HelpViewer.app - an application for viewing, scanning, printing,
compressing, expanding, verifying, compacting, and comparing the
NEXTSTEP on-line help of other applications

(see below for a general application description)


Version 1.3 is a maintenance release, with some improvements
and bug fixes for HelpViewer's integrated Help Compander tool.

Version 1.3 might be the last release under NEXTSTEP 3.3 - the
next major release is planned to be HelpViewer II for OPENSTEP.


New features in version 1.3 (choose Info -> Release Notes for details)

* transparency removal
  This new help folder verification option removes the transparency
  information (i.e. the alpha channel) from all TIFF files, and thus
  further decreases the required disk space for your help folder
  (and that for the resulting Help.store file as well).

* help folder verification speedup
  The image packing and LZW-compressiong options now work much faster,
  especially on 'empty runs' i.e. when all images have already been
  packed/compressed by a previous run.

* STOP signs with progress pies
  Some of the 'Verify Contents' and 'Compare Help Folders' options
  can take quite a while when run on huge help folders, eventually
  generating no visual output for minutes. To keep you informed about
  what's going on, the STOP signs now sport progress pies whereever
  possible. (That is, for all stages where the amount of work to do
  can be pre-calculated.)

* auxiliary comparison help folder
  When reviewing the differences between two help folders, you can
  now select an auxiliary third help folder. Help files from this
  third folder will be opened in Edit as well, along with the two
  help files originally compared. Handy when you want to reflect
  changes in another language.

* extraction of modified help files
  When reviewing the differences between two help folders, you can
  now copy the help files listed for either of the two folders to
  another location, preserving the given subfolder hierarchy.
  Handy when you want to send just the modified/new help files
  to someone else, perhaps for translation to another language.

* a few bug fixes


General application description

With HelpViewer, you can view any application's on-line help,
and print all help pages, or just selected chapters or pages,
with help links replaced by page numbers.
Auto-scanning of all hidden help files. Auto-chaptering.
Customizable Table of Contents, headers, and footers.

Developers can scan their own application's on-line help to
locate and correct help links to nonexistent help files,
help links to nonexistent markers within existing help files,
and duplicate marker definitions in help files.

With HelpViewer's integrated Help Compander tool (introduced in
version 1.2) you can compress and expand NEXTSTEP on-line help.

Users can expand an application's compressed on-line help into
a help folder in original "source code" form, perform certain
automatic repair actions or manual modifications, and compress
the help folder back into the application's on-line help.

Developers can bypass the ProjectBuilder application completely,
and let the Help Compander perform all required steps to generate
the Help.store file, including a final verification run to detect
infamous "compresshelp" bug.

-- expand help stores to help folders
-- compress help folders to help stores
-- verify help store contents
   -- detect damaged files
   -- check and repair "find by keyword" functionality
-- verify help folder contents
   -- remove useless files
   -- detect missing help files
   -- detect RTFD file inconsistencies
   -- automatically create/update .index.store files
   -- reduce the disk space required by help folders to about 50%
-- compare different versions of a help folder
   (in a far more suitable way than FileMerge can)


HelpViewer is localized to English, French, and German.


Fully licensable demo - for informations on how to purchase
a license key for $39 US, send electronic mail to <stefan@ping.at>,
or visit the HelpViewer World Wide Web home page at
<http://www.ping.at/members/stefan/HelpViewer/>.

The Help Compander tool is licensed until August 1, 1996.
After August 1, you can request a FREE time-limited
license key to be able to test-drive the Help Compander.


Contact:

Stefan Schneider Software
 DI Stefan Schneider
 Lerchenfelder St. 85/6
 A-1070 Vienna, Austria, Europe
 +43-1-523-5834
 stefan@ping.at
 http://www.ping.at/members/stefan/HelpViewer/