PLEASE COMMENT: IMatch Help Now Available On-line!

[Mario]

As mentioned in one of my recent IMatch 2018 Sneak Peak posts I'm upgrading the IMatch help system for the future (and IMatch 2018).
I'm moving away from the more and more limiting Microsoft CHM file to HTML-based documentation, modern apps etc.

The first result of my efforts is now on-line: The web-based version of the IMatch Help System - Ta-da!
This is still considered as "work in progress" and Beta.

You can access it here from your web browser:

https://www.photools.com/help/imatch/

Currently I only support Firefox and Chrome. And all browsers using the Chrome / FF browser engine (Vivaldi etc.)
Microsoft Edge is not supported at the moment. It still fails (after two years!) to support some standard JavaScript functions and I had no time to add work-around.
Edge is now supported, too.

Give it a try and let me know. If you run into issues, provide as much details as possible (page URL, browser, platform etc.).


Having the help system available on-line should be a big help for people who are not that fluid in English. You can now use the built-in "translate this web site" feature in your browser to translate the help into your language.

The version currently on-line is the IMatch 2018 help, a work in progress. Expect changes.
It uses a slightly updated layout and modern all-platform styles. It should work nicely on all platforms and devices.

There is a powerful search engine (my design) and also a table of contents for the entire help system and a TOC for each page!
No help is available for the help but you should figure out how it works easily enough. Just click the buttons 

[sinus]

Looks very good and compact.
And how can I activate the translation? I use Firefox and do not see anything like that.

[BanjoTom]

Maybe just a "BETA," but it looks and works very well.  I'll keep investigating . . .

[Mario]

Looks very good and compact.
And how can I activate the translation? I use Firefox and do not see anything like that.

Firefox has no built-in translation tool. Either install an Add-on or use Chrome, which has built-in translation.
Edge also has built-in translation but you will have to wait until i add support for it. Microsoft is real slow, the features I use and which still don't work in Edge are from 2016!

[mastodon]

Looks good on FF 59, win7 64 bit, and fast. Maybe the Category Icons could be smaller in the Categories section. I think, they are magnified.

[Mario]

Looks good on FF 59, win7 64 bit, and fast. Maybe the Category Icons could be smaller in the Categories section. I think, they are magnified.

Thanks.
The contents are (mostly) unchanged from the IMatch help.
The category icons always were that big, to make them easier to see 

[Mario]

Microsoft Edge is now also supported.
I've added work-arounds for the functions missing in Edge.

Check it out: https://www.photools.com/help/imatch/

[Menace]

Wow. Perfect. Even if i can read and understand some English, is such a great help to read it in German. Will there be also a online help for IMatch Anywhere/IMWS?

[Mario]

Wow. Perfect. Even if i can read and understand some English, is such a great help to read it in German. Will there be also a online help for IMatch Anywhere/IMWS?

Great to hear that you like it.

The IMatch Anywhere help is already in HTML. Your browser should have no problems translating it.
I just tried Chrome with the Google Translate plug-in. No problems translation local HTML pages. Other browsers can surely do the same.
I may move the IMA help on-line at some later time. Not just yet.

[sinus]

Cool Mario,

JETZT auch in Deutsch!
Very good!

One question, because I do simply not know:

This translation, is this done from Google or did you do this?

update:
Stupid question: must be from Google.

[jch2103]

Looks very good on a quick initial review. A little lag on initial load.

One interface oddity: When I click the 'Open the Table of Contents' button, I get a list of Help topics. But when I click an item in the list (e.g., Map Panel), just a very faded image appears on the right side. Only when I click the 'X' icon do I see the actual topic contents. At first, I thought nothing was happening at all, but later realized that faded results are visible and that closing the TOC popup revealed the content.

Perhaps less fading of content would be useful for users? I see that if I use full-screen on my monitor (1920x1080) I can see the 'real' contents at the bottom underneath the TOC list, but I suspect quite a few users won't be using higher resolution monitors.

I tried this on my higher-resolution laptop (3000x2000), but saw much the same results. (Chrome on both desktop and laptop, but Edge seems to be the same.)

[Mario]

Try now.

[Jingo]

Very nice Mario... what a great way to kick off Im2018!

[Carlo Didier]

Looks nice and clean.

I hope there will still be an offline version? I don't live in Steve Jobs' fantasy world where everyone is always online ... especially when travelling.

[Mario]

Looks nice and clean.

I hope there will still be an offline version? I don't live in Steve Jobs' fantasy world where everyone is always online ... especially when travelling.

Please see the thread I have linked in my first post for more information.

[DigPeter]

When I click on the link, the general IMatch page https://www.photools.com/help/imatch/ appears.

When I us https://www.photools.com/imatch/help/, I get a 404 error.

[Mario]

When I click on the link, the general IMatch page https://www.photools.com/help/imatch/ appears.

When I us https://www.photools.com/imatch/help/, I get a 404 error.

Yes. The second URL does not exist and the server returns a 404. The URL is help/imatch not imatch/help.

