Software Documentation Tool To Create Best User Manuals

Content Import

ClickHelp makes migrating your existing content from other tools easy with support for the majority of typical output formats:

CHM (Compiled HTML Help, also known as HTML Help 1 or Microsoft Compiled HTML Help)
HTML, XHTML, frameless HTML5 or Web Help (any kind of HTML output)
DOC/DOCX (OpenXML, Microsoft Word)
RTF (Rich Text Format)
ODT (OpenDocument, OpenOffice.org file format)

ClickHelp can create a new documentation project based on your existing files with a few moves. All TOC elements, styles, scripts, and Index entries from input files will be preserved during the import procedure for the CHM format, some format-specific restrictions may apply for other formats. Also, you can automatically merge multiple input files (say, dozens of Microsoft Word documents) into a single ClickHelp project - their styles will be de-duplicated and optimized on the fly to make the content easier to maintain. This is an easy way to move your documentation development online without long manual conversion procedures and cleanup required for HTML files created by Word. Modern documentation tools support some of the mentioned formats for output. This makes it easier to switch to ClickHelp from any other tool, and make your documentation available on the web instantly.

Printed Output Setup

For the printed output, configure the document look as needed. Multiple page sizes are supported, so you can easily get multiple printed sizes from the same source project - A4, Letter, A3, and other. You can also configure the output document in other ways:

Add automatic Table of Contents to any place
Configure page numbers in various formats
Configure fonts and page margins
Add a cover page
and much more!

With ClickHelp, you use a single source for both online user manuals and printed content.

Custom Cover Pages

When generating printed output, you typically need to specify what content needs to be located on the cover page. In many cases, this content must be different from the first help topic. In ClickHelp, it is easy to use a custom cover page. Craft your own nice-looking cover for your printed user manuals with the powerful editing tools, and put it to a topic in the non-TOC tree. When exporting a publication to a printed format, you can choose which topic to use as the cover page. You can vary the cover page content for different output formats, and different output sizes.

Content Management

Topic-based authoring, content reuse, WYSIWYG HTML editor
Multiple manuals from the same source

Technical writing may be a tedious task when you need to produce multiple outputs that are 90% identical. To be effective, you need good content management tools to control the final output and vary it as needed without doing tons of manuals changes. ClickHelp gives technical writers the right content management tools to help them cut the documentation development time, and increase productivity.

WYSIWYG HTML Editor

Many technical writers got used to the office text processors like OpenOffice or MS Word. This is fine - you will use the same skills when creating online documentation in ClickHelp!

ClickHelp supports WYSIWYG authoring of the user manuals in a way the popular text editors do. You get the functions you are used to:

Text formatting
Font size and style changes
Inserting images and tables
Inserting links to other documents in an easy way
Creating bulleted and numbered lists
And much more

You did this hundreds of times, and you can do this in ClickHelp in the same way. Use the same skills, but produce a completely different fantastic result directly in a web browser. You can do even more with the advanced content management functions of the tool.

Styles and Scripts Management

Centralized styles and scripts management helps you quickly change the look and feel of your documentation portal. All CSS style files and the script files are accessible from a single place for your convenience.

You can modify the CSS files in your documentation project with a built-in powerful CSS and JavaScript editor. You need a different font size or color across all help topics? No problem, you get it easily! You want to put a nice "New Year" background with snowflakes to the published documents? It's the matter of a single-line change in your CSS file. You don't have to start from scratch with your manuals, since ClickHelp comes with a number of ready project templates. You can modify any template to make it better fit your brand or corporate style guide.

You can change a project style without affecting other published manuals, or other documentation under development. With ClickHelp, you get an easy way to style your online documentation, as well as the printed user manuals!

Conditional Content

Single-sourcing of documentation relies on the techniques that help technical writers vary the final output. ClickHelp supports conditional content in help topics to accomplish this task.

