics in the table of contents by status (e.g. complete, in progress...) and visibility (e.g. visible, hidden, hidden from table of contents)
Table of contents panel now has an optional toolbar to conveniently access some common table of contents related actions
Redesigned new project dialog for faster and easier creating of the initial table of contents thanks to a toolbar showing available actions
New YAML automatic syntax highlighter
Script editor now optionally indents / decreases indents for all selected lines when the TAB or SHIFT-TAB keyboard shortcuts are pressed
Script editor now optionally highlights matching brackets
Panels such as as the table of contents, library and keywords now update their caption to mention if they are currently filtered
Library item analyzer's "Select similar items" action didn't always select all similar items
Improved grid sorting application-wide: all grid columns now use case insensitive sorting
Script editor didn't respect any updated options until the application was restarted
Optimized speed for loading and operating main form and table of contents panel
Speed up the opening of the topics status popup menu
The "Delete" button was flickering in the status management window under certain conditions

Version 8.8.0.547 – Release date: Jul 11, 2023

The image editor now includes a stamps panel with dozens of pre-made shapes and numbering options
Select any number of layers in the image editor to convert them to a reusable stamp
Snippet editor now uses a modern ribbon user interface for improved consistency and usability
Snippet editor now displays the most recently used fonts first and includes shortcuts to control the paragraphs' line spacing, background color and text flow
It is now possible to add, edit and delete anchors in the snippets editor
The library can now be filtered to display only some library item types
Script editor window now displays the currently edited file name in its caption
Library panel now has an optional toolbar to conveniently access some common library actions
The default HTML template now optionally supports Google Tag Manager
A preview of the currently hovered library item is now displayed in the project analyzer
Image maps can now also be edited using the built-in image editor
Trying to edit a broken library item (e.g. item is not included in the library anymore) displayed an exception error message
When editing a single hyperlink from the project analyzer, the edit window now uses its current settings by default
System variable library items silently failed to edit: an error message is now displayed to indicate that this is not possible
It was possible to open multiple instances of the script editor, leading to confusion and potential bugs
In the image editor, it was possible to close panels without a way to re-open them
The library now displays sorted folders first to be consistent with the Windows Explorer
HelpNDoc's scripting API help file was displayed behind the script editor window
Optimized loading of application's main window
Fixed typos in HTML-based template settings

Version 8.7.0.500 – Release date: May 25, 2023

Importing folders and sub-folders can now optionally recreate the folder hierarchy in the project's table of contents
Revised the folder import user interface to make it clearer and easier to use
Improved LaTeX expression support in the mathematical equation editor
HTML based Templates can now specify the topic files extension to customize how topic files are generated
It is now possible to override hook scripts, link formats to topics and anchors, as well as topic file extensions for all HTML based templates from the template settings tab without the need to create a new custom template
Use the CTRL keyboard shortcut and the mouse wheel to control the zoom level of the topic editor
Template hook scripts do not need to start with "<%" and end with "%>" anymore
Greatly improved mathematical equation's virtual keyboard: improved layout, support for alternative keys display using the SHIFT shortcut, faster overall performances
Multiple bug fixes in mathematical equation editor: fixed and improved expression drawing, better handling of arrow navigation keys...
Better conversion of topic content to library items as some items were not converted, and the number of converted/deleted items wasn't disclosed
The anchor editor dialog wasn't always able to locate and delete anchors
Faster and more reliable file and folder import process
The CTRL+0 keyboard shortcut didn't reset the topic editor's zoom level
ePub generator didn't correctly handle empty topics
Fixed memory leaks in snippet editor
Improved scripting API definitions and documentation
Anchor editor now gives focus to anchor name input field when shown

Version 8.6.0.462 – Release date: Apr 18, 2023

New built-in image editor which can be used to produce multi-layered images from within HelpNDoc while maintaining the ability to edit layers at any time (Beta)
New script to update topic's description throughout the project by replacing an old textual content with a new one
Fixed security vulnerability issue with the default HTML template
Library item's project analyzer incorrectly reported equations as broken throughout the project
Hooks were not working anymore in HTML based templates
When using the default HTML template, hyperlinks to Internet addresses were always opened in a new tab / window
Application could crash at startup when the custom template folder included sub-folders with unknown template kinds
Using the anchor editor, it was not always possible to navigate to an anchor, or delete it when it was placed within a table
Fixed HndUI.GetCurrentLibraryItemId which wasn't available from scripts
Script property TStringList.Objects didn't work as expected
Clarified confusing license related messages to make them more helpful
Faster operations when software and scripts are dealing with the equation library item
Bug fixes and reliability improvements in script engine
Improved memory usage of TStringList script API
Improved speed and reliability of generation documentation process
Performance and reliability improvements in the HND project file format handler
Improved documentation for the built-in script and template engine

Version 8.5.0.413 – Release date: Feb 28, 2023

New equation library item: define mathematical expressions and reuse them throughout the project
New project analyzer: list individual characters throughout the project with their number of occurrences to quickly spot invalid characters
Project analyzer now reports the number of characters including spaces, and excluding spaces
Build actions panel now saves and restores the position of the size of the action properties group and the width of its columns
Project analyzer's character counter is now more reliable: multi-byte characters are now correctly counted as one character when appropriate
Improved keyword generation for CHM, HTML and Qt help documentation formats: keywords are now correctly associated to topics hidden from the table of contents and their children
It wasn't possible to resize the "Action Properties" group in the "Build actions" panel: splitter bar didn't work
Possible error exceptions when using keyboard shortcuts on the ribbon bar
Improved scripting engine with performance improvements, improved parser and better array support, including ForEach method for arrays
Grids lines, headers and borders are now more subtle for a more modern and discreet UI
Some icons were not scalable and are now replace by SVG icons so that they can scale seamlessly to any screen size and resolution
The browse file button in the build action properties now correctly defaults to the field's directory
Fixed some German translation errors
HelpNDoc is not tested on Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 anymore: Microsoft dropped support for Windows 8 / 8.1 and strongly recommend to update to a newer version of Windows

Version 8.4.0.372 – Release date: Jan 17, 2023

New HTTP request build action: perform GET and POST requests to any URL before or after a specific documentation build
Project analyzer can now merge multiple selected keywords into one keyword: all previously associated topics will be associated with the new keyword
Every build action property now has a description to explain its use
File and path related build action properties now have a button to open the standard file and folder selection dialogs
Redesigned the anchor insertion / edition window to make it easier to operate and more reliable: it provides live validation and rethought clearer modern UI
Qt generator now warns if an extension other than *.qhc is used for the output file name as it could cause generation errors with the Qt help generator
Default topic's build override is now easier and faster to select as it displays the full topic hierarchy and an enhanced selection dialog
Improved Word importer which could create broken hyperlinks and can now handle mixed-case bookmarks
Build action properties' names and description are now clearer and localized to all languages supported by HelpNDoc
Live spell checker is not activated on build action properties where that doesn't make sense (e.g. script content, path selection...)
It wasn't possible to toggle the activation status of build actions for languages other than English
Adding a duplicate anchor in a topic now asks for confirmation before deleting the previous one
Anchor manager's window could be incorrectly displayed with empty on some display resolutions and settings
Improved accessibility of default HTML template by adding multiple missing ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) attributes
When the default topic was deleted, it could be difficult to select another one from the project options panel
Greatly improved documentation generation dialog opening time for medium and large projects
Some parts of the user interface incorrectly referred to bookmarks instead of anchors

Version 8.3.1.337 – Release date: Dec 13, 2022

Table borders and background colors could be incorrectly exported to HTML based documentation formats

Version 8.3.0.331 – Release date: Dec 8, 2022

Mass update and delete hyperlinks from project analyzer: select hyperlinks in list and assign new target or clear them altogether
Find and replace dialog can now search for hyperlinks based on various conditions such as kind of hyperlink, target, extra parameters...
New filter for keywords: show only keywords which are associated with the current topic
Project analyzer now reports hyperlinks' and anchors' location in snippets and can open the snippet editor to their correct position
Keywords panel now has an optional toolbar for quick access to basic and advanced keywords actions
Greatly reduced CHM and HTML based generation time for medium and larger projects which could increase exponentially
Word/PDF custom templates could produce broken documents with inconsistent cover pages and styles, content highlighted in red...
PDF footers could be displayed at the wrong position
Improved RTF loading: possible access violation when importing pictures, better headings import, improved headers and footers import
Improved DocX loading for tables which were linked to a table style
The find and replace dialog could miss some results if they were the first one in the topic
Hyperlink dialog could display fields in wrong order and incorrectly draw panels backgrounds
Adding or renaming a keyword could cause the following exception error message: "Cannot focus a disabled or invisible window"
API method HndUI.EditSnippetContent wasn't accessible from the script engine
Removed option to use external importer for the DocX format: it was slower, less reliable and 32-bit only
Readme text file contained some outdated links to external tools and compilers

Version 8.2.0.286 – Release date: Oct 25, 2022

It is now possible to define pre-build actions, which are similar to post-build actions but run before the generation process
New build action: Run an external program and check its return code
Completely redesigned the auto-completion dialog, with the ability to switch completion modes, clearer user interface with icons, additional keyboard shortcuts
Entering a sharp character (#) in the topic editor, followed by the CTRL-SPACE keyboard shortcut, will list all anchors in the current topic for fast hyperlink creation
Redesigned the default topic selection in the project option panel: now using a full tree for faster and more accurate selection of the default topic
New API method HndTopicsEx.GetTopicCaptionHierarchy to get the hierarchy of caption for a specific topic
Default HTML template improvement: search field is focused and selected when the search tab is clicked
Added menu items to access the last generated for each documentation format: paths are stored within the HND project file for quick usage without re-generation next time the project is opened
Script editor now includes a "Save as" button to save the currently edited script as a new file
Split Word DocX document is now correctly and fully imported when there is nothing to split
Split Word DocX document now correctly imports the first content, appearing before the first split item
When a Word document containing empty titles was split, its imported content could be placed in the wrong topics or discarded altogether
Improved default HTML template's Search Engine Optimization (SEO): URL topics now display a link to their URL when they appear in the breadcrumb
The template editor allowed templates to be renamed using default template names, causing confusion and problems with template selection
Selecting a default topic with a duplicate caption could use the wrong topic as the default one
Some project options fields' modifications were discarded when the project was saved if the control didn't lose focus first
Optimized project options window which is now much faster to display, particularly on large projects
The HndTopics.CreateMultipleTopics API created topics at the same level as the parent topic instead of as its children
Slightly improved program startup time

Version 8.1.1.247 – Release date: Sep 16, 2022

HelpNDoc could display an error about missing DLLs in some languages
Floating license key checks could return an invalid key error when it was in fact valid

Version 8.1.0.243 – Release date: Sep 13, 2022

New post-build actions: run specific actions after the build process. First actions included: Show message and Run script
It is now possible to select a snippet as the default content of a newly created topic in the project's automated settings
New option to display smaller library items. When activated, non resizable items such as documents, snippets and HTML code are drawn smaller in the topic editor
Use the CTRL keyboard shortcut while applying style to reset any overrides applied to the selected content
Last edited template is now stored for each projects so that it is the default one selected next time the template editor is opened
Topic editor's right click popup menu now includes "Paste as text" and "Paste special" sub-menu for quicker access to those actions
Topic modification date and time is now correctly updated when the topic content changes
Greatly improved code editor which is now faster to draw content and scroll, and includes multiple bug fixes and enhancements
An exception could be raised when decrypting content with an invalid password
Exporting a library item to an existing file now displays a confirmation message to avoid data loss
Improved script execution engine for faster and more reliable execution, and additional pascal-based language support
Unneeded files removed from the installer to make it slightly smaller
Improved some syntax highlighters to improve the supported language elements
Script editor popup now display user scripts before system scripts as they are more likely to be used more often
Improved HND project file handling: faster comparison for binary data, performance improvements, bug and security fixes
User interface refinements, fixes and improvements for Windows 11 and high DPI screens
Debug engine has been improved and strengthened for easier and faster bug spotting and resolution

