As part of my testing of Help & Manual, I wanted to see how well the variables work. I have learned that while the use of variables is a very powerful and useful tool, there is one instance where there could be difficulties. Most people will not face this issue. However, if you need formatted variables, in particular, Small Caps, please read on.

In Help & Manual, variables can only be created as plain text. This means that if you want to format a variable, formatting must be applied directly to the variable. If, for example, the variable is a product name that MUST appear in bold and italics, you must manually apply the formatting to the variable. This is not a real problem; perhaps cumbersome at first, but once set up properly, it should pose no difficulty. One way to deal with this would be to apply a text style to the variable. Then, if the formatting has to be changed globally, all you have to do is change the format for that style.

However, formatting with Small Caps could pose a problem. For example, one of my clients required that all of their product names appear in small caps, with the TM or R symbol, for every usage. For them, small caps is a deal-breaker. Help & Manual does not provide a Small Caps options in any of the formatting. Thus, if you needed a variable with this type of formatting, you would have to find a more elegant solution.

So the real question is, why doesn't Help & Manual support Small Caps? I corresponded with them on this issue, as I have run into it with other software tools. Their answer clarified why implementation of Small Caps was a costly endeavor when one company I worked for moved over to a CMS with XML (DITA).

EC Software advised me that, "The problem is getting it across all formats -- it might be possible in Webhelp but there are serious barriers in CHM, particularly since Help & Manual supports virtually all the world's languages, including right-to-left languages in CHM (no other help authoring system currently does this)… there are many more things to consider … when you have to make sure that it will work in hundreds of different languages and nine different output formats, including the new ePub eBook format...."

EC Software has my respect for their integrity. They are not going to implement a requested feature such as Small Caps, until they have a full understanding of how this will impact the final output, in ALL instances.

In fact, when I asked if they were going to implement it, they told me, "small caps is definitely something we are looking into seriously because of its importance for the US market but... we don't want to throw it out half-baked..."

Thank you, EC Software!