With this functionality, you can do various modifications of the final output:

Vary the header and footer contents based on the output type - no topic footers for printed output.
Handle interactive content like videos and animations for printed documentation.
For printed output, replace the "Contact us" links with a URL readers can type in a browser.
Produce pre-release documentation with a disclaimer, and easily remove the disclaimer from the release version.
And much more...

It is also easy to preview the final version of any help topic while developing it, taking into account the conditional content. You don't have to produce the final output to view the result, like in many other help writing tools. All this functionality saves your time and helps you easily produce multiple outputs from a single source quicker.

Variables in Topic Content

In technical documentation, there is a lot of content that varies with every release. Product version, edition name, release date, a link to the new version announcement, etc. In ClickHelp, you can use variables to avoid modifying this information in every help topic. There are global and project-specific variables, and you can use them anywhere in your topic content.

Content Snippets

In user manuals, we often see content parts repeated in several places. This may be a help topic footer, the disclaimer text, the typical how-to steps or FAQ entries, etc. The best practice is to reuse the content by sharing it, rather then copying the same content everywhere. To easier control the shared content chunks, you can use the Content Snippets functionality of ClickHelp.

You can include the entire content of a help topic into an arbitrary place of other help topic. This helps you reuse the content to easier make documentation changes. This approach assumes that some help topics are the building blocks, they are used to assemble larger topics. So, you keep things centralized - change the building blocks to make changes in all places where they are used. This makes the documentation maintenance much easier, saving you time and resources.

Output Tags

ClickHelp gives you powerful output management features. When working on your documentation project, you can specify a number of settings to fine-tune the result:

Topics to include or exclude
CSS style files to use
Script files to use
Conditional content blocks to include or exclude

All these settings are controlled by Output Tags, and can be applied to future publications. This helps you repeat publishing with the same settings later. This saves your time, avoids mistakes, and makes the documentation project publishing easier and faster.

HTML / CSS / JavaScript Editor

When you feel you are ready to go pro, and do some real magic beyond WYSIWYG help topics editing, you need a good editor. ClickHelp provides you with a powerful editor for HTML, CSS and JavaScript content. It has many features that assist you with the content creation:

HTML tags completion
Intellisense
Real-time syntax validation
Descriptions for hundreds of CSS attributes
JavaScript statements descriptions
True output preview for help topics with variables and conditional content

With ClickHelp, you have all these features at your fingertips to create content faster and easier.

Teamwork and Project Management

Collaborate on a project, boost productivity
All you need is a web browser

Still sending the latest changes for SME review by email? You will not have to do this again.

ClickHelp is an online documentation tool built for technical writing teams to work together in an efficient manner. It supports role-based permission management so you can easily specify who can do what in your team. It gives you a ready-to-use workflow with document statuses, so you can better control the technical writing process in your organization.

Collaboration & Teamwork

ClickHelp is a ready-to-use multi-authoring environment for your Technical Writing Team. This may be a local team in your office, or a global one distributed around the world - you have all you need to organize the teamwork effectively.

Use the collaboration functionality of ClickHelp to get things done:

Document statuses
Automatic document locking
Status notifications via email
User roles to control permissions
Advanced TOC filtering by assignee, status, etc.
Per-topic review notes panel for internal comments

Efficient co-authoring means for help authoring teams is what you get with ClickHelp.

Reporting & Statistics

With the project statistics provided by our documentation tool, you can manage technical writing projects easier. For any project you are managing, estimate project readiness at any stage and balance the workload inside the team for better results. It is more than general percentages - you can easily drill down into a specific pie chart sector to see the actual topics list. This makes ClickHelp statistics actionable!

For the published user manuals, ClickHelp collects the reader stats to assist documentation authoring teams in improving online documentation. For any time period you choose, you get the topic view stats with details on how exactly readers navigate to a help topic: external links, TOC navigation, Index, Search, etc. This helps you answer some interesting questions, like which help topic is the most popular one, and which help topics are never visited by readers. It is good to know the answers, and it is easy to get them now. And if you want a more in-depth reader behavior analysis, check the Google Analytics Integration.