Version 8.0.0.187 – Release date: Jul 19, 2022

New Ultimate Edition of HelpNDoc: includes all features available
HelpNDoc is now a 64-bit software: It has access to more system memory, is more resilient and faster to operate
Added the ability to override any style for each specific build
Generated Word documents can be encrypted with a custom password and strong encryption algorithms
Generated Word and PDF documents can be signed using an invisible digital signature to insure their integrity
New strong encryption algorithms for PDF documents: RC4 40 bits, RC4 128 bits, AES 128 bits, AES 256 bits and AES 256 bits with hardened key generation
Added support for SVG images in both the editor, and supported documentation formats
Secrets such as passwords are now securely stored in HND project files using a strong encryption algorithm
New API methods to store any number of secrets securely in HND project files
When pasting content with library items into a snippet, problematic content will be converted and removed and the user warned about it
New TStringList.WriteBOM property to control if BOM is written when saved to file
Documentation generation dialog can now be maximized
Faster, more reliable, more memory efficient and more secure HND project file handling library
Script editor dialog now has keyboard shortcuts for its main actions
Improved application startup time
Improved overall application responsiveness
Project analyzer incorrectly reported some library items as being used by a ghost topic after they have been pasted into snippets
Windows positioning is more reliable and precise across sessions and different screen resolutions
Recent versions of Qt assistant didn't always show the vertical scroll bar when showing topics content which didn't fit the visible area
Some versions of Qt assistant displayed a black header for each topic instead of the defined base color
Images are now responsive in the Qt help documentation format: they will resize to fit the visible screen area
Improved table borders drawing in PDF documents
Dropping a topic over the root project topic could cause an error message
Default HTML template now correctly uses the template's defined default extension, making it easier to generate extensions such as HTM, PHP...
Default HTML template will now use the correct file extension for the specified logo file instead of forcing the PNG file extension
HTML search engine now correctly uses the template's defined default extension to avoid generating broken links
Better HTML export of paragraphs with borders and hanging first
Various improvements in RTF importer for East Asian texts
Faster and more reliable script and template execution
Importing some WinHelp HLP file could produce corrupted topics: editing those topics resulted in an error message
Find and replace operations for the whole project have been optimized and are now faster
Table of contents string was hard-coded in the default Markdown template: it can now be translated
Using HndGeneratorInfo.TemplateInfo in templates caused an error
Improved panels docking behavior on screens with different DPI settings
Transform text popup menu could stay visible even when another control was focused
HelpNDoc is not tested on Windows 7 anymore: Microsoft dropped extended support for Windows 7 on January, 2020

Version 7.9.1.631 – Release date: Feb 8, 2022 – Download

After deleting library items from the project analyzer, the number of successfully and unsuccessfully deleted items are shown
After deleting library items from the project analyzer, user is asked if the analyzer should be refreshed
Updating pictures' default properties when they are placed within tables could fail
Pasting content in the topic editor could move the edit cursor at the beginning of the topic editor and back
Refreshing the project analyzer after deleting library items could report incorrect data in the library items' analyzer
Deleting multiple versions of the same library items from the project analyzer incorrectly displayed an error message
Possible exception under some rare circumstances when deleting a bullet or a numbered item in a table cell
Improved speed when pasting large content with pictures in topic editor

Version 7.9.0.612 – Release date: Jan 19, 2022

Added the ability to apply the default picture properties of a library item to all instances throughout the project
New font selector with list of recently used fonts, font preview and font searching support
Recently used fonts are saved within the HND project file and restored next time it is opened
Hyperlinks to document's headings are now correctly imported when importing Microsoft Word DocX or RTF document
Inserting a YouTube URL without the embed parameter in the library items editor warns and optionally converts the URL to the correct format
New option to automatically close the script editor when script is successfully run
Image, image maps and movies default properties can be reset from the library items editor
New API to get a list of library items used in a specific editor
New script to list all library items used in the currently selected topic
Added right-click popup menu to script editor
Added new popup menu to reset picture properties and size based on original picture, overriding library item's defaults
Topic editor content converted to snippet could create corrupted snippets which were not always correctly replaced at generation time
Resetting the currently selected picture's properties or size now uses the library item's default values
Resetting the currently selected picture's properties could leave the old values in the ribbon bar editors
Dragging a library item over the topic editor could cause an exception
Dropping a library item within a table cell could fail without warning
When changing the font style of some library items such as variables and counters in the topic editor, the rest of the paragraph could be incorrectly drawn with that style
Updating styles is now more easily accessible: added button in ribbon bar, and entry in command finder
Removed warning from the Microsoft HTML Help Workshop compiler when a topic's kind was set to empty
Optimized drag and drop operations from the library items panel
Improved paragraph border importing for DocX documents
Improved Microsoft UI Automation (UIA) support for enhanced screen reader / narrator experience

Version 7.8.0.569 – Release date: Dec 7, 2021

Documents, HTML, variables and snippets library items can now be inserted within the current topic as raw content (e.g. not linked to the item) which can be used to create topic templates...
Selected content in topic editor can be converted to snippet using the right click popup menu
New editor APIs to insert HTML content, move the cursor, check if editor is empty
New user interface APIs to iterate over selected items in trees (keywords, library items, topics), and cancel current edits
New link formats to create hyperlinks to specific topics, navigation or counters when importing external documents (e.g. HTML, Word...)
Splitting an imported Word document could miss some empty topics, or create a corrupted table of contents
HTML importer now correctly uses the project's default font and hyperlinks settings to import HTML content
Importing a document into the current topic now correctly handles anchor hyperlinks to itself
Importing a document which was locked by another application failed silently: an error message is now shown
Images placed in table cells could be incorrectly resized in Word and PDF documentation formats
All APIs calling MoveTopics (such as CreateMultipleTopics) could produce a table of contents with multiple project topics
Right clicking on some items in the project analyzer could result to an access violation error
Changing a table's background color using the "More Colors" dialog could set the color's opacity to 0%
Syntax editor's gutter font size option didn't use the proper editor
Better Windows 11 detection
Improved the MacOS version of the floating license server which could sometimes result in a false-positive transport security errors

Version 7.7.0.519 – Release date: Oct 19, 2021

Official Windows 11 support
The script editor now includes find/replace actions
New script editor customization options: change font, indentation, gutter visibility and content, spacing, special chars, word wrap...
Default HTML template's search engine can now be configured to specify the minimum number of letters of words to index: it makes it possible to index smaller one or two letter words
New command line options to open a project at a specific topic, using either its Help ID or its Help Context
Added scripting API methods to find a topic with a specific help context number, and set the currently shown topic via its Help ID or Help Context
The script editor now uses the Consolas font (when available) for more comfortably reading of extended text on screen
It is now possible to specify the inline table of contents' width in the default HTML template's settings
Script editor wasn't always able to build template scripts which contained a mix of code and HTML content
Pasting content into the topic editor could move the cursor at the top of the topic instead of after the pasted content
Tags with names longer than 32 characters were not correctly assigned to topics or builds
Built-in HTTP web server couldn't start anymore when the port was already in use by another local server, even if the port was changed
Word and PDF documents generated without a cover but with a table of contents didn't add a page break before the first topic's title
The Default CHM template produced broken links in breadcrumbs when a parent topic was marked as an empty topic
Generate documentation dialog incorrectly warned that output path didn't exist for relative paths
Script editor's word wrap icon could be drawn with a solid green background
The default HTML template didn't display any horizontal lines when printed
Start menu shortcut included a reference to HelpNDoc's uninstaller for the wrong version

Version 7.6.0.479 – Release date: Sep 9, 2021

New "Conditions" analyzer will now list all conditions used throughout the project with the ability to locate them and filter by operation
Completely redesigned the project analyzer window for easier and faster navigation and operations, clearer reports and enhanced accessibility
HelpNDoc now downloads and imports pictures from content pasted from a web-browser
Dropping a file within a folder of the library panel will automatically select that folder in the library item import dialog
Library item import dialog now remembers which folder was selected last time it imported a file
Project analyzer now reports the number of conditions used within the project's topics
Topic editor now keeps showing the selected content grayed out when a dialog is shown
The topic editor does not loose its focus after a dialog is closed anymore
Resized images could be displayed outside of the PDF document's bounds if screen scaling was set to 150% or more
Default HTML template now displays a sorted list of topics related to the select keyword
Fixed DocX import when multiple documents with numbering were placed on the same topic: numbering could start with an incorrect number
Choosing a custom color could result in a black or gray color when the color dialog was closed
Selecting a custom color for font, paragraph or picture could remove the focus from the topic editor
Wait status form used during lengthy operations is not displayed over other applications anymore
Completely rewritten form position saving/loading logic to make it more robust on multi-resolution screens and frequent screen configuration changes
Improved speed of the library item import dialog when multiple files where imported at the same time
Improved drawing of library items in topic editor: speed optimization and fixed textual content which could be incorrectly or partially drawn

Version 7.5.0.435 – Release date: Jul 27, 2021

HTML based templates can now implement hooks to generate custom Help Ids (and therefore file names) for better SEO
CHM importer can now import keywords and associate them with the correct topics
Keywords and topics association dialog can now be filtered to only show associated topics
New color picker dialog: ability to edit hexadecimal value, modern look and feed, better integration with HelpNDoc's user interface
New HndUtils.UrlEncode and HndUtils.UrlDecode API methods to (en)code URLs
New HndUtils.IdnEncode and HndUtils.IdnDecode API methods to (en)code international domain names using using punycode
It is now possible to add a misspelled word to the dictionary from the project analyzer's spelling tab
Script editor window now appears on the task bar and is not displayed over other programs anymore
Added option to define if syntax highlighter will automatically convert paragraph to line breaks
Under certain conditions, resized images could be distorted in Word and PDF documents
Floating images were not correctly resized in Word and PDF documentation formats
Moved various utility methods to the HndUtils API object and properly documented them in the API documentation
Improved built-in CHM decompiler: enhanced compatibility with more CHM files and removed memory leaks
Adding a topic and immediately add another topic before/after could raise an exception
Script API TStringList.SaveToFile could produce bogus characters: it now produces UTF-8 encoded files
Counters with caption with specific characters (e.g. some German letters or un-escaped XML characters) could produce corrupted Word documents
A corrupted registry settings could crash the application at startup
The syntax highlighter could change paragraph endings for the whole topic instead of the selection only
The project analyzer window is not displayed over other programs anymore
Optimized and strengthened HND project file loading/saving
Security and speed enhancement in licensing libraries

Version 7.4.0.390 – Release date: Jun 15, 2021

Optional "In this article" inline table of contents in the default HTML template
New kind of hyperlink "counters": it is now possible to create a link to a specific counter's instance using its ID
Ability to force image size generation for HTML based format to avoid content shifting and enhance Core Web Vitals
Added the ability to specify a default font name and size for the syntax highlighter
It is now also possible to define custom CSS style from HelpNDoc's user interface for the ePub, Kindle and Qt help file formats
The SHIFT+TAB keyboard shortcut can now be used to decrease bullets indentation level
Snippet editor and template cover editor windows can now be maximized to occupy the full screen
Clicking a link to another topic in the default HTML template will scroll to that topic in the table of contents of the default HTML template
Navigating through the web-browser's history will scroll to the proper topic in the table of contents of the default HTML template
Default HTML template will now correctly hide the left panel if all tabs are hidden
Default HTML template was shown when its width was set to 0 pixels
Some panels could be randomly very large at application start, hiding any content in the main window
Exception could be raised at startup if some settings were incorrect
Improved syntax highlighter: faster highlighting, ability to undo the conversion of paragraphs to line breaks, do not convert tab to spaces anymore
When "Show non printing characters" was enabled, some library items could display gibberish text in the topic editor
Warn users that the Microsoft Word DocX format doesn't support distinct first page headers/footers and distinct even pages headers/footers to avoid confusion

