Okay, now my help file is perfect.  Everything is in logical order.  It reads beautifully and is logical, whether you read it all in sequence, or whether you just want to get to certain details quickly.  All those screenshots are completed.  I worked hard to position every callout nicely, and document each control very carefully.  The index is well populated and is a potent tool for any reader to find anything in your help file.  Bottom line: it is worthy of signing your name to, and will probably earn you a bonus for how much revenue it generates because of the customers that NOW find it easy to use your application, because they can learn how to use it in a short period of time, JUST by using your help file.

 

You submit your help file.  Your boss loves it.  The application it documents uses it for context-sensitive help.  Everything is perfect.  You start thinking about moving on to the next project.

 

Then your boss sends you an e-mail and tells you that the official name of the product has changed.  (Yes, this actually happened in my project!)  Your whole world shifts.  As the seconds and minutes tick by, you realize that not only is that name used somewhere between 100 to 150 times in your help file, but that MOST of your screenshots are now invalidated, because guess where that name shows up...  In the TITLE BAR of the application!   Aaaarrrrgggg!!!!

 

Is this going to take DAYS to fix?  Maybe a week or more?

 

These were the thoughts that went through my head!  What I was afraid was going to happen was that I would have to re-do most of my screen shots and re-do all that hard work at getting the callout bullets just right, each one on a new topic page, and then copy/paste my carefully-written text documenting each control into the new page, and then delete the old page.  And then re-index that page it and try to preserve whatever I could from my excellent indexing work already completed.

 

I slept on it, and didn't want to get out of bed the next morning....  Yet something tingled in my brain....  I thought I had seen something about replacing an image in a screenshot.  Could it be done without damaging my excellent work?  Could it possibly preserve the position and text of my callouts.  Could it possibly preserve the text of my carefully-documented controls?

 

I went to the Content Editor and right clicked the image, hoping to find a replace-image function.  Not there....  Next I went into the Designer Mode where callouts can be edited, and right clicked the image....  There it was.... Could it be my life saver?  The context (right-click) menu for for the image had these options:

 

 

Could I breathe yet?  Would these wipe out my callouts and carefully written text?  Would these damage my work or invalidate my index (keyword) links?

 

I carefully saved my perfect Help source to a test file so I could experiment.  Here is what I found.

 

 

Not only that, but once the original image is replaced, the images that make up each control "area" are also replaced from the new image.

 

The "Replace ..." options above (with captured screen, file, and clipboard) are also available under the Replace screenshot toolbar button in the Designer Mode.

 

Here is a video demonstrating replacing a screenshot:

 

 

 

Note carefully that it is the original image that gets replaced -- not the callouts or the accompanying documentation.  The difference between the original image and the rendered image is that the rendered image has callouts in it, and the original image does not.

 

Example of an original image:

 

 

 

 

Example of a rendered image:

 

 

 

 

This is probably the most brialliant feature of Dr.Explain I have encountered to date!

 

Dr.Explain Team:  thank you again!  You just saved my bacon, and turned probably 10 or more hours worth of work of editing, re-indexing, and re-proof-reading into about an hour of replacing screenshots.  And they all came out perfectly, and none of my already-proof-read text was changed, and none of my already-validated index (keyword) links were changed.

 

*wheezing sigh of relief!!!*

 

Once again, this appears to be the result of the Dr.Explain team building Help files themselves and running into exactly the circumstances I ran into above (product name change), and solving them in a very clever way.

 

 

 

If you have a circumstance where you application goes through stages and the stages can pass quickly (i.e. may be difficult to get a screenshot at just the right moment), you can do so easily with the Replace with image from the clipboard... option.

 

First make a dummy screenshot for the page.  You can set up the callouts like you want them and fill in your text now or wait until later.

 

Next, put keyboard focus on your application and make it go through the stage you want to capture.  At the right moment, hit Alt-PrtScr to get a very fast "capture" of your application window onto the clip board.

 

Finally, in Dr.Explain, double-click the "dummy" screenshot to go into Designer Mode, then right click the screenshot image and select Replace with image from the clipboard...

 

Voila!  Your screenshot at JUST the moment you wanted.  Whatever callouts you already created will still be there, unchanged.