Role-Based Permissions

Control who can do what easily by assigning roles to your documentation portal users. ClickHelp is a flexible documentation tool giving you ways to fine-tune the branding options, configure the documentation printed output settings, and many other things. By using roles, you ensure that essential global settings are not modified accidentally by team members, and are available only to the Team Lead or Administrator. This helps team members avoid mistakes that disturb your established technical writing process.

Using roles is a quick way to set up your documentation authoring environment in the right manner.

Cloud Authoring

No installation, no IT assistance needed
Relax... and write!

ClickHelp is a documentation tool that saves your time in various ways, and helps you create online documentation faster. Deploy online documentation portal in minutes, use ready project templates, cut IT and maintenance costs, enjoy the pricing that makes sense!

Deploy in Minutes

It’s really the matter of minutes to set things up. Once you get a ClickHelp license, your online authoring environment is ready to get started. With a few steps, you configure branding options: a link to your main web site, your logo image, etc. If you have a team, you create accounts for your team members, and your collaboration environment is ready.

Start a new project from a template or import the existing documentation to make it available online - now you are ready for a better documentation authoring process. You can even create printed documentation easily from the online content!

Cost-Effective Solution

Maximize the business effect of your technical writing efforts at the most competitive price in the industry! ClickHelp makes the best offer to the small and mid-size companies that need a solution to create both online manuals and printed documentation. All licenses are fully functional without any limitations.

To match your business model, use the subscription-based pricing or the pay-as-you-go monthly payments option. ClickHelp is a budget-friendly documentation tool that helps companies go online with their end-user documentation, and get additional SEO effect to improve brand visibility with minimal efforts.

Use Ready Templates

Technical writers want their online documentation to look nice for better reader experience! With ClickHelp, you get six different project styling templates ready - just choose one. You don't need a designer to craft your online manuals. Every template is a piece of art created by our designer with care. All small elements are united into one beautiful template - the backgrounds, graphics, CSS styling, color palette, fonts, layout, scripts.

All templates are open to modifications, and you can change any small thing you want to match your preferred style or your company brand. ClickHelp provides you with a powerful HTML / CSS / JavaScript editor so you can create your own cool project style.

Flexible User Management

All licenses are floating-user, and you can manage your license pool the way you need for your tasks. This means that you can easily bring an external SME / reviewer / editor / translator to your team by quickly creating a new user account and re-assigning an existing license. A few steps, and the external collaborator gets an email with the documentation system access details. We often see temporary team members participating in technical writing projects, so the licensing system flexibility is what you benefit from. Use the built-in user roles to easily control permissions across your documentation projects.

Browser-Based Documentation Authoring

Online documentation authoring in a web browser, just like in Wiki - this is what ClickHelp gives to technical writers. You get both a cloud documentation tool and a ready online documentation portal hosted on our servers. ClickHelp is a technical writing solution you can use right away, not a lego you have to assemble. This is how you benefit from this offer:

No installation
No server management
No maintenance efforts
No extra IT staff to run and manage your server

Get your ClickHelp documentation portal, and start creating user manuals on the same day - it's a ready multi-authoring environment. Use your technical documentation team resources effectively!

Customer Feedback

User feedback and comments
Social networks sharing buttons

With ClickHelp, you can produce amazing user manuals for your readers. Use the full power of HTML 5, CSS 3 and other modern technologies to produce state-of-the-art online documentation. The readers will appreciate the variety of topic navigation means ClickHelp provides, and the usability of your online manuals.

Customer Feedback

Building a community around online documentation is the right thing to do for various reasons. The readers get an easy way to leave feedback for help topics, ask extra questions, and discuss the content with other readers. And the company gets closer to real users, learn more on what they want to learn, and how they use their product.