Version 7.3.0.348 – Release date: May 4, 2021

Markdown import support: HelpNDoc can import Markdown documents into a project, split them and import them at generation time using the "Document" library item
Builds can now be duplicated from the generate documentation dialog: every build settings, associated status and tags are copied to the new build
HTML based documentation formats and Markdown can now generate library items to a custom path
New numbered list types: lower Greek letters and decimal with leading zero
CTRL-Up/Down keyboard shortcuts now moves the cursor to the beginning of current, previous or next paragraph
Snippets contained in the library could become huge which produced very large projects, and memory problems
Snippets with broken images could produce a corrupted Word DocX document
When deleting a topic, its keywords associations were not correctly deleted from projects which could lead to broken generated documentation
Faster documentation generation for all formats for projects with a large number of snippets
"Syntax highlighter" and "Paragraph to line breaks" functions could incorrectly convert the line before the selected content to a line break when it was a paragraph break
When using "Syntax highlighter" and "Paragraph to line breaks" functions inside a table, paragraphs surrounding the table could be converted to line break
Keywords associated with excluded topics could produce link errors in HTML-based documentation formats
Project analyzer now correctly show keywords associated with deleted topics as "un-used"
Improved readability of breadcrumbs arrows for small screens in generated HTML documentation: better mobile usability reports in Google Search Console
Optimized generation of numbered lists in HTML based documentation formats
Smaller and cleaner HND project file format: unused associated topic content is now properly deleted when a topic is deleted
Performance and security enhancements in HND project file access

Version 7.2.0.306 – Release date: Mar 23, 2021

New Markdown support: HelpNDoc can now generate Markdown versions of project topics which can customized via custom templates
PDF topic titles will start on a new page when the next paragraph or image doesn't fit in the current page (aka. keep with next)
It is now possible to force a topic to start on a new Word or PDF page from its topic properties
Faster Word and PDF table of contents generation
Improved default CHM template: it is now possible to specify an HTML footer for each topics in the template's settings
Encrypted PDF document's description field (e.g. title, subject...) where broken and included random characters
Enhanced PDF generation: topic titles could have big margins when space before and/or space after values were defined for the normal style
Various fixes in the status editor: status movements could be buggy and status addition didn't always work as expected
Template editor couldn't add new assets to a new template which was a duplicate of a template without any assets
Slightly smaller generated Word documents
If the custom dictionary path wasn't created on disk, the content of the custom dictionary was lost when the application was closed
Keyboard's context menu shortcut didn't work in the topic editor and snippet editor
It was not possible to set a template variable's kind to "memo" in the template editor
It was not possible to restore the default icon anymore if the automated settings' default icon was changed
Script command line option produced errors when trying to access HelpNDoc's API methods
Double clicking on a table border could raise an exception
Some child windows could display a shadow over other windows even when they were not visible
Updated Microsoft's HTML Help Workshop link as it is not provided by Microsoft anymore
Licensing system could return a "CoInitializeEx failed" error for some mis-configured drivers / hard-drives

Version 7.1.3.270 – Release date: Feb 15, 2021

Brand new installation could crash without any errors when creating or opening a project

Version 7.1.2.266 – Release date: Feb 12, 2021

Table of contents and other tree editors were not always showing the typed content when edited

Version 7.1.1.256 – Release date: Feb 3, 2021

An EInvalidGraphic "Bitmap image is not valid" exception could be shown at program startup
Smaller icons were not always correctly scaled

Version 7.1.0.253 – Release date: Feb 2, 2021

It is now possible to define default image and image map settings from the library: they will be used when image is inserted into topics
Added support for additional bar codes symbologies. New bar code types include: Code 11, Code 39, Code 39 Extended, Code 93, Code 93 Extended, Code 128 and Interleaved 2 of 5
Project analyzer's spell checker now checks misspelled words in snippets
MacOS version of the Floating license server is now a universal binary which supports both the Intel x64 and Apple ARM64 processors
Default HTML template can now optionally add an Alt text for the logo
Generating a PDF with rotated cells containing text could produce an exception
Activating the "Force image sizes as Inches" CHM option could generate very small pictures
Strengthened script execution: functions returning null objects could return non-null objects and therefore failed the Assigned() check
HTML search engine could return invalid results for some words
More reliable handling of temporary folders: should be able to better clean after itself
Enhancements and fixes in DocX importer: compatible with more DocX documents, enhanced theme color and font names import...
Optimized project analyzer which is now faster in most cases
Trees and grids do not show alternate row colors anymore as they made it hard to see the selected item
Topic editor's header and popup menu could be displayed too small on high DPI screens
Improved image scaling for semi-transparent images in topic editor
Improved speed, security and reliability of licensing library
Under some rare conditions, exported Word or PDF documents could be empty or partially generated
Improved OpenOffice spell dictionaries compatibility
Default HTML template incorrectly opened a new tab when clicking a link to an e-mail address

Version 7.0.0.199 – Release date: Dec 8, 2020

Brand new script engine: easier and more readable syntax, faster compilation and execution, more reliable error messages, many bug fixes, future proof...
Completely new PDF generator which is faster, uses less memory, produces smaller files and generates better looking PDF documents
Brand new DocX importer which do not require the installation of Microsoft Office converters: up to 40x faster, uses less memory, more reliable and better import quality
New counters library items: use them to count items such as figures, tables, equations...
Creating a new project: it is now possible to import an existing project's table of contents in addition to a CHM table of contents
Added the ability to backup the currently opened project
Variables, system variables, image maps and bar codes can now be defined as hyperlinks
Default HTML template can now optionally generate a resize bar to be able to dynamically resize the left contents/index/search panels
Script build's warning and information messages are now shown even when build is successful
Clean output directory at generation time is now faster and sends the folder to the recycle bin instead of deleting permanently
Setup now has a new modern look and feel
It was possible to break some library items types when defining an hyperlink for them
When a picture was also a hyperlink, it was not possible to double-click on it to edit the associated library item
The PDF generator can now better handle some symbol characters such as numbers found in the Windings font
The project analyzer's general information dialog could report wrong counts of library items, usually inverted values between item types
The project analyzer dialog now stay on top of the main window to simplify interaction between analyzer and project
Hovering over the library panel or showing a popup or tool-tip could hide the project analyzer window
Both HndBuildsStatus and HndBuildsStatusEx objects were not accessible from scripts
Command line status override didn't work as expected
Resized image maps were not working as expected after navigating between topics in default HTML template
Updated jQuery with security fix in default HTML template
Optimized and improved header automatic hiding on small screens in default HTML template
Better accessibility in default HTML template's table of contents tree
Word and PDF generators now correctly export hyperlinks in cover page, headers and footers
It was not possible to define an empty value for a custom topic property as it displayed an error message
Licensing improvements: better handling of proxies, fewer deactivations, security fixes and improvements

Version 6.9.0.577 – Release date: May 5, 2020 – Download

New BarCode library item: create and customize EAN-8, EAN-13, MSI, QR Codes... and place them within your topics
Project analyzer now lists all anchors defined within the project and provides a way to rapidly locate them
Project analyzer reports the number of anchors and Barcodes used throughout the project
Inserting new library items using the "Insert" ribbon tab, placed them at the start of the topic instead of the cursor position
Picture properties (Alt text, size, position...) were not always updated when selecting pictures in the topic editor
Picture format and table layout ribbon tabs now keep focus when selecting images or tables in various parts of a topic (e.g. moving in, out and between table cells...)
Command line interface didn't always work when selecting builds by name as part of the following options: -except; -only; -output; -status; -tags; -template
Overriding output path from the command line could fail for some documentation formats when using relative paths
Focusing topics in the table of contents could be slow for large projects
Fixed incorrect column width saving for some projects for Word and PDF documentation format
Changing URL of "URL topics" or File path of "External file" topics could cause exceptions
Optimized and removed flicker of "Picture Tools" and "Table Tools" ribbon groups when moving the cursor in various parts of a topic
Fixed memory leaks when importing CHM help files which could produce "Out of Memory" errors when importing large files
Resized images could be distorted when exported to PDF
Faster import of large CHM help files
Improved HTML and RTF/Doc/DocX importers
Various user interface tweaks, fixes and enhancements, including for High DPI screens

Version 6.8.0.521 – Release date: Mar 10, 2020

It is now possible to directly import CHM help files' HHP source projects
Options dialog now includes a keyboard shortcut editor to simplify the definition of some commonly used keyboard shortcuts
The following styles keyboard shortcuts are now customizable: use normal style, promote or demote paragraph, apply heading 1 to 3
Ability to reset any part of the application settings from the "File" / "Options" dialog: General settings, compilers, UI, custom folders, keyboard shortcuts...
The floating license server is now available for x64 and ARM64 versions of Windows, in addition to the existing x86 version
Image width and height ribbon edit fields didn't always behave properly
When converting an image map to an image and vice-versa, the library item wasn't updated in all topics
Improved CHM help importer: handle additional edge cases to make sure that links between topics are correctly imported
Customized image alignment didn't always work using the default HTML template
Multiple enhancements to license management system: improved network card detection; better proxy support; optimizations and fixes
Enhanced speed of the CHM importer
Improved table saving in RTF documents
Topic properties panel's size, position and visibility didn't always behave correctly
Optimized find / replace action which is now faster when replacing multiple instances in the same topics
Enhanced HTML import: paragraphs with IDs will automatically create anchors

Version 6.7.0.479 – Release date: Jan 28, 2020

Automatic generation of customizable YouTube and Vimeo embed codes when entering a video URL of those services
Documentation generation dialog now warns before starting generation if the output directory doesn't exist or isn't writable
Report template editor's table of contents preview and editor could display page size in the next line instead of same line as title
Project analyzer always reported zero words count
Project analyzer print preview and PDF export was not fully translated to German / French / Spanish
Word document page size was not correct when exported on a high DPI screen
When pictures were too large to fit in the PDF document, they were not correctly resized on high DPI screens
PDF generation is more consistent when generated on different DPI screens
Table of contents pages could be displayed on the next line for PDF documents generated on high DPI screens
Enhanced Word document's table of contents page number estimation
Adding a right indent to table of contents entries displayed the page number on the next line in PDF documents
Right indent in table of contents entries was discarded in generated Word documentation
Improved CHM importer: links to HTML files placed in sub-folders were not correctly imported
Picture width and height ribbon fields were not always correctly updated when pictures were resized

Version 6.6.0.444 – Release date: Dec 13, 2019

Topic editor zoom control: Zoom the topic editor from 10% up to 500% using either the zoom slider or keyboard shortcuts
Project analyzer reports can now be printed, or exported to PDF or Excel files
Added the ability to quickly run a script from the main window: click the popup from the script editor button and choose the script to run
The snippet editor and templates' cover page editors can now optionally show hidden characters
Locating a library item from the project analyzer will now select it within the topic editor
Enhanced High DPI support for the topic editor: pictures were not always correctly displayed + various drawing enhancements in various DPI settings
Improved HTML and RTF importers
Improved robustness, speed and security of HND project files
Improved clarity of "General information" tab in the project analyzer
Anchors could produce extra spacing when exported to HTML documentation formats
The code generator incorrectly mentioned that it added banners to the generated output

