How to Use HelpLogic

After you have created a new project (or opened an existing HelpLogic project), the main project window that appears is the heart of the HelpLogic application. The interface design provides a very intuitive, time-saving workflow for easily creating, editing, and managing your project's table of contents, related HTML source files, and project development notes, saved code snippets, etc. For options specific to each of the three sections (Source Files, Table of Contents, Workshop), click on the arrow button located at the top right of each section or select from the related menus in the Menu Bar.

Step 1: Create Your Help Pages

The first thing you'll want to do is create your HTML help pages. Click on the "Add File" toolbar button to add a new file or folder to the Source Files column in your project. Click the "Edit Page" toolbar button to edit a selected file. Please see the "Working with Source Files" section of this User Guide for details on Adding New Files and Folders and Modifying Source Files.

Step 2: Build Your Table of Contents

Once you've created all of your help pages, you'll then want to build your Table of Contents (TOC) as you would like it displayed in your published help system. The TOC is the backbone of your help system, providing an organized listing of pages and chapters, so that users can quickly browse the topics and find the information they are looking for.

With HelpLogic's easy to use Visual TOC Builder, you can create an effective Table of Contents that assigns an HTML help page and search/index keywords to each topic. To create a new page in your TOC, select "New Page" from the "Add Topic" toolbar menu. To create a new chapter in your TOC, select "New Chapter" from the "Add Topic" toolbar menu. If you need to edit a selected TOC topic, either double-click the selected item or click the "Edit Topic" toolbar button. Please see the "Visual TOC Builder" section of this User Guide for details on Adding New Topics and Modifying Topics.

Step 3: Preview and Publish!

If you want to preview how a page will display in a specific help viewer or web browser, simply select an HTML file from the Source Files list or the Visual TOC Builder and then choose a viewer from the "Preview" toolbar menu. The "Preview" option is also available in the toolbar of HelpLogic's Code Editor. Please see the Previewing Help Pages topic in this User Guide for details.

When you are ready to publish your help pages (via the "Publish" toolbar button), HelpLogic converts your project into the selected help format by using your TOC data as a blueprint to build not only the Table of Contents, but also related link references for the help system's search engine and index (if applicable). Please see the "Publishing Help Systems" section of this User Guide for details on publishing your help project for Apple Help, Microsoft® HTML Help, Web-based Help, UniHelp or PDF.

Using the Window Menu

An open window in the background (such as an HTML file that's open in the HelpLogic Code Editor) can easily be brought to the front by selecting it in the Window Menu, which lists all currently open windows within HelpLogic.