This is exactly what the Disqus Integration functionality of ClickHelp gives our clients. It builds the basis for tight collaboration between vendor companies and real users of their products. Engage your readers to contribute to your documentation by answering their questions in topic comments. Be a leader in the user community, show that you are listening, be open for discussions!

300 Social Networks

The latest investigations reveal that the absence of the sharing buttons is one of the top things that annoy readers. Nowadays people are used to share what they like, and they appreciate convenient sharing means.

ClickHelp integrates with AddThis to provide three hundred of sharing buttons for your documentation portal visitors. The receipt of social engagement tracking for your online content is quite simple:

Register a free AddThis account
Specify your AddThis ID in ClickHelp settings
Get your stats to work on the content engagement

With ClickHelp and AddThis, you are using one of the best content engagement solutions on the web, and you get the readers behavior analytics for free!

Interactive Content

Based on many researches, plain text instructions are not performing good enough. Even good-written text may be not enough to explain a complex concept, or describe complex UI. Don’t be afraid of experimenting with interactive content! With ClickHelp, you can embed videos in your help topics to quickly demonstrate some product function, embed a sound recording with your podcast on the topic.

HTML 5 and CSS 3 provide fantastic functions to help you make your documentation "live" - animation, vector graphics, HTML 5 video elements, and much more. Use this wisely in your help topics to add value, and make it easier for readers to understand your explanations.

It is also possible to add Flash and Flex objects to the topic contents - this opens truly unlimited possibilities for your online manuals!

Easy Navigation

Readers should be able to find content easily and quickly navigate through it. In technical writing, there is no single opinion regarding what mechanism is the best one: search, table of contents, or index. Most probably, a combination of the three is the best approach.

To give you the freedom of choice, we have implemented all these navigation possibilities in a way they really make sense:

Full Text Search with a patented algorithm tailored for documentation search
Table of Contents with a quick filter functionality for large TOCs navigation
The well-known Index tab supporting two-level keywords and building the keywords list automatically

All the functions use AJAX for better user experience - during navigation, only the document content is reloaded, not the entire page. And yes - we took care of the search engines - all parts of the UI look correct for web crawlers, and your content is indexed properly. The SEO aspect of online documentation is one of our priorities in ClickHelp.

Search Engine Friendly

Online documentation must be properly indexed
ClickHelp takes care of this for you

ClickHelp reveals the SEO effect of online user manuals. This helps companies get better visibility and higher rankings on the web. This is possible thanks to the highly relevant content your technical writers create! Product documentation is full of the right technical terms. Along with the links to your company web site, this naturally generates a positive SEO effect for your brand and improves your website visibility.

Being a modern documentation tool, ClickHelp integrates with the social networks through the AddThis service. This gives your readers an easy way to share your content on the web. And this gives you a better view of your reader’s profile through the AddThis statistics tracking functions.

Google Analytics Integration

Tons of online documentation analytics at no cost. Creating a Google Analytics account is totally free of charge, and this is the first step to get some nice stats. Specify your Google Analytics property ID in ClickHelp settings to start tracking the visitors. Voila - you are now equipped with a top-notch technology to learn new exciting things about your online user manuals!

No additional setup is needed to become aware of:

Most popular help topics
Help topics that are never visited
Typical navigation paths of your readers
Geographical distribution of the readers
Search keywords leading to your docs from Google

By using ClickHelp, you'll get in-depth readers statistics from a world-leading web analytics platform.

Webmaster Tools Support

ClickHelp support webmaster tools of the major search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. It's an easy way to get a better view of your online documentation pages position in search engines. You will know what’s indexed, what’s linked, what’s getting the most visits, where the broken links are, and much more. Use the Google Authorship technique to specify the documentation author's Google+ profile. This simple step will change the way your documentation appears in the search engine results. It will have your Google+ avatar near the result giving it higher credibility, and helping you improve your brand awareness.