Version 6.5.0.399 – Release date: Oct 29, 2019

Updated application look and feel with Microsoft Office 2019 inspired appearance
New ribbon search field: enter a command to find it and execute it
Template editor can now be used to create and edit HTML tags for HTML based templates
HelpNDoc will now warn in the build output if a documentation format is generated with banners
Project analyzer now reports the number of snippets and image maps used within the project's content
Project analyzer window now appears on the task bar and doesn't stay on top anymore
WinHelp importer now correctly imports WMF images too
It is now possible to select multiple hyperlinks in the project analyzer window for copy/paste purposes: use double-click to locate an hyperlink instead of single-click
When multiple document library items were placed on a topic, some of them could be replaced by the file name instead of the file content
Work-around to some Windows systems incorrectly reporting mime types for common file extensions, making the built-in web-server sometimes return incorrect mime types in response headers
Removing the styles gallery from the quick access toolbar could result in an exception
Caption and icons of the styles gallery were empty when added to the quick access toolbar
Updated some vendors libraries in default HTML template to fix security issues and web-browser bugs
Removed the FastClick mobile library from the default HTML template as it wasn't needed anymore on most mobile devices and could cause problems with some web-browsers
Improved WinHelp importer compatibility: some HLP files only imported pictures and not content
Better hyperlink import in WinHelp files: some hyperlinks were not imported as they were using specific unhandled formats
Using the Right-Alt + x keyboard shortcut on a Polish keyboard did replace the previous character with a numeric value
CTRL + Clicking on a link to an anchor in the topic editor didn't work when the anchor was placed in a table

Version 6.4.1.367 – Release date: Sep 25, 2019

An exception error message could be shown when adding a topic to the table of contents
Word and PDF generation could fail if templates included variables in cover pages, headers or footers

Version 6.4.0.357 – Release date: Sep 17, 2019

The "script" command line can be used to run a script using the HelpNDoc API to automate project creation or modification
The single page HTML template can now optionally generate a table of contents, making it more versatile as an off-line template
Project name is now displayed in the Windows task-bar to rapidly identify multiple running instances of HelpNDoc
HTML based templates can be customized to generate different HTML code (HTML Tags) based on the movie extension. See documentation to learn more
Snippets or documents library items placed within table could not always be replaced at generation time
Updated the generated movie tags to use the latest HTML 5 specification (except for CHM help files)
Producing much smaller CHM files when using movies: movies are not included anymore as they can't be played from within CHM files
Qt Help generation could fail when the project title contained the "&" character and no custom namespaces were provided
Qt Help generation could fail when about or application icons were not used in any topics
Better WinHelp HLP file import: file with file names longer than 8.3 couldn't be imported
Enhanced WinHelp Index/Keywords importer: keywords hierarchy wasn't always correctly imported when a custom index separator was used
A "List Index Out Of Bounds" exception could be raised when replacing library items under rare circumstances
Faster generation for all documentation formats when using snippets or documents library items
Various enhancements in the named and floating licensing systems

Version 6.3.0.298 – Release date: Jul 24, 2019

External file pictures are now drawn in the topic editor
For HTML based documentation formats, it is now possible to optionally clean the output directory before generating documentation: select build settings to never clean, always clean, or ask before cleaning
Library items now display an icon overlay when they are imported from a file at generation time, or an URL at viewing time
The hyperlink analyzer now selects the full hyperlink in the topic editor when an item is selected, making it easier to spot problematic hyperlinks
Imported documents now correctly import anchors to that document
Imported split documents now correctly re-create hyperlinks to other topics from anchors in that document
Copying topic content between two instances of HelpNDoc didn't correctly copy images
Unicode characters having codes greater than $FFFF (E.g. symbols, emoticons...) were not correctly exported to HTML based documentation formats
After importing a CHM help files, anchors could be broken when exported to another documentation format
An error message is now displayed when trying to install a dictionary in a location which cannot be written to
Editing a script in the template editor didn't warn when closed without saving
Improved speed and memory usage when generating all HTML based documentation formats (CHM, HTML, ePub, Kindle and Qt Help) for projects using at least one picture library item
Optimized topic loading speed when they contain tables

Version 6.2.0.255 – Release date: Jun 11, 2019

Topics can now have aliases: the HTML documentation will automatically generate URLs for those aliases
Using the default HTML template, it is now possible to link to a specific context number: the URL format is /context/HELP_CONTEXT.html
The logo of the default HTML template can now optionally be defined as a URL instead of a library item
Security feature: template scripts cannot write anywhere on disk anymore
Fixed input fields behavior in image map editor: updating title before link cleared the title and better size and position editing
The list of image map shapes was corrupted when one or more of them were deleted
Color icons (font and paragraph background) were not correctly drawn on High DPI screens
The HndTopicsMeta API object wasn't available to scripts and templates
The CTRL-SPACE keyboard shortcut didn't work within tables in the topic editor
The script custom path defined in options wasn't correctly saved / retrieved when the application was closed
In some cases, variable substitution could mess up the text layout in the generated documentation

Version 6.1.0.206 – Release date: Apr 23, 2019

Define default topic properties in the project options, and new topics are automatically created using those properties
HTML code library items can now be external and therefore loaded from disk at generation time
It is now possible to export all the items contained in a library item folder to disk
Added script to bulk edit the status of all topics in the currently opened documentation project
Qt's assistant.exe program is now run to show the generated Qt Help file when clicking "Open file" after generation is complete
Updated all spelling dictionaries to their latest versions
It wasn't possible to edit the Spanish name and description of variables in the template editor
For English spell checkers, the live spell checker will now treat straight and curly apostrophes similarly: both "don't" and "don’t" will be treated as correct
Topics without content were showing "not found" errors for Qt Help files
Optimized HTML generation which should generally result in fastest build times
Word / RTF documents import or paste could produce an exception
In rare conditions, generated Word DocX files could be corrupted
In CHM help files, links to files didn't show the "hand" cursor
HelpNDoc is not tested on Windows Vista anymore: Microsoft dropped support for Windows Vista on April, 2017

Version 6.0.1.167 – Release date: Mar 20, 2019

Changing some topic properties such as topic kind, header or footer didn't update the user interface
When more than 64 tags were defined for a project, showing the "Insert / Edit condition" dialog did show an error message
When a new version is available, the RSS feed now links to the "check update" URL instead of download URL for better information about what's new
The HndStatus object was not accessible from scripts
HndStatus.GetStatusByCaption wasn't documented in the scripting API help page

Version 6.0.0.154 – Release date: Mar 7, 2019

HelpNDoc and its web-site have been translated to Spanish. It now supports: English, French, German and Spanish
Each topic can now have an optional description which is exported to HTML's description meta tag for better Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Topics can now have status and it is possible to perform conditional generation based on topic status
Topics can now have custom properties which can be useful for advanced scripts and templates purposes
The "Find and replace" dialog can now search using regular expressions or library items
Lengthy search operations (searching the whole project) can now be aborted in the "Find and replace" dialog
Most lists and grids now include a find panel to rapidly search for items. It can be opened by hitting the CTRL+F keyboard shortcut for supported lists (e.g. toc, library, keywords...)
Enhanced support for screen readers in the topic editor
Better Per Monitor DPI awareness in various dialogs
Redesigned insert symbol dialog: supports for all Unicode characters, character groups and categories, hexadecimal character support, select font with same character...
Faster and more secure data access to HND project file
Project analyzer now contains actions to rapidly delete all selected keywords
Image maps are now responsive in the default HTML template: whenever the image size is updated, the interactive areas will be updated too
An "Invalid caret position" exception could occur when importing Word, text or HTML files
Better import of RTF tables
Enhanced HTML importer
Find and replace can now find content in text with multiple styles
Reworked the scrollbars as it wasn't always easy to select the last item when using the "Automatically hide scroll bars" option
Deleting library items will now delete all selected items
Topics and builds using custom tags larger than 32 characters were not correctly saved to the project file
Overall speed improvements in the topic editor regarding to Unicode processing
Icons where not always visible in Ribbon groups when the main window's size was small
Default output file name now removes invalid character in project title to avoid generation failure
Updated vendor libraries used in default HTML template to remove any known vulnerabilities
Enhanced internal / external URL parsing in default HTML template
Updated default HTML template to avoid deprecated method calls which will be removed in future versions of Google Chrome
Resized pictures in HelpNDoc's topic editor could appear distorted using the default HTML template
Updating the page numbers in a generated Word document's table of contents produced "Error!! Bookmark not defined." for topics with dashes in their Help Id
Enhanced WinHelp HLP importer: some pictures were not correctly imported
Read-only HND project files could be opened but never saved: HelpNDoc won't open read-only project files anymore
Default topic override list in generation dialog could have an invalid topic selected
Updated and vastly improved documentation for API methods available to templates and scripts

Version 5.9.1.788 – Release date: Nov 19, 2018 – Download

Included HTTP Server could fail to work properly under certain conditions
Smaller setup EXE file: removed unneeded files

Version 5.9.0.711 – Release date: Sep 6, 2018

New WinHelp (*.hlp) file importer (Beta) which can import topics, contents, pictures, hyperlinks and keywords from older WinHelp files
Google Analytics support in the default HTML template: add a valid Google Analytics ID in the template settings and it will be included in the generated pages
Library items analyzer can now detect and report items used in builds settings: they are not marked as unused anymore
New script to merge children topics' contents in the currently selected topic: MergeChildrenTopics.hnd.pas
Some common error messages now include help topics for easier troubleshooting
In the default HTML template, it wasn't possible to translate the "search..." placeholder
Styles gallery now only displays styles with a checked "Quick Access" property
HelpNDoc defaults to baseline vertical-align for images while the default HTML template used middle
Changes to project author, comment, description, copyright, summary or version wasn't immediately visible in library items' popup preview
Mass import library items window wasn't translated to French / German
Build log images weren't correctly scaled on high DPI screens
Conditional tags were not correctly drawn in the topic editor for High DPI screens
When placed right after a bullet item in the topic editor, conditional tags used an incorrect font making them unreadable
Text files are now imported as UTF-8 files
Importing a document using the library import dialog did import it with an unknown extension resulting in warning at generation time
Previous and Next buttons didn't work anymore in the topic editor
Faster application loading time by deferring API initialization
Fixed memory leaks including an obscure memory leak on shutdown

Version 5.8.2.643 – Release date: Jun 5, 2018

Rapidly import multiple media elements in the library using the new "Import files" dialog
Drag multiple files from the Windows Explorer and drop them on the library panel to import them
Dropping files to the topic editor will show the new import files dialog: single document dropping will insert it in place
Template assets (CSS, JavaScript, Images...) can be edited directly from the template editor using any third party application
Create new blank template asset from the template editor without the need to import an existing file
Ability to quickly rename a script in the template editor
Access the template location on the computer from the template editor using the new "Open location" button
Optionally force image size generation as Inches for CHM help files: could produce better results for High DPI screens
Template editor can be launched even when project is closed
HTML based documentation formats will now warn if the default topic is not a "normal" topic to avoid problems with the generated documentation
Default CHM template now supports custom CSS and JavaScript code from template settings
Fixed default CHM template rendering for High DPI screens
Error message could be shown when saving a project after library item manipulation
Renaming a library item didn't always update the topic editor (E.g. variables were never renamed)
Library item's editor tool-bars were customizable when they shouldn't be
Localized spelling options dialog (German, French) didn't show the whole content correctly
Topic titles variables were not always working as expected
Deleting a library item's caption in the library panel and using the ESC key froze the application
Keywords without associated topics could create a corrupted "Index" for the CHM documentation format
Automatically setting up a default topic when not defined didn't work as expected

Version 5.7.1.578 – Release date: Apr 17, 2018

Completely redesigned the library item creation / modification dialog for simpler and faster library item management
Library items included within the project can now be individually exported
Library item editor now displays a preview of image maps and snippets
Library item editor now accepts files dropped from a third-party application such as the Windows Explorer
Library item editor window is now resizable
Picture library items can now be converted to image maps and vice versa
Completely rewritten library items hint preview: larger and more robust preview image, faster loading, less resource consumption
Library item hint will now display a preview of external picture items (dynamically loaded from disk)
Dropping an HND project file on the welcome page from Windows Explorer will open it
Editing the caption of a library item in the hierarchy didn't validate it anymore thus allowing library items with duplicate captions
Hovering over library items while one item was being renamed could cause editor to be closed
Library items and keywords title change could require a focus change to be stored
Ribbon tabs and groups were not always translated
Images and Tables contextual ribbon tabs were always visible
Popup menus in the ribbon bar could hide (collapse) some infrequently used items
Included CHM decompiler has been improved and is now a signed trusted executable
Decreased generation time for HTML based documentation formats with large number of files to process
Optimized speed and resource consumption when hovering over library items
More robust main window positioning when a monitor has been unplugged
Overall speed and resource enhancements regarding to included library items content

