CartoonMike Posted May 6, 2020 Share Posted May 6, 2020 For the past 2 Mac OS X major updates (14 & 15) Affinity Help searches yield a lot of hits, but NOT one for the affinity app that I'm using. I posted on a pre-existing topic on Sunday, and tonight, Tues, have yet to get any reply. Yes, I know that Apple's help app got blamed because it didn't update or get refreshed according to some undisclosed rubric. Um.... if that's the case why on my Mac only Affinity products have this issue? Even old apps that I've updated and new ones that I recently installed have a full working search ability in their Help and it sure looks and behaves exactly like Apples Help ... and there was a line ("killall helpd; rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.help*; rm -rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.help*") on another thread that I copied and pasted into the Terminal app to force a help app database refresh, or something like that, and the response I got from terminal was: Michaels-iMac:~ cartoonmike$ killall helpd; rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.help*; rm -rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.help* No matching processes belonging to you were found Michaels-iMac:~ cartoonmike$ I'm an Administrative User, on Mac OS X 15 Catalina, and I did something to start using the BASH of preference (Z-something-something). I did that, so maybe the "killall..." line also needed to be updated. Or something. I dunno, I am comfy using Terminal, but not an expert -- Just like driving a car doesn't make me a mechanic... Like I said in the other topic thread, all I want is to be able to search help instead of hunting and pecking for what I'm looking for as if this help is nothing more than a digital dead tree manual with no index. I feel this shouldn't be such a hard thing or such a big deal. Thanks, I should also mention that it would be nice if the help for the app I'm currently using reads like it's the help for the app instead of for all affinity products. Meaning, if I'm trying to get info on Bleeds in Affinity Designer, then I shouldn't be reading description that fits Affinity Publisher better. (i.e. options on the dialog box matches aPub better than aDesigner). Aside from the Help search snafu, I am so very happy with all 3 of my affinity apps! I'm only antsy because of the Stay In Home quarantine and my comprised immune system, I'm trying to do a self-printed & published mini-comic during these ... um... novel times we're living in. It's a bit of a challenge trying to find specific things about bleeds and margins that seem to be there in the help but damned if I can find them. However, I couldn't see me trying this without the Affinity apps. Thanks again for reading this, stay healthy and wash your hands! Quote Mac OS X Catinlina, 2014 iMac, 3.5 Ghz Intel Core i7, Huion Kamvas Pro 22 Graphic Tablet, 16GB RAM, MacOS10.12 || Magic keyboard w/numeric keypad, wireless trackpad, Kengsington Edge Trackball || Flux Capacitor in a secure location --- I encourage kids to go ahead and play on my lawn. I mean, how else can I make sure the death-traps work? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firstdefence Posted May 6, 2020 Share Posted May 6, 2020 I gave up on the "in-house" help and exclusively use the online option: https://affinity.help/ I always have a browser open anyway. CartoonMike 1 Quote iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9 (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum) Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CartoonMike Posted May 6, 2020 Author Share Posted May 6, 2020 Thanks, looks like I'll have no other choice but the online option. Thanks Affinity Jedi, may the force be strong with you. Quote Mac OS X Catinlina, 2014 iMac, 3.5 Ghz Intel Core i7, Huion Kamvas Pro 22 Graphic Tablet, 16GB RAM, MacOS10.12 || Magic keyboard w/numeric keypad, wireless trackpad, Kengsington Edge Trackball || Flux Capacitor in a secure location --- I encourage kids to go ahead and play on my lawn. I mean, how else can I make sure the death-traps work? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Callum Posted May 26, 2020 Staff Share Posted May 26, 2020 On 5/6/2020 at 2:58 PM, CartoonMike said: Thanks, looks like I'll have no other choice but the online option. Thanks Affinity Jedi, may the force be strong with you. The in app help is currently a little broken I'm afraid, using the online one firstdefence posted is recommended for the time being. Thanks C Quote Please tag me using @ in your reply so I can be sure to respond ASAP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanSG Posted May 26, 2020 Share Posted May 26, 2020 6 minutes ago, Callum said: The in app help is currently a little broken In the same sense that my niece is currently a little pregnant? emmrecs01 and Chris B 2 Quote AP, AD & APub user, running Win10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Callum Posted May 26, 2020 Staff Share Posted May 26, 2020 14 minutes ago, IanSG said: In the same sense that my niece is currently a little pregnant? I'm not sure, is your niece currently only a little pregnant on one operating system 😋? Paul Mudditt and IanSG 2 Quote Please tag me using @ in your reply so I can be sure to respond ASAP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanSG Posted May 26, 2020 Share Posted May 26, 2020 2 minutes ago, Callum said: I'm not sure, is your niece currently only a little pregnant on one operating system 😋? Strangely, that's not a question I've asked her! Quote AP, AD & APub user, running Win10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