[tvi55]

The category icons always were that big, to make them easier to see 

Now you need to roll back at least two meters to see  them in a reasonable size :-).

[Mario]

OK. I will make them smaller. Currently they are 64px.
The CHM help scaled images differently (by some unknown ratio...) and I'm still reworking every of the 200+ help pages...

[thrinn]

Much easier to use on my tablet than the old chm version. Fast and lucid.
I also like the links to the community etc. They just work better when all is in HTML and there is no switch between browser and chm reader. I really like it!

Just one question: The help content is shown in English, but top and bottom in German ("IMatch Hilfesystem", "Haben Sie Anmerkungen"). Using Chrome on Android with language setting German.

[ben]

Cool looks great on my smartphone with opera

[JohnZeman]

It looks really good on my Windows 10 PC, nice addition to iMatch.

[Mario]

Just one question:
The help content is shown in English, but top and bottom in German ("IMatch Hilfesystem", "Haben Sie Anmerkungen"). Using Chrome on Android with language setting German.

The IMatch Help App (Web Site) is available in German and English at this time. It uses the same translation technology that is used by IMatch apps so users can translate the help system into other languages with the App Translator. The app automatically detects the user language from your browser settings and if it finds a corresponding translation for the user interface (in your case, German) it uses it.

The help topics are of course only available in English at this time.

[jch2103]

Try now.

Much better! Thanks.

[Mario]

Another advantage of the online help - instant distribution of changes to all users 

[Mees Dekker]

Absolutely brilliant!

Tried it in Google Chrome and also MS Edge (translation into Dutch). Chrome's translation is way better than MS Edge translator, but they both do the job. This could be a great boost for inexperienced, non English, users of Imatch.

Well done

[Mario]

Absolutely brilliant!

Tried it in Google Chrome and also MS Edge (translation into Dutch). Chrome's translations is way better than MS Edge translator, but they both do the job. This could be a great boost for inexperienced, non English, users of Imatch.

Well done

Yep. But I think that Microsoft will roll out a new version of their translator which is at least as good as Google, or better.
I'm not sure of the CV network translation we use for the App Translator is yet integrated into Edge. This version is much better than the old version.
I use MS Translation services in the AppTranslator because I get a lot of free translation characters with my developer subscription for Microsoft Azure 

The "best" machine translator currently is (apparently) DeepL from a German company. But I'm not aware of any plug-ins to use it directly in a browser.

[Datameta]

Much easier to use on my tablet than the old chm version. Fast and lucid.
I also like the links to the community etc. They just work better when all is in HTML and there is no switch between browser and chm reader. I really like it!

+1!

And +100 because Mario didn't even drop a single hint when I was asking for the very same the last week on the support channel. 

[dcb]

Sitting on the couch reading about metadata templates on my iPad. Great being able to open a linked section in a new tab so that I don't lose where I am.

A couple of small things on the metadata templates page.

• The reference to a F when you talk about creating shortcut links is showing just a F in safari
• Under "Using variables the copyright (c) symbol is. It showing properly. Again under safari

[Mario]

Im not sure that I can follow you here?

Please include the URL of the page you refer to.

What do you mean by "The reference to a F when you ta"  or Under "Using variables the copyright (c) symbol is.
Maybe attach a screen shot so I see what you are seeing. I have no Apple devices and I don't know people with Apple devices, sorry. Strictly a Windows / Linux / Android world around here 


The HTML used for help pages is pretty plain, it's based on the old HTML 3/4 standard...
Safari is always special because Apple does not use one of the standard HTML engines but does their own. With more or less support for standards and many unique quirks.

[dcb]

I'll have to email a screenshot through as I can't upload on the iPad.

[Mario]

Do you mean the URL with md_templates.htm at the end?

I cannot find the text reference to a F on that page...?

[Mario]

Thanks for the screen shots. I have fixed this.

There are still some pages which use fonts only available on Windows, and also some garbled characters because of character set issues. I'll fix these as they are reported.

The IMatch help initially started as WinWord (!) files, compiled with a software called RoboHelp into Windows Help.
Then I converted everything to HTML in order to use Microsoft CHM.
No I've wrapped everything up in a neat app to service it from my web site and later hopefully an Electron app.
Always improving 

[wanderer2022]

Sehr fein, das klappt recht gut mit der Übersetzung.
Tolle Idee und vom Handling her finde ich es auch einfacher, aber das ist sicher individuell verschieden.

[pmbvw]

Für mich ein Super Fortschritt. Klappt hervorragend mit Chrome
Trotz Basis Englischkenntnissen ist es natürlich viel einfacher,  teilweise komplexe Themen in der Muttersprache zu lesen.

Translation by google
A great progress for me. Works great with Chrome
Despite basic knowledge of English, it is of course much easier to read sometimes complex topics in the native language.

[Mario]

DAMn. I should have made that available for IMatch 2018 users only...

Nothing's lost just yet. We're still in Beta and I might make this an IMatch 2018-only feature...should get a few more users to buy the upgrade. For all the work I do for you.