Version 5.6.1.532 – Release date: Mar 2, 2018

New customizable syntax highlighter with multiple built-in programming languages
Help IDs now allow the dash "-" character making it easier to create SEO hyperlinks
The quick access toolbar customization is now saved and restored when the application is launched
HTML generation now warns if the generated file name is the same as one of the topic's help id as it could cause problems
CTRL + Click on a topic link to an anchor in the topic editor will show the topic at the correct anchor's position
Project analyzer incorrectly checked spelling in hyperlinks
Fixes and performance enhancements in the HND project file format handling
Further enhancements to SVG icons rendering and High DPI monitor support
For HTML based documentation format, choosing a file name similar but with different case as one of the help ids could cause a file creation error
Using the default HTML template, CTRL + Clicking on hyperlinks didn't open in a new window / tab
Greatly reduced memory usage for Word and PDF generation of malformed projects with lots of different styles due to copy / paste from third party software
Some Wingdings characters were incorrectly exported to HTML based documentation formats only
The "ß" character is now replaced by "ss" when filtering topics' Help Ids
Moving library items or keywords just after changing their caption could cause an error
Optimized and improved debug code and reported debug information for the debug edition
Fixed obscure memory leaks

Version 5.5.0.486 – Release date: Jan 16, 2018

New project analyzer section: spell checker which will find misspelled words in the whole project
Topic titles will stick to the same page as the topic content in Word documents
Ability to add tab character in Word / PDF topic titles using the \t placeholder
Beta version of the floating license server for Linux and Mac OS X
New script to automate topic caption numbering based on its hierarchy level in the table of contents
Speed and memory improvements when generating search data for all HTML templates
Project analyzer now reports the number of words in the project
HTML templates' JavaScript search data could include content which wasn't included due to unmet conditions
CHM and HTML navigation arrows could include links to blank topics thus creating 404 not found errors
Default topic's content was added twice to JavaScript search engine database
Better high DPI screen support in various parts of HelpNDoc such as the topic editor...
Enhancements in HelpNDoc's user interface with better skin painting, less intrusive scrollbars, better scalable icons rendering...

Version 5.4.1.404 – Release date: Oct 19, 2017

Completely rewritten command line options: it is more reliable, with additional features, it has a cleaner syntax and an enhanced console output
Command line build action can now override the project builds' output path, tags, template and variables
Command line can now include the "verysilent" option (ss) which won't even show a console window
New anchor editor to easily and rapidly create, delete and locate anchors in the current topic
Font dialog now displays a preview of the fonts
Adding an item to the library will automatically insert it in the currently selected folder or in the currently selected item's parent folder
It is now possible to specify the HTML rendering engine used by the CHM help viewer, including Microsoft Edge and older versions of Internet Explorer
Ability to add a link to the default HTML template's custom logo
Re-engineered application's internals for more reliable startup and shutdown and greater future scalability
Document generation dialog's build list could be hidden under certain conditions
Some color picker popups could be incorrectly displayed on some screens
HTML documentation's search engine result list could include corrupted topic titles
HTML documentation's index could malfunction when topic titles contained specific characters
HndTopicsTags was not accessible from scripting API
Enhanced High DPI support in the topic editor
A topic with an help ID of "main" could break the HTML table of contents
Fixed bugs in HTML based list style exporting
Better saving of tables to Word DocX
Better RTF Import / Export

Version 5.3.2.378 – Release date: Sep 7, 2017

HelpNDoc is now High DPI aware: UI and icons have been updated to scale according to Windows display settings
HTML documentation can now be launched to a specific tab (e.g. ?tab=index) and with a specific search (e.g. ?search=help)
Unknown document library item extensions will be imported as text instead of displaying an error
Ability to rapidly load system and user scripts: click the arrow next to "Load Script" to quickly load it
New script to sort all topics in currently opened project alphabetically by topic caption
New script to sort all children topics of the currently selected topics alphabetically by topic caption
New script to reset all topics' context numbers incrementally
Default HTML template will now display an error message in case the web server is misconfigured to serve JSON files
Deleting keywords or library items could result in an error message when they were being renamed
Keywords were incorrectly written to HTML topics in the HTML documentation format
Script editor will correctly open / save to "Script" personal folder by default and filter by script extension
Some JavaScript features of the HTML documentation format could not work when topic titles included non-breaking spaces
Main form's height was not always correctly restored
CTRL+K keyboard shortcut didn't work when trying to add currently selected word to keyword list
Better CHM topic title importing
Default HTML template did not use the correct icon (question mark) for topics without children
Default HTML template did make an unwanted GET request to a debug file
Build names were always in English (not localized) when a new project was created
It wasn't possible to create a new Qt Help template from the template editor

Version 5.2.0.265 – Release date: Jun 6, 2017

Default HTML template can now generate a valid sitemap.xml file if specified in build settings
Build summary now display the number of warning and errors for each build to rapidly spot a potential problem
JavaScript search engine will now find partial words by default instead of only full words
New text transformation: change character case of the selected text, which loops between uppercase, lowercase, capitalize words
New text transformation: convert paragraph breaks to soft line breaks
HTML based builds now warn when the output directory is not empty to avoid possible compilation problems
Ability to insert non-breaking spaces using the CTRL+SHIFT+SPACE keyboard shortcut
Default HTML template has a new onTopicChanged event which is called each time the topic changes
Custom JavaScript code is now run before the app in the default HTML template giving it a chance to customize the app
Default HTML template will now correctly load the JSON table of contents even if the web server is misconfigured
Selecting similar project items in the project analyzer could cause an exception
Replaced default HTML template keywords popup by modal dialog as it was not working for long lists and on small devices
Keywords attached to topics whose caption contains single quotes didn't always correctly show the topic list in default HTML template
When topics were scrolled down on the default HTML template, linking to another topic didn't move the scroll bar up
HTML code library items didn't correctly export line breaks
HTML language code was always "en" instead of the correct project's language code
Smarter automatic generation of Qt Help project namespace which could previously produce invalid ones
Qt help documentation generation could fail when retrieving compiler output
Find all in entire project with "Search forward" option unchecked didn't always work as expected
Internal web server's 404 error links used hard-coded localhost URL which could cause problem when browsed from an outside device
Some e-mail subjects were not correctly encoded in HTML based documentation formats

Version 5.1.0.217 – Release date: Apr 18, 2017

Project settings (title, default topic, author, date/time format...) can now be overridden for each build
HTTP Web Server can now be launched at any location from the Tools ribbon tab
It is now possible to specify the default listening port of the HTTP Web Server instead of the default 8080
Pasting topics with hyperlinks to children topics now correctly restore those hyperlinks
Hyperlinks to files were not always working properly using the default HTML template
Hyperlinks to _blank URLs didn't always work property in the default HTML template
Custom and hidden headers / footers were not correctly exported in default HTML template
Hiding the navigation arrows in the default HTML template could produce incorrect HTML code
Default HTML template will not try to request debug map files anymore
Anchors with space didn't work correctly in responsive HTML template
Numbering as text didn't work in CHM / HTML templates anymore
HTTP Web Server's error pages are more useful: 404 error pages will list available HTML files
HTML library items with Unicode content could be corrupted when exported to HTML based documentation formats
Empty topics were not listed in Word / PDF table of contents anymore
Topic visibility wasn't updated in table of contents' popup
RSS feed display didn't include new version notification anymore
Project settings better scales for smaller window sizes
Script editor now always stays on top of HelpNDoc's main window
Using the "Vacuum project" command will prompt before starting and confirm after successful completion
Resetting the project's date/time format will ask confirmation first
Fixed some memory leaks

Version 5.0.1.188 – Release date: Mar 7, 2017

Updated user interface: introduced Microsoft Office 2016 inspired look and feel
Completely rewritten HTML template: HTML5, compatible with all device sizes (responsive), easily customizable...
It is now possible to split imported files (Word documents, HTML files...) by font size or outline level
Topics can now be removed from the table of contents only by setting their visibility to "Hidden in table of contents"
Updated jQuery mobile HTML template to the latest version: performance improvements and better mobile compatibility
Added jQuery mobile themes to customize the look and feel of mobile HTML web-sites
Added the ability to alter the text flow around floating items by clearing text left, right or both
A local HTTP server is available to show the HTML documentation as if uploaded to a web-server
License check system: named license are activated via a license key while floating licenses are manager by a floating license server
PDF generator can now generate projects of any size without memory limitations
Enhanced RSS feed display in the welcome page: faster application loading time and less random errors
Optimized loading of library items content
Word and PDF generators will now correctly number table of content and topic titles when hidden topics are used
It wasn't possible to generate Qt Help files from the command line
HelpNDoc could produce an exception at closing time
Better handling of project locking: when a project is opened by an instance of HelpNDoc, it can't be opened by another instance
Invalid characters could be added to captions: they are now automatically removed
PDF generator didn't always respect the list of excluded PDF fonts thus sometimes creating larger PDF files
Clarified PDF settings dialog regarding user permission
Enhanced generation log summary to provide additional options: copy path, open location, open file, serve file
Reworked the project analyzer's user interface to simplify access to filters and actions
Keywords analyzer is now more useful as it displays a list of attached topics
Deleting multiple library items in the analyzer could take a long time
Legacy frame HTML template could show a JavaScript error if a topic wasn't in the table of contents
Page number approximation in generated Word documents is much more accurate. F9 field refresh is still needed to force field updates
The table of contents' page numbers in the generated Word documents were missing if the cover page was hidden
Quick generation output path will now use the output path setup in the options
Made sure a default topic is always selected at generation time to avoid generation problems
Topic titles could be incorrectly positioned after floating pictures in all documentation formats
Easier image resizing for high DPI screens
Better picture saving to RTF
Some links in custom HTML code could break HTML-based documentation generation
Won't show an exception anymore and lock the generation dialog when generating to an unwritable folder
Multiple speed enhancements and bug fixes
HelpNDoc is not tested on Windows XP anymore: Microsoft doesn't support Windows XP anymore

Version 4.9.2.132 – Release date: Jan 12, 2016 – Download

New generated documentation format: Qt Help
New auto-completion for hyperlinks: start with http:// or other protocols and hit CTRL-SPACE to rapidly create an hyperlink
Distributed paragraph alignment. Only recommended for East Asian languages
Opacity support for paragraph background color
New scripts for mass header/footer updating
Faster project creation and opening
Better table sizing in topic editor
Setting table cells preferred width to percent didn't work as expected
An access violation errors could occurs under certain rare conditions when generating documentation
Inserting a page break within a table cell generated produced an "Item index is out of bounds" error
Word table of contents page fields lost their style when updated
PDF documents automatically switched pages every few seconds when viewed in full screen mode in some viewers
Kindle eBooks didn't always correctly display the cover picture
Kindle generation log could report an error even though generation succeeded
Style names were not translated in the "Styles" group of the "Write" ribbon tab
Live spell checker won't report errors with curved apostrophes in French language

