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HelpSmith 3.3: Improved Unicode Support and New Multi-Media Features

Vancouver, Canada - October 18, 2010: Divcom Software today announces the release of HelpSmith 3.3, an important update of the help authoring tool for professional technical writers and software developers. The new version of HelpSmith includes improved Unicode support, the ability to use Flash and QuickTime animations in help projects, better compatibility with recent versions of Google Chrome, and other new features. The update is available immediately at http://www.helpsmith.com.

HelpSmith, a help authoring tool that combines a professional feature set, slight learning curve and comparatively low price, continues to receive new features, providing its users with up-to-date technologies and standards in help authoring.

One of the most important requirements for modern help authoring software is the ability to work with multiple languages due to support of the Unicode standard. HelpSmith 3.3 introduces improved support for Unicode: now not only the built-in word processor allows you to type text in multiple languages simultaneously, but all text controls that store numerous parameters of a help project. Such an approach meets the today's highest software standards and makes it easy to create, distribute, and view help projects written in different languages.

Another useful enhancement of HelpSmith 3.3 is the possibility to insert Flash and QuickTime animations. In help files video is used along with screenshots to provide better illustration of the corresponding topic. Both Flash and QuickTime formats are now supported with HelpSmith (as well as some other formats: AVI, MPG, etc.). Thus, a technical writer can insert video content directly to the text of help topics the same way as he/she would do with usual graphical images.

The version 3.3 of HelpSmith also includes other improvements. It fixes an issue faced by users of the Google Chrome web browser. Due to security restrictions introduced by Google in recent releases of Chrome, Web Help systems refused to work correctly when running from a local machine. At the same time, it was not a problem to access the same help system with Chrome when it was located on a web server. Fortunately, the developers of HelpSmith have found a solution, so Web Help working from a local machine is now compatible with Google Chrome as well.

"In HelpSmith 3.3 we've implemented features most frequently requested by our users. These are new possibilities for working with video, full Unicode support in the entire environment, better security and compatibility with all modern browsers, and so on. This product update makes it possible for us to say that HelpSmith follows the today's highest standards in the field of help authoring," said Eugene Ivanov, Divcom Software.