Main Window

 
This is the main window of Abracdabra Instant Manual. From here you can access all the functions of Abracadabra Instant Manual. It is the window in which begin recording a manual, and where you edit and format manuals.

Abracadabra Instant Manual works in the same way a word processor, with editing, formatting, file and help functions available via the tool bars at the top of the window, and a large area in which to type text below that. The important difference between Abracdabra Instant Manual and a standard word processor is the ability to record manuals as a series of screen captures and captions.
Read more about recording a manual...

The menu and tools bars accross the top of the window are described below.

Menu Bar

 
The menu bar gives you access to all of the functions avaialable from the main window. Each menu is described in detail below.

File Menu

 
The file menu gives you access to all the stanadard file functions of a windows application - New, Open, Save etc. In addition, the Properties... menu will access the page properties dialog, where you can set document colors and the page title.
See Properties Dialog...

At the bottom of the file menu, a Most Recently Used (MRU) menu keeps a list of the last 5 documents you have opened.

 The File Bar

 also gives you quick access to the New, Open and Save functions.

Edit Menu

 
The edit menu gives you access to the standard Cut, Copy, and Paste editing functions. These functionas are also available on the Edit Bar:

Manual Menu and Manual Bar

 
The manual menu controls the recording of manuals. The same functionas are avaialable on the Manual Bar

 

Clicking Record  begins recording a manual. The main window is minimized and the application waits for you the click one of the screen capture key combinations.
Read More about the Screen Capture Keys...

Clicking Stop stops recording. You can also execute this action by pressing the Stop Recording key combination, which is Ctrl + Alt + Print Screen by default.

Clicking View will save the current manual and open it in the default web browser.

Format Menu and Format Bar

The format menu gives you access to the function for setting the format of text within the manual. If text if selected, the formatting option selected will be applied to the selected text, and if no text is selected, the default formatting for new text is set. These functions are also available from the Format Bar:
 

Picture Menu

The picture menu allows you to set the properties of the currently selected image. Clicking Properties will display the picture properties dialog:

The picture properties dialog allows you to set the display properties of any image within a manual.
Alternative Text: Displayed when as a browser loads the manual, in place of the image.
Alignment:Sets where the image will be displayed in relation to the surrounding text.
Border Thickness: If you would like a border around the image, you can specify the thickness of it here.
Spacing: Sets the distance between the image and the surrounding text.

The Picture Bar  also gives you access to this dialog.

Hyperlink Menu

The Hyperlink Menu allows you to add hypertext links to the manual. By selecting a piece of text and clicking Link, the hyperlink dialog will be displayed:
 
In the hyperlink dialog, you can specify the target of a hyperlink.
Type: Type of hyperlink - http, ftp, mailto etc.
URL: Uniform Resource Locator of the hyperlink. This is the web page or email address etc, that the hyperlink will link to. 
 
A quick way to add a hyperlink is to type the URL into the Hyperlink Bar, and click the Link button:

Options Menu

 
The Options Menu allows you to set the Hot Keys for the application. The Hot Keys are used when taking screen captures as you a record a menu.
Read more about Hot Keys...

View Menu

The View Menu allows you to choose which tool bars you want displayed. Each tool bar can be shown or hidden by checking or unchecking its menu item.

Help Menu

 
The Help Menu gives you access to the online help and support for Abracadabra Instant Manual.
About... shows the about box for the application. Use this to check the applications version number.
Contents... opens the main page of the online help.
Checking Show hints on start up will enable "Did you know" tips to be shown when the application starts.
Register... allows you to register the application or check your license key information. More about registration...
Support Request... accesses the online support for Abracadabra Instant Manual. Use this to report a bug, request an enhacement or check for updates of Abracadabra Instant Manual.

Style Bar

The style bar allows you to set the style of the text being edited. From the Style drop-down, you can select the HTML style to apply to the current text selection:

A shortcut to apply a heading style is to hold down the Ctrl + Alt keys and then press the number of the heading style you want to apply. For example, to apply Heading 1, press Ctrl + Alt + 1. You can quickly apply the Normal style by pressing Ctrl + Alt + N.

The Font Color drop-down allows you to set the color of the current text selection:

Clicking the Auto button will reset the font color to the default font color.
How to set the default font color...