Version 4.8.0.849 – Release date: Aug 4, 2015

Auto-completion: use the CTRL+Space keyboard shortcut to quickly create links or insert library items
It is now possible to override user-defined variables for each build in the build settings
New methods available to scripts and templates: HndBuild.GetBuildFirst and HndBuild.GetBuildWithName
Introduce the /l argument to log to a text file when using console line generation
Included sample scripts in HelpNDoc's installation directory
The THndBuildInfo, THndBuildInfoArray, THndTopicsAttachMode types are now accessible in scripts and templates
Switching builds in the generate documentation window will keep the currently visible customization tab
Under certain conditions an HTML-based template could produce inactive hyperlinks
The default HTML template will now be more reliable when selecting the currently viewed topic in the table of contents
The generated HTML could be corrupted when the current user didn't have the proper rights to access external library items
The table of contents hierarchy could be wrong under certain conditions when using conditional topic generation
Some parts of the user interface were not translated to French and German
Only one instance of the installer can be launched at the same time

Version 4.7.1.684 – Release date: Feb 17, 2015

The template editor can now be used to quickly and easily create and alter all possible kinds of templates
Completely rewritten the hyperlink generation process to be able to correctly handle both encoded and non-encoded URLs
The CTRL-SUPPR keyboard shortcut can be used to delete the word right of the caret
Greatly improved selection speed in topic editor, particularly in tables
URLs could be double encoded in some conditions
Inserting or editing an hyperlink did show an incorrect simplified dialog box under some conditions
The table of contents in Word and PDF documents didn't respect all template settings
Table of contents' page numbers could be moved to the next line for some Word and PDF documents
HndBuildTags and HndBuildTagsEx were not accessible from the scripting API
Image maps will now correctly display the title hint on all web browsers
Sample HND projects will not contain any default output paths anymore
Using the CTRL-A keyboard shortcut in a table of the content editor threw an exception
The Default HTML template did create a broken link to empty topics in breadcrumbs
The "Operation" section of the conditional insert/edit window didn't update correctly
The table cells properties window didn't correctly update the width and height when numeric values were entered via keyboard
Better import of Doc, DocX and RTF documents
It wasn't possible to drop image maps in tables when coming from the library

Version 4.6.2.573 – Release date: Oct 23, 2014

Added editable breadcrumb above the topic editor for faster moving within the table of contents' hierarchy
New optional CHM decompiler is included which can handle Help Context number import
Quick generation process will now indicate which build it is using if it finds a suitable build in the build list
Generation process will issue a warning when a template is used by a build but not available on the system
Template editor's window has been redesigned and can be resized
Numbered lists will be correctly generated to HTML even when items are split by paragraphs
On Windows XP, topics with a lot of broken pictures didn't load completely
Display of thumbnail for library items is now a lot faster for large libraries
The Insert items popup menus are now faster to display for large libraries and faster to include pictures
Pasting and dropping pictures is now a lot faster for large projects
Popup menus from the "Insert" ribbon tab were sometimes displaying incorrect information
The "Insert Image Map" button was missing from the "Insert" ribbon toolbar
Renaming a report template removed any spaces in the new name and didn't select the renamed template
Links to anchors with a space characters didn't work correctly for CHM, DocX and RTF output formats
Opening the style inspector could generate an exception
Section indicator was stuck on "Page settings" in the report template editor
The new project table of contents importer could generate an exception
Better CHM import: some specific files didn't include any content
Better HTML import and code generation

Version 4.5.0.497 – Release date: Aug 20, 2014

New EPub importer: decompile and import ePub eBooks into new or existing HelpNDoc projects
Added option to disable bookmarks generation in PDF documentation output
Default HTML template will now add each topic's keywords in the head meta keywords meta for better SEO
Topic content couldn't be saved and loaded for some systems with Asian or East-European languages locales
Reduced memory consumption when projects are open
Setting some specific topic properties such as "Include in builds" could incorrectly update multiple topics
PDF generator could crash with projects containing the "Myriad Pro" font
Help file was not showing when HelpNDoc was opened by double clicking and HND project file
Files with and .xhtml extension where not imported
Better German and French translations

Version 4.4.0.418 – Release date: Jun 3, 2014

Manage keywords and topics association window: quickly associated with multiple topics
Many default paths are now configurable: default output, dictionaries, project, styles and templates
Added keywords to the analyzer: get stats, a list of keywords, unused keywords, and manage associated topics
The Generate documentation window will now correctly show the most recently created templates when opened
HelpNDoc will use the project path when opening or saving the first project
Folders were incorrectly listed in the project analyzer
Snippets and image maps didn't have any kind setup in the project analyzer
Under certain rare conditions DocX generator could crash with an index out of bounds
Page numbers was always displayed in the table of contents for DocX and PDF even if templates hide it
Image maps didn't correctly encode characters for the Title text
An error message could be shown when previewing a corrupted library image
An error will now be displayed when an image cannot be written to disk due to incorrect characters in name

Version 4.3.1.364 – Release date: Apr 10, 2014

New image map library item: create reusable image maps for your HTML-based documentations
ePub and Kindle eBooks can now optionally include an inline cover page and table of contents page
Picture size edit will now optionally resize pictures while constraining proportions
Pictures can now have an optional padding, margin and background color
Better generation of the ePub cover page for better compatibility with Adobe Digital Edition and some e-Readers
The project analyzer didn't always report broken hyperlinks
Picture size edits weren't always correctly updated when a picture was resized
Resetting picture properties didn't update those properties in the ribbon
Some pictures were not correctly exported to DocX thus generating corrupted files
Hyperlinks were not always correctly escaped when generating DocX documents thus generating corrupted files
The JavaScript search engine of the HTML documentation format automatically highlighted the "undefined" word
There was still problems when saving the changed output file path in the generator window

Version 4.2.0.299 – Release date: Feb 6, 2014

Library items can now be grouped in folders for easier navigation and management
Multi-selection has been enabled for library items and keywords for multiple deletion/moving
Table of contents, keywords and library items tree nodes expansion status is now saved to and restored from project
Template variables names and descriptions can be translated. Existing variables have been translated to French and German
It is now possible to remove the cover picture for ePub and Kindle documentation formats
Generators log will now provide additional details in case an exception occurs
The OK and Cancel buttons were not visible in the import style dialog for French and German translations
It wasn't possible to change picture width, height, spacing or alt text from the ribbon tab anymore
Better importing of tables in RTF files
Drag and drop in the topic editor could insert content in the wrong position
It is now easier to move keywords in the hierarchy when drag and dropping them
Changing the output file path in the generator window was not always saved correctly
Scripts: THndIntegerArray was not declared therefore HndTopics.GetTopicIndexHierarchy was not working correctly
Some style properties could be incorrectly loaded after importing the default.hnd style sheet
JavaScript search engine didn't correctly escape URLs for external topics which could break the search feature
The DocX and RTF generation could fail unexpectedly for some projects
Inserting or importing multiple HTML files in a project could result in very slow and resource hungry generation
Topic icon wasn't always correctly updated when changing topic

Version 4.1.0.219 – Release date: Nov 19, 2013

Conditional generation of topics based on build kind and tags
Double click on a library item in the topic editor to modify it
Live spell checker is now available in the snippet editor and template editor
Better support for touch screen in the topic editor
Importing CHM and HTML files with encoded image file names didn't correctly import those images
Importing CHM and HTML files with images with large file names could crash HelpNDoc
Better Czech dictionary which can handle accented characters
Better compatibility with Word 2003 and Word 2007 for generated DocX documents
Better saving of tables in DocX documents
Possible exceptions when editing the bottom part of a topic and with the find feature
An exception could be shown when double clicking on an item in the find result panel
An exception could be shown when searching in some projects
Some German text labels were too small to display the whole text
Better looking lists in welcome screen, recent projects and help pages with scroll bars when needed
Editing a library item didn't correctly update the topic editor
Easier assignment of custom topic headers/footers: when choosing custom, the popup menu will not automatically hide
Topic kind popup will now check the current topic kind
Code templates didn't respect topic visibility settings

Version 4.0.3.164 – Release date: Oct 9, 2013

Redesigned style system: styles can inherit from parents, can be saved, and custom styles can be used for new projects
The Word generator will now generate standard DOCX documents by default. RTF option is still available in build settings
New Word and PDF template editor: customize page layout, cover page, headers, footers, titles, table of contents...
New Snippet library item: Add formatted content to the library and re-use it throughout the project
Style inspector popup window to get information about the current text and paragraph styles
Script editor to edit and run scripts and automate tasks within HelpNDoc
Hyperlinks will now use styles for easier project-wide modification
Items with anchors will now display a hint with the anchor name when the mouse is over
HTML search engine is smarter: it can search parts of words, results are ranked and words can be excluded by prefixing them with a "-" character
New system variables for Word and PDF documentations: display the current page number and the total number of pages
External topics can now use relative paths for external files
Importing a file or a folder won't automatically create a new project anymore: they will be imported in the current project if already open
Merging library items will now display a waiting dialog
HelpNDoc's user interface is now translated in German
System variables with date and time are now customizable in project options and will be localized according to project language settings
Copy/Paste of topics between instances of HelpNDoc now correctly include pictures
PDF documents could contain un-readable characters in the table of contents when encrypted
CTRL+F1 keyboard shortcut was showing the help file instead of just collapsing the ribbon bar
Word generator now uses less memory to generate big documentation files
iPhone template didn't include custom styles for topic content
Google Chrome users can now use the HTML search engine locally
Library items shown in popups were not always sorted
Word and PDF templates can hide page numbers in the table of contents
HTML search engine didn't clear its data between two generation which could lead to outdated search data
HTML search engine will now correctly display link topic kinds
Help ID generation is smarter: accented characters are replaced by ASCII equivalent for better SEO
Cursor position in topic editor was not always reset when moving from one topic to another
Initial Help ID for new topics was incorrectly generated using another topic's caption
The table of contents title for Word and PDF documentation formats wasn't correctly generated when it contained Chinese characters
CHM importer can now correctly handle links with anchors
External topics were not exported to Word and PDF documentation formats
XSS safety algorithm in the HTML template could break links to topics with caption containing "script" or "javascript"
Word and PDF documentation formats didn't correctly generate relative hyperlinks
Save a project as the same opened file shows an odd error message
Images were not scaled correctly anymore when too big for Word and PDF documentation formats
Hyperlink action provided a different window when used from the popup menu
Updated OpenOffice.org dictionary download URL
The font sizes combo box were not reliable anymore for the topic editor, snippet editor, and some template editor properties
Some characters in hyperlinks could create corrupted DOCX files
Tables could not be seen in editor anymore when borders were hidden
Added an error message when trying to add a condition within a table
Some formatting could produce invalid DOCX documents
Import folder dialog will now automatically refresh the "files to import" list when browse button is used
Dragging and dropping a picture when in a table would make it disappear
Faster project opening: initial topic was loaded twice
Last topic edited was loaded empty if the project is immediately re-opened
Link to URL or file topic will now correctly show the URL or file
ePub and Kindle documentation were adding and extra colon character instead of spaces
New project dialog uses the dictionary defined by the language property for live spell
Generating a project from command line with included external HTML documents was not always including them
Hyperlinks are now trimmed from the Insert/Edit hyperlink window
JQuery HTML template had encoding and tag problems
The help window was shown behind the script editor window
Can't import HelpNDoc v2.x projects anymore: use version 3.9 to convert older projects first

Version 3.9.1.648 – Release date: May 21, 2013 – Download

CHM generator's base color can be customized in the template properties
An exception could be displayed when the application is launched indicating that a control had no parent window
ePub generator didn't always correctly generate the cover picture
HTML search engine did infinite loops after clicking on the result when it ended with a space character

Version 3.9.0.595 – Release date: Mar 26, 2013

Enhanced importer: import multiple files at once into a new project and import various file types
Incremental search in various places: start typing a node caption to search for it and focus it
New keyboard shortcuts to navigate through the user interface: CTRL + F1 through F6
Use the SPACE keyboard shortcut to associate a keyword with the current topic
Panels positions and sizes are now persistent and will be restored when HelpNDoc is restarted
Use the /reset command line option to reset forms size and position as well as panels layout
Installer and uninstalled now warns if HelpNDoc is already running
Greatly reduced memory usage when generating documents with large number of pictures except for Word generator
The styles gallery now resizes itself to fit the whole available space
Command line silent mode wasn't working correctly anymore
Better error message when the project file is locked by another application or instance of HelpNDoc
Reduced flicker in the ribbon bar when resizing the main window
Removed XSS vulnerability in HTML generated documentation
Fixed possible error of the Javascript search engine in the default HTML template