v_kyr Posted May 26, 2020 Share Posted May 26, 2020 Some general and dev related infos about Apple help ... Help Help: 3 What the docs don’t tell you How High Sierra has changed Help Apple Help Programming Guide Quote Application Info.plist One of the most important files is the application Info.plist. Two keys need to be added or Spotlight will not index your help file. If you help file is not indexed, then even trying to open it will result in a perplexing "Not available" error page in the Apple Help Viewer. If you are using Xcode, then add these keys. Help Book directory name Help Book identifier The Help Book directory name should refer to the Help Book bundle name (eg MyApp.help). This directory should be located in the application bundle Contents/Resources directory. The Help Book identifier is simply the name of your help (eg My App Help). If you are editing the Info.plist file in a text editor, then add these keys and value strings: <key>CFBundleHelpBookFolder</key> <string>myapp.help</string> <key>CFBundleHelpBookName</key> <string>My App Help</string> Help Book Info.plist Below is a basic Help Book Info.plist for an application called "My App". <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> <plist version="1.0"> <dict> <key>CFBundleDevelopmentRegion</key> <string>en</string> <key>CFBundleIdentifier</key> <string>org.sentry.myapp.help</string> <key>CFBundleInfoDictionaryVersion</key> <string>6.0</string> <key>CFBundlePackageType</key> <string>BNDL</string> <key>CFBundleShortVersionString</key> <string>22</string> <key>CFBundleSignature</key> <string>hbwr</string> <key>CFBundleVersion</key> <string>22</string> <key>HPDBookAccessPath</key> <string>index.html</string> <key>HPDBookIconPath</key> <string>images/chip3_32x32.ico</string> <key>HPDBookIndexPath</key> <string>help.helpindex</string> <key>HPDBookTitle</key> <string>My App Help</string> <key>HPDBookType</key> <string>3</string> <key>HPDBookUsesExternalViewer</key> <false/> </dict> </plist> Creating Help Book pages Apple Help Book pages are simply HTML files. You need to create an index.html which is the table of contents for your application Help Book. You also need to ensure that this file is not indexed or it will show up in the Apple Help Viewer as a blank entry. You do this by adding the noindex meta tag to the file. Here is an example for "My App". <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> <head> <title>My App Table of Contents</title> <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> </head> <body class="Normal"> <H1><img style="margin: 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px 0.0px;" height="32.0" src="../images/chip3_32x32.ico" width="32.0" />Table of Contents</H1> <ul> <li id="Page1"><a href="Page1.html">Introduction</a></li> <li id="Page2"><a href="Page2.html">Combo Boxes</a></li> </ul> </body> </html> A sample page 1 for "My App" is set out below. Note: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> <head> <title>Introduction</title> <meta name="robots" content="index, anchors" /> <meta name="description" content="My App Introduction" /> <meta name="keywords" content="introduction, operating system" /> </head> <body> <a name="Introduction"></a> <H1><img style="margin: 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px 0.0px;" height="32.0" src="../images/chip3_32x32.ico" width="32.0" />Introduction</H1> <p>My App is a very useful application for all users of all ages!</p> <p>The macOS version of My App has been tested on macOS Sierra 10.12.6 , macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 and macOS Mojave 10.14.5.</p> <p>The Windows version of My App has been tested on Windows XP, Windows 7 and Windows 10.</p> <p>The latest version of the My App application is available from the web site at <a href="https://www.sentry.org/">www.sentry.org</a>.</p> </body> </html> Once you have created the HTML pages for your Help Book, you need to index them. You do this from a Terminal using the macOS utility called hiutil. The man page ("man hiutil" from a Terminal) details all the information you may ever need to know. A simple example: hiutil -Caf helpindex.help . This will index all the HTML files in the current directory and create the index file named helpindex.help in the same directory (do not omit the trailing full stop which signifies the current directory). It will also index any help anchors should you use them for contact-sensitive help; note that macOS applications rarely, if ever, implement context sensitive help. An example of a help anchor is in the sample page 1 HTML file above; specifically the: <a name="Introduction"></a> Also note the <meta name="robots" content="index, anchors" /> which ensures that the anchors are indexed along with the content. Updating cached Help Books macOS caches an Apple Help Book after first use which can be perplexing when you are developing a Help Book and do not see your changes. The way to overcome this is to run the following shell script from a Terminal after a change: #!/bin/sh killall helpd rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.help* rm -rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.help* Note: those are tildes (~) and not dashes (-) before /Library; this only affects the current user's Apple Help cache and Apple Help preferences, not the system-wide ones. Callum 1 Quote ☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan ☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R C-R Posted May 27, 2020 Share Posted May 27, 2020 On 5/6/2020 at 2:53 AM, firstdefence said: I gave up on the "in-house" help and exclusively use the online option: https://affinity.help/ I always have a browser open anyway. At least for me, the built-in help for the Affinity apps works OK if not exactly great, but only if I give it time to finish updating whatever it is that causes the faint blue progress bar in the viewer window to appear & then disappear. Quote All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7 Affinity Photo 1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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