HelpSmith

HelpSmith is a help authoring tool designed by Divcom Software to assist technical writers and documentation teams in creating professional help files, online help systems, PDF manuals, and other forms of documentation. According to the vendor, HelpSmith provides a complete XML-based solution for creating and managing help files and manuals from a single source. It is suitable for companies of all sizes, from small businesses to large enterprises. The tool caters to the needs of technical writers, documentation specialists, software developers, IT professionals, and training and e-Learning professionals across various industries.

Key Features

Complete XML-based help authoring tool: According to the vendor, HelpSmith allows the creation of CHM HTML Help files, Web Help systems, PDF manuals, ePub eBooks, and Markdown documentation from a single source. It provides a comprehensive solution for creating and managing help files and manuals, supporting multiple output formats.

Full-featured word processor: HelpSmith offers dynamic styles, variables, a spell checker for different languages, and Unicode support. The vendor claims that it provides a user-friendly interface for creating and editing content, allowing customization of formatting options to ensure consistency and professionalism.

Powerful Conditional Compilation capabilities: HelpSmith enables the use of build tags for conditional content inclusion based on specific criteria. According to the vendor, this feature provides flexibility in generating different versions of the documentation for various audiences or scenarios, helping to streamline the documentation process.

Topic templates: HelpSmith allows customization of the appearance of help files or documents through predefined templates. The vendor states that this feature provides consistent formatting and layout across multiple topics, saving time by eliminating the need to manually format each topic.

Import content from various formats: HelpSmith supports importing content from HTML, MS Word, CHM, and other formats. The vendor claims that this feature facilitates the migration of existing documentation into HelpSmith and enables the integration of external content sources for a seamless documentation creation process.

Built-in Image Tool for capturing and annotating screenshots: HelpSmith provides an integrated tool for capturing screenshots and inserting them into the documentation. According to the vendor, this tool offers various annotations such as rectangles, ellipses, arrows, balloons, lines, text labels, and control annotations. It allows customization of annotation appearance and flexible settings for capturing screenshots.

Automatic generation of topic drafts for UI documentation: HelpSmith includes control annotations for user interface elements demonstrated on a screenshot. According to the vendor, this feature automatically generates topic drafts with detailed descriptions for controls and offers customizable style schemes for control annotations.

Responsive Web Help system creation: HelpSmith generates a responsive layout compatible with desktop computers and mobile devices. The vendor states that it allows customization of the Header, Footer, and Mobile Header areas and supports custom JavaScript and CSS styles for topics and Web Help layout.

Open XML-based Help Project Format for teamwork and translations: HelpSmith enables collaborative work on a help project using version control systems. According to the vendor, this feature facilitates compatibility with external translation tools and allows editing project files with a plain text editor for advanced customization.

Multiple Output Formats: HelpSmith supports the creation of CHM HTML Help files, Web Help systems, PDF manuals, ePub eBooks, and Markdown documentation from a single source. According to the vendor, this feature provides flexibility in delivering documentation in various formats to cater to different user preferences and requirements.