Version 3.8.0.560 – Release date: Jan 29, 2013

Project analyzer will report various useful information about the current project: broken links, merge library items...
History of viewed topics with previous/next buttons
New project dialog is now resizable and will store its size
The "Show Special Characters" feature is now persistent and will be restored each time HelpNDoc is opened
An exception could occur at application start time
Importing some CHM files could result in empty imported topics: anchors in the table of contents were not correctly handled
When deleting a selected topic, the newly selected topic seemed randomly chosen. It is now either the next or previous one

Version 3.7.1.482 – Release date: Nov 19, 2012

HTML documentation could not always select the first displayed table of contents item when viewed from a remote server
A frame was displayed around the content when printing a CHM topic
Word generator always compressed bitmap pictures even if the option for automatic compression was not checked
The Word documentation wasn't generated if the used template didn't show the table of contents
Word documentations could add extra empty lines before topic titles
French translation errors in the documentation generation log
The recent projects and places lists weren't correctly saved to the registry which could lead to incorrect entries

Version 3.7.0.456 – Release date: Oct 25, 2012

Conditional build system: control which part of the documentation is present in each build through conditional tags
Added keyboard shortcuts to insert/move/delete/edit properties of keywords and library items (CTRL+INSERT, CTRL+ARROW, CTRL+DELETE, CTRL+ENTER)
Some Central/Eastern European characters may appear broken in the CHM search result list: fixed with the CHM template option "Use project charset for topics"
Option to enable only the selected build and rename a build in the build generation list
Popup menu for easier and faster build management in the build generation list
It is now possible to clear recent projects and places from the option dialog
Some fonts with custom spacing could produce overlapping characters in PDF documents
Better support for bookmarks in PDF documents
Some Central European characters were not correctly generated in the CHM table of contents
Better support for some OpenOffice.org dictionaries
Creating a new blank project didn't set up default project language which could lead to empty title for CHM documentation
Google Chrome now correctly displays the table of contents for HTML documentations when viewed locally
Topics with large caption could have duplicate auto-generated help IDs
Word and PDF documentation didn't add requested page breaks when topic titles were hidden
Parts of the table of contents of some rare CHM help files could not be imported
CHM documentation didn't correctly display table background images and bullet lists images
Recent projects and places could contain invalid paths

Version 3.6.0.345 – Release date: Jul 11, 2012

New build system: create as many customized build of any documentation format as needed. Warning: command line changes
Added support for invisible topics: invisible topics and their children won't be generated in any documentation format
Relative external library items are now imported at generation time
It is now possible to indent bullets and numbering with the TAB key
EPub and Mobi generators didn't correctly generate link topic kinds
EPub generator didn't correctly escape Some characters which could lead to errors on the iPad
Norwegian dictionary from OpenOffice.org didn't install correctly
The default HTML template generated un-balanced HTML comments
RTF importer didn't correctly import relative hyperlinks
Empty topics could produce corrupted PDF table of contents
HTML documentation could cause errors when tabs where hidden
HTML search engine didn't find words containing the "T" character
Color dialog now saves custom colors
HTML based generators will correctly update topic files when the character case has changed

Version 3.5.1.288 – Release date: May 17, 2012

HTML documentation produced errors in web-browsers when topic captions contained quotes or double quotes
PDF documentation could display weird page numbering text on the first page
Generate Mobipocket/Kindle checkbox was always checked in generation dialog

Version 3.5.0.284 – Release date: May 14, 2012

HelpNDoc software and help file has been translated to French
HelpNDoc can now generate standard EPub EBooks
HelpNDoc can now generate Mobipocket/Kindle EBooks
HTML based documentation can now optionally skip exporting the default font style to rely on the web-browser's settings
HTML based documentation can now optionally use percentage for the font size instead of points
Insert hyperlink dialog window is now resizable and size is saved for next time it is used
Re-introduced shortcuts to move, add or delete topics (CTRL+Arrows, CTRL+[SHIFT+]INSERT, CTRL+DELETE)
It is now possible to generate Word and PDF documentation in landscape mode
Completed percentage in the generation log window for long actions
Internet Explorer could display an error about invalid characters in the table of contents for HTML documentation
HTML based generators won't alter PHP or ASP code at generation time
Relative topic links were not working for CHM documentations anymore
Bullets and numberings are not generated as texts by default for HTML based documentation anymore as it didn't always produce good results
"Enum" template settings could be rendered incorrectly in the generation settings dialog's list
HelpNDoc could take a long time to launch if a recent networked location was not available
An error occurred when clearing a text template variable in the customize dialog
Checkbox controls were not displayed in the keywords panel when Windows themes were not enabled
Keyword popup in HTML documentation now displays a close button

Version 3.4.2.197 – Release date: Mar 30, 2012

When optimizing pictures, some of them could become empty or black PNG files for HTML and CHM documentation

Version 3.4.1.188 – Release date: Mar 26, 2012

All generators are now using less memory and GDI resources
Better PNG transparency in Word generated documentation
Cursor was moved to the beginning of the topic text after pasting
Library items were not always correctly replaced at generation time
Customize template links were missing from the project options

Version 3.4.0.166 – Release date: Mar 6, 2012

CHM and HTML Templates can now support customization from within HelpNDoc
Various HTML template customization settings added: base color, visible tabs, expansion status, texts, icon sets...
CHM and HTML Templates: Export numbered lists as text by default which usually looks closer to original. Customizable in template settings
HTML Template: The table of contents tree is now synchronized with the displayed topic
HTML Template: Icons set in HelpNDoc are now used in the table of contents
CHM Template: Set the table of contents font from HelpNDoc
PDF and Word Templates: It is now possible to use numbering for topic headings
Copying and pasting multiple topics did not correctly paste their content
CHM Template: CHM file couldn't be open using the help ID
iPhone template enhancement: the footer DIV wasn't closed properly
Style were not always correctly applied to selected text
Word and PDF generators sometimes didn't take the updated style properties into account
Fixed a rare exception which could occur when the live spell check was enabled and a table cell was edited
Custom dictionary file was always overwritten when HelpNDoc was updated
Terms were not always correctly encoded in the HTML search engine
Word and PDF generators did focus the first topic after generation
Word generator didn't display errors when launched from the quick generate popup
Word and PDF generators could produce memory leaks after generation
Pasted pictures could become broken if dragged before the topic had been saved
Code template for "C/C++ Defines" didn't generate correct code
Table columns and rows are now easier to select with the mouse

Version 3.3.0.123 – Release date: Jan 12, 2012

New "Paste as text" and "Paste special" commands for finer paste control
New template to export HTML documentation based on JQuery mobile
Pictures pasted or imported as part of a document are now automatically compressed before being saved to the HND project file
Reintroduced the extended table of contents feature
New visual identification about panel docking similar to Visual Studio
Opening project files containing a single quote displayed a SafeCall error
F1 shortcut didn't display the help file
Expand and compact shortcut keys only worked from the numerical keyboard
An error could sometimes happen when CTRL+Clicking on hyperlinks
Restored windows' height on launch was always smaller than when closed
Text contained in tables couldn't be added as keywords
Regression as the Brazilian dictionary couldn't be installed anymore
Cleaned-up keyboard shortcuts for Ribbon items in accordance to MS Word
Default HTML template did show an error with keywords containing quotes
Using the insert table popup from the quick access toolbar displayed an error message

Version 3.2.0.65 – Release date: Nov 8, 2011

Reintroduced the CHM purge option: uncheck the "Keep temporary files" to remove any temporary file or directory generated by the CHM template
Template inheritance support: specify the parent template and only override the specified files
A table of contents with page numbers can be generated at the top of Word and PDF documentation formats
Reintroduced the "Add as keyword" context menu item in the topic editor
Currently selected text is used as default caption when adding a keyword
Use CTRL+Click in the topic editor to follow an hyperlink
HTML documentation can now display the index or search tabs by default by adding the #_index or #_search tag at the end of the documentation URL
HTML template was not correctly mentioning the UTF-8 charset in the head section
iPhone template had some issues with topic titles
Selecting an output path for the generated documentation didn't default to the currently specified one
An error happened when activating the Turkish dictionary
The progress bar didn't show on lengthy project find/replace operations
The horizontal scrollbar was shown in the topic editor for no reason on small screens
Topic editor's popup menu now correctly displays spelling errors first using a bold font and cut/copy/paste last to mimic Word's behavior
Provide a link to Microsoft HTML Help Workshop when not installed
Find/Replace within the project is more reliable
Some pictures could fail optimization when generating CHM and HTML and block subsequent content from begin generated
Better handling of project related errors while opening/closing/saving

Version 3.1.0.23 – Release date: Sep 26, 2011

Added the vacuum command in project options to clean the project and gain some file weight from deleted items
New table functionalities: split table, sort table rows and convert table to text
Option to automatically compress uncompressed pictures included in the library to generate smaller documentation files
Links to e-mail address containing a dot were considered as links to Internet addresses when edited
Paragraph border action wasn't available anymore
In some rare cases due to Windows user name, HelpNDoc could show an error when launched and stop after that
Hungarian letters with double acute were not generated correctly in CHM
Underline font style property was not correctly saved
V2 projects with big context numbers could not be imported
Slash shortcut "/" is reintroduced to recursively collapse all children
Performance improvements when getting the list of anchors in the topic link dialog
Listed anchors in the topic link dialog didn't include anchors in table cells
Changing the background color of the paragraph did reset some other attributes such as alignment
Locating a search result didn't select it in the topic editor if it was not in the currently edited topic
Pasting or dropping an image into the topic editor could generate file names without a valid extension
Table background pictures were not displayed in HTML based documentation
Under some conditions the styles applied in topic editor was not correctly saved and restored
Renaming a topic with non ASCII characters could generate an empty Help ID
OpenOffice.org's Brazilian Portuguese dictionaries couldn't be installed

Version 3.0.2.24 – Release date: Sep 6, 2011

Command line option is back with the possibility to specify template names
Topic editor ruler has been restored. Visibility is controlled in options and is hidden by default
Performance improvement when using and scrolling through the table of contents hierarchy
Configuration options were saved even when the cancel button was clicked
CHM and HTML documentation could show an horizontal scroll bar with 100% tables
Padding wasn't always respected in table cells
Topic title variables were not correctly substituted
Documentation now contains the list and description of available methods from within templates

Version 3.0.1.14 – Release date: Aug 30, 2011

CHM importer can now correctly import and interpret links to topics
Rewritten project file creating/opening mechanisms to avoid errors
HTML template had a few graphical glitches in Internet Explorer 7 and 8
Importing files could produce projects files larger than necessary
Opening the link dialog for large projects could cause heavy memory usage
External library items file are now relative to the project's location if a relative path is specified
Directly calling an HTML page with an anchor didn't work
Topic with content from an external file had no content in HTML and CHM
After opening an existing project, the topic footer was not generated anymore

Version 3.0.0.223 – Release date: Aug 23, 2011

Initial release of HelpNDoc 3.0

Version 2.9.0.144 – Release date: Nov 2, 2010

Better unicode support for the PDF generator
Speed and file size optimizations in the PDF generator
Better PDF subset font embedding
Reported file name in main form's caption was wrong after using "Save as"
The RSS feed reader sometimes reported an error
The PDF exporter now correctly generates internal relative links
The CHM importer now correctly imports link topics
The CHM importer can now correctly recognize links to internal topics
The CHM importer sometimes incorrectly imported the table of content in the new project wizard in Windows Vista and 7: only the first item was imported
The CHM importer sometimes incorrectly imported topic contents in Windows Vista and 7
HelpNDoc now correctly warns when the opened HND file is not recognized
Improved the "New project" wizard to handle the TAB and SHIFT + TAB shortcuts for faster indentation / de-indentation
Inserting a link will now default to the topic caption if the text has not been modified
Uninstaller is now a signed executable

Version 2.8.0.53 – Release date: Sep 7, 2010

Initial addition of the library container to manage Flash files
Local and distant flash files export to HTML and CHM documentation
Saving to read-only files didn't work and didn't warn about it
Better table merging algorithm with wide items in the topic editor
Speed increase in the topic editor
Enhanced RTF table import

Version 2.7.0.18 – Release date: Aug 6, 2010

Import of existing compiled CHM Help files
Word and HTML generators now defines the titles' outline level
Added Enum and Define C/C++ code generator
Enhanced the C/C++ const generator
The table of content is fully expanded when a new project is created
Better RTF importing
Improved table resizing using the mouse
Different resolution JPEG Image size is better exported by the Word generator
List handling has been enhanced to continue numbering of a previous list if needed
Enhanced HTML Importer: cell border colors, images and table alignments

Version 2.6.1.9 – Release date: Jul 2, 2010

The Word documentation generator could create corrupted files in some cases

Version 2.6.0.74 – Release date: Jun 13, 2010

New project wizard provides a faster way to get started on a new project
Import existing compiled CHM help file table of content in the new project wizard
Optionally do not purge the generated HHP project files
Anchors get passed when a topic page is redirected to show the table of content
Project properties now display scroll bars when the window is too small to display everything
HTML import could create incorrect picture size
Various topic editor small enhancements: triple click selects paragraph...

