The Manuals Machine Reader

Libraries and Volumes

Like both books and websites, Manuals Machine Volumes are ultimately constructed from individual pages. These pages could be XML (viewed using stylesheets) or HTML, or could be other file types such as PDFs. The pages are organised using a book-like model, with Table of Contents and Indexes. These can include an Alpha Index just like a reference book, and other forms of index such as Keywords.

You can include any type of content from any source into a Manuals Machine Volume.You might write some of the pages, use photographs or scanned images for others, use PDFs that you have downloaded, or even link to pages situated on websites anywhere on the internet. The type of content, and how you structure it, is your choice. If you're developing business documentation, you can organise your Volumes like conventional bound manuals. If you're assembling a variety of content, perhaps organising your recipes, you can model them on albums or scrapbooks. The Manuals Machine is a versatile and powerful organiser for heterogenous content.

The Reader

You view and read your Volume using The Manuals Machine Reader. This has a Control Panel at bottom of screen and a Navigation Panel at left. The Navigation Panel shows a Table of Contents (TOC), so the general appearance is similar to Windows Help (CHM files) and Adobe Reader (PDFs). Unlike these products the content shown in the main Viewer Panel can be any type of file that can be displayed in the PC's web browser, including images and PDFs - click for examples. Also unlike these products the Navigation Panel can be for a variety of other navigation tools in addition to the TOC - notably a book-like Alpha Index for the Volume. You use the Control Panel to select these.

The Reader has Navigation Panel at left and Control Panel at bottom

Navigating the Table of Contents

The Manuals Machine supports TOCs up to four levels deep. Normally these are cascaded below each other in sections of the Navigation Panel - the screenshot above shows three levels. Clicking on any TOC entry will either display a page in the Viewer Panel, or take you to a new chapter and adjust the Navigation Panel.

When you navigate to a lower level of TOC, the Reader generates an additional section in the Navigation Panel and shows the new chapter titles in it. All the sections are scrollable and resizeable, and as the Manuals Machine doesn't use an expandable tree model for the TOC you never have to worry about collapsing it again.

Synopses

Like most good reference books, components at any level (chapters, subchapters, and individual pages of any type) can be provided with a synopsis. These provide a quick and simple way to locate topics of interest, like riffling through a physical book and looking only at chapter titles and summaries. The left-side Navigation Panel only has space to show short forms of titles for a chapter's topics and sub-chapters. But unless you turn it off, the Reader also uses the Viewer Panel to display a listing with long titles and synopses, every time that you select the chapter. You can use the Control Panel to instantly regenerate the expanded listing with synopses for any TOC level - you might do this if it is replaced by a content page, or if the auto-synopsis feature has been turned off.

Two levels of TOC in the Navigation Panel, with synopses for a newly-opened chapter in Viewer Panel

Using the Other Indexes

When other types of Index are used they temporarily replace the TOC in the Navigation Panel. The Alpha Index illustrated here has a clickable alphabet selector at top, which scrolls the index listing below to the chosen initial letter. If required, an extended form of the Index listing can be opened in the Viewer Panel. Manuals Machine Alpha Indexes are designed to create exactly the impression of the index you'll find at the back of a reference book, but with hyperlinks instead of page numbers. It's quite practicable to develop Volumes that use Alpha Index only, and do not employ a TOC at all. The Alpha Index hyperlinks don't just load a target page, they can scroll it to the topic of interest. Other indexes provide access by keywords and by file name (useful for authors and administrators, and for working with some types of content such as batches of JPGs).

The Alpha Index in the Navigation Panel, with a typical content page selected for viewing

The Control Panel

The Control Panel at the bottom of the Reader screen provides access to the navigation options, to forward/back functions, to the synopses and to many other features including browsing through chapters, and going directly to any page for which you know the file name.

The forward/back controls reinstate TOC history in the Navigation Panel, in addition to redisplaying previously-viewed content pages.

Multiple Views

For XML content pages, it's possible to define alternative stylesheets that can present different views of the one page. And of course it's always possible to reveal the underlying markup for any XML page.

Split Screen Operation

Any page that has been selected and displayed can be split out and retained in a separate window, while continuing to navigate the Volume. The 'Split Window' also inherits the current forward/back history at the time it is created.

Block and Outline Views

A speed-reading mode of operation is provided - very useful for authors and editors as well as 'power readers'. This collapses the page to show either block headings only, or to show the block headings plus a hint of the element content below them. A control panel switch enables these views to be termporarily held as a preference, so you can browse quickly through many pages in succession. When a topic of interest appears the page can instantly be expanded to full view.

More info on page structure, blocks and elements

Library Navigation and Volume Selection

Volumes are organised into Libraries, which can optionally be organised into 'shelves'. You can call up a list of Volumes and change to a different one at any time. The Volume Selector provides a synopsis (of course), and you can preview the top level of its TOC before choosing to open it.

Volumes and shelves can be stored on your local file system (includes local drives, network servers, CD-ROM and flashdisks), or on the internet. We normally don't distribute documentation with The Manuals Machine - a shelf of it is available instantly from our web sites.

Hyperlinking

Did we forget to mention hyperlinks? Of course The Manuals Machine has hyperlinks, which you can use to construct any flow that you wish, and to take the reader to pages for which no TOC or Alpha Index listings are provided.

Several types of hyperlink are available, including smart 'navigators' which can reposition the TOC, perform screen splits or flush the back/forward history at the same time as switching to other pages.

Reader Instances

You can have any number of instances of the Reader open at any time, using the same or different Volumes.

Reader Versions

Versions of the Manuals Machine Reader are available for different environments and usages. These include special packaging for displaying Help Screens, and a reader that will run under Mozilla Firefox. For details refer to Distribution and Licensing.