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App for making a hypertext (self-contained) software manual
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Posted by Jeffery Smith
Jun 19, 2020 at 02:18 PM
I will check them out. I have never liked LaTEX, and need an editor. In fact, I’ll look at several of them.
Thanks much!
Jeffery
MadaboutDana wrote:
Hey Jeffery,
>
>Before committing to what sounds like a remarkably clunky process (I use
>and adore FM Pro, but would never use it for a project like the one
>you’ve described, not least because of the post-editing required),
>I’d suggest you look at Versatil Markdown in the Mac App Store,
>which is a very powerful editor (a bit like Typora on steroids). It also
>exports to PDF, HTML or Web Archive format, which seems to me ideal for
>something like help files or hypertext notebooks.
>
>It also supports document aliases (transclusion, as I was kindly
>reminded in a previous post). It’s not well known - not because
>it’s not actually very easy to use (it is), but perhaps because it
>comes across first and foremost as a programmer’s tool (it can
>be).
>
>Which reminds me that it would also be worthwhile exploring Quiver as a
>possible solution (now that does describe itself as a programmer’s
>notebook, but is a lovely piece of software, although the author
>appears, alas, to have given up on developing an iOS version). Quiver
>(also in the Mac App Store) also has an impressive range of output
>options, including PDF, HTML, Markdown, JSON and others.
>
>Cheers!
>Bill
>
>Jeffery Smith wrote:
>Thanks for the replies. I fiddled around with several things, and I may
>>untimately use what I have used in the past for this sort of
>>project…Filemaker Pro. I even used Nutshell, the distant ancestor of
>>FMPro over 3 decades ago. I make a framework for the title, writing,
>and
>>any pictures on a template, fill in the information on one screen, and
>>make another layout to print to PDF. But I’m also going to use Adobe
>>Acrobat to create links in the manual that jump to major pages
>>referenced.
Posted by Amontillado
Jun 19, 2020 at 07:18 PM
Versatil Markdown looks really nice - thanks for the link.
Posted by MadaboutDana
Jun 23, 2020 at 02:09 PM
It’s a good app - but I’ve found that unlike Typora, it doesn’t have a universal search function. Which is annoying.
Another macOS app it’s well worth exploring for this kind of requirement is MacJournal, currently available free of charge. You can create a large software manual and then export it to various formats, including RTF, PDF, HTML, ePub and others.
The app itself is extraordinarily powerful, with all kinds of unexpected features. It isn’t really journaling software at all - it’s more like a kind of all-round information manager. The search function alone is hugely powerful.
Personally, I use it to keep track of all kinds of business processes, which I then regularly export as separate files into folders on a shared drive. But MacJournal is also capable of exporting multiple notes (in folders) as a single enormous file - or you can export individual folders as a single file if you prefer. The only shortcoming I’ve discovered here is that the resulting PDF file won’t pick up on internal links you may have set up between notes. However, if you choose the HTML export instead, it does preserve internal links. Sadly, the ePub export is currently registering as “corrupt”.
The other way of producing a large PDF file of all your notes is the “Print Journal…” option.
I thought MacJournal was no longer under development, but an update appeared last week (to remedy some issues under macOS Catalina), so that’s encouraging!
If you’d like to try it, you can download it for free from Dan Schimpf’s website at https://danschimpf.com
Cheers,
Bill
Posted by MadaboutDana
Jun 23, 2020 at 02:16 PM
Sorry, I should make it quite clear that you can choose to export (a) an individual note, (b) a folder of notes or (c) the entire journal.
If you export the entire journal, MacJournal will create the individual subfolders as folders on disk without prompting, so you can recreate your journal structure in your file system as a hierarchical collection of documents (in RTF, HTML, PDF, ePub, OpenDocument, Word, Markdown and other formats, including a few I’ve never heard of like iPod Notes).
I’ve not actually come across anything quite like this on any platform (apart, perhaps, from DEVONthink). I used to use a very nice HTML editor in Windows to generate business procedures. It was freeware, and could be used as both editor and reader. But this was over 10 years ago, and I can’t for the life of me remember what it was called…
Cheers!
Bill
Posted by Jeffery Smith
Jun 24, 2020 at 10:11 AM
I’m downloading it right now. I was a paid user of MacJournal until they seemed to abandon it. I recall reading that the author rescued his baby and breathed life into it. It may be a great app to use for my purposes.
Thanks!