Version 2.5.0.31 – Release date: Mar 30, 2010

WARNING: Relative links are now consistent in all generated documentation. They are not relative to the "files" sub-directory anymore for CHM and HTML documentations
Greatly reduced HTML compilation time for big projects
PDF generator did draw anchors as empty space
Better HTML anchor import
Fixed HTML documentation JavaScript error in some conditions
Fixed Internet Explorer JavaScript error in multiple word HTML search
Fixed Word generator which didn't correctly export some characters

Version 2.4.0.15 – Release date: Jan 31, 2010

Improved JavaScript search engine which can now search multiple words
JavaScript search engine words are now highlighted
Added missing edit popup menus throughout the application
HTML and Word importers now correctly set up links to external URLs and anchors
PDF generator did draw curly underlines under substituted variables
PDF generator did not correctly export anchors in some cases
Report generator did not always resize images to fit in page's width
HTML generator now correctly sets up the default topic even if the directory is not purged

Version 2.3.0.11 – Release date: Dec 9, 2009

Added PDF font embedding configuration to control how the fonts are embedded in the PDF documentation
Left and Right floating images support (only in CHM, HTML and PDF documentation)
Text appeared with black background in the PDF option panel
Variables were not always correctly substituted in PDF and Word documentation
First implementation: PDF export now resizes images to fit in the content page
Improved spell checker
HelpNDoc program file and setup are now signed EXE files
Improved memory usage
Maximum picture size in dialog was too small
Fixed 32-bit PNG image handling

Version 2.2.0.3 – Release date: Sep 5, 2009

Extended Table of content: Easily and rapidly edit topic ID and Context number
HTML Table of content can now optionaly be collapsed when generated
Advanced PDF output options: document encryption, compression and fine layout tuning
Possibility to insert / remove extra page breaks within the documentation
HTML search engine did not provide search results for numeric characters
HTML keywords would not always correctly show up with quoted topic titles
Incorrect character escaping in HTML table of content
Topic ID field didn't allow the underscore character

Version 2.1.0.2 – Release date: Aug 2, 2009

Search functionality in HTML documentation
PDF Encoding bug
PDF Generation exception when bookmarks were not correctly set
Word generator produces smaller file sizes
External file's DOC import is more robust
External file's HTML import wasn't working properly
Fixed relative links in CHM generation so it behaves the same way as HTML documentation

Version 2.0.1.4 – Release date: Jun 7, 2009

PDF generator creates the documentation's table of content
HTML documentation generator outputs the project Keywords
Spell checker button wasn't always enabled
Fixed the check for updates link
Access violation in some rare conditions when exporting Word and PDF documents
Exported PDF documentation wasn't always generated in the specified path

Version 2.0.0.25 – Release date: May 16, 2009

Microsoft Word DOC and RTF export formats
Adobe Acrobat PDF export format
Find and replace now allows the replacement of text by a variable
New variable kind: Topic title
Main form's caption now include the currently opened file's name
Added Variable panel in the topic editor: manage variables and quickly add them
Added enum output to the Visual Basic code generation
Better spell checking option dialog and various spell checking enhancements: New and improved UI for spelling and configuration dialogs; Greatly improved phonetic suggestions; Unicode dictionary support
Enhanced HTML Export with a better table of content, Search engine optimization (SEO), old browser fallback...
Better CHM unicode support
RSS Feed reader in the welcome page to keep informed of HelpNDoc news
"Purge HTML Files" is now saved with the project
Download dictionary link was incorrect
Anchors were badly displayed in the topic editor

Version 1.16 – Release date: Oct 4, 2008

New options for CHM export: window size, position, visible buttons and navigation options are now customizable
CHM Topic HTML file wasn't standard compliant
Added the /silent command line switch to avoid user inputs during batch compilation
Fixed the spell checker to be more Windows Vista compliant
Default font and default table of content font were not correctly saved with the project

Version 1.15 – Release date: Jul 22, 2008

Keyword index was not working with new file names
Specific links to relative topics were not working with new file names
Command line was not working anymore
Various fixes and enhancements in the Topic Editor

Version 1.14 – Release date: Jun 1, 2008

Exported HTML files can now optionally have its topic ID as a name
Smart popup in the topic editor to easily change a variable
Fixed a bug when assigning an image to a topic and moving with the arrow keys
Better handling of PNG images: some transparent PNG were not resizable

Version 1.13 – Release date: Apr 6, 2008

Completely redesigned spell checker with enhanced options and better integration. The English dictionary is now bundled by default
Middle mouse scroll (middle click) in various parts of the application
Fixed application crashing when topics were deleted
Better HTML export
Various optimisations and bug fixes

Version 1.12 – Release date: Jan 13, 2008

HTML Help topics will now always launch with the table of content opened
Fortran 90/95 code generator
Code generation export dialog enhancement: file name is not save anymore between export
General speed and reliability enhancements

Version 1.11 – Release date: Jul 22, 2007

Fixed the export of background images in the topics
Possibility to use subscript and superscript formatting options
Various bug fixes

Version 1.10 – Release date: May 28, 2007

Better Windows Vista compatibility
Fixed HelpNDoc's help file display exception under Windows Vista
Fix for the & character in project title when exporting to CHM
Right Alt + A was selecting all the topic's text and caused problems with certain keyboard layouts
Lower memory usage for GIF images
Better table support
Better HTML Import / Export
Topic Editor enhancements and bug fixes

Version 1.9 – Release date: May 30, 2006

Double click to modify image property in the topic editor
Live spell checker could take 100% CPU time on certain condition
Support of relative URLs when exporting
Hyperlink images do not show borders anymore
Topic margins and page size could be incorrectly set from the ruler resulting in inconsistent layouts
Interface layout is now saved between sessions
Fixed a bug with relative hyperlinks in HTML export

Version 1.8 – Release date: Mar 14, 2006

The live spell checker can now be disabled
Possibility to automatically generate the context number for new topics
Added cut/copy/paste of nodes within the same project
Fixed accentuated characters export for Western code pages
Right click to add the selection as a keyword in the topic editor
Multi selection for drag and drop and node copying
Removed the popup window when using HelpNDoc from command line
Fixed incorrect menu animation
Fixed Access Violation when CTRL + Drag a node
Now generates a valid Delphi unit with proper interface and implementation sections
File overwrite confirmation when generating code

Version 1.7 – Release date: Feb 1, 2006

Better Unicode compliance
Vastly improved command line interface. See help file for details
Updated project pane layout
Possible TOC corruption: project title wasn't correctly escaped in HTML output
Optionally clean the "Files" sub-directory in HTML export
Link to easily download HTML Help Workshop in the compiler output if it's not installed on the computer
Various enhancements in the topic editor

Version 1.6.1 – Release date: Nov 7, 2005

Icons were not exported in CHM help file anymore
CTRL-A shortcut didn't work anymore
Fixed some memory leaks

Version 1.6 – Release date: Oct 17, 2005

Internet Explorer complained about an invalid character when viewing an Help Web Site
Improved hyperlink window’s appearance for better consistency throughout the application and added shortcuts
Improved the speed of creation of spell checking suggestions
Keyword’s root could be deleted which could cause unexpected behavior
Possibility to add a subject to e-mail hyperlinks
New kind of hyperlinks: navigation, to go to next, previous, parent...
Insert hyperlink field was truncated to 30 characters
Keywords associated with multiple topics showed "untitled" topics in popup window
Added shortcuts CTRL + ARROW to move items in the TOC
Help file has been updated

Version 1.5 – Release date: Sep 5, 2005

Introducing a basic HTML Export functionality
Generate Visual Basic, C++ and Delphi constants for easier integration of the help file with programming languages
Fixed a MS HTML Viewer bug which could display an error message when opening a CHM file
Fixed a bug with topic ID modification in the topic editor

Version 1.4 – Release date: Jul 27, 2005

Typing in the topic editor could become extremely slow and HND file could grow exponentially. The fix will be applied topic by topic once edited and saved
Added anchors and possibility to link to them
Enhanced link window with new links to anchors, file with or without relative paths, topics, Internet or e-mail
Variables now display hints with current value
Shortcut to add an hyperlink: CTRL+L
Default topic font can now be defined in the project properties
General application speed boost

Version 1.3 – Release date: May 23, 2005

Internal HND format has been fine-tuned to provide better speed and size. Gain is proportional to project complexity but for reference: For a simple help file such as the one from HelpNDoc, the loading time is divided by 2 and the file size is only 70% of the original; For a bigger file, the loading is 30 times faster for a size of 64% of the original.
Search and replace algorithm have been optimized. Speed is 6 times faster for a small size project and increases with project size.
Possibility to change font and character set of the table of content in CHM files
Detailed hint for each node: indicates the URL of the node in the CHM file, context number and the topic ID if required
When a HND file was opened via the explorer, its name was converted to upper case

Version 1.2 – Release date: Apr 4, 2005

New file format – HND files are now compressed. Conversion is made behind the scenes. Still compatible with old format in read mode
Import of HTML, RTF, WRI, and TXT files. DOC files can be imported if Microsoft Office is installed on the system
Implementation of a better find and replace function: ability to find and replace throughout the project
Implementation of rudimentary Command line compilation feature: "HelpNDoc –c file.hnd"
Better CHM generation: Added next and home buttons, advanced search tab, addition of the favorite tab
Main window's position is now restored when HelpNDoc is launched
Better handling of bullets and numbering in the ruler
Fixed a bug where characters in the topic title could cause compilation error
Shortcut to create a new topic, use CTRL+T
Confirm save dialog could be displayed many times on application exit

Version 1.1.1 – Release date: Feb 24, 2005

Topic name containing quotes prohibited project from being loaded

Version 1.1 – Release date: Feb 15, 2005

Variables support (known limitation: variables can't be set as hyperlinks)
Popup menu in the table of content
Help file now contains information on how to integrate CHM files with Delphi and Visual Basic
Configuration information are now saved in the registry
Page background images weren't exported in CHM
Better HTML Help Workshop location handling: ask location when it can't be found in the registry
Faster CHM export
Balloon Hints weren't working in HND 1.0
The default icon wasn't always selected when required in the icons popup menu
The background color and image were not reset when a new topic was created

Version 1.0 – Release date: Dec 9, 2004

Initial Release

What’s new

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HelpNDoc links & resources