Help+Manual automatically converts the project files from older versions with obsolete formats (H+M 3 and H+M 4) when you open them. Alternatively, you can also use the standalone converter program to convert old projects manually.

Help+Manual 4 projects are generally converted 1:1 and do not require any post-processing after conversion. Older Help+Manual 3 projects did not have the styles and other features introduced in the modern versions of the program and may require some reformatting after importing.

Backward compatibility with Help+Manual 5 and later:

All Help+Manual projects created with version 5 and later are fully backward-compatible and require no conversion. Just open them in Help+Manual 9 and start editing.

You can edit projects saved with Help+Manual 9 in earlier versions but this is not generally recommended. Any new features will be stripped out by the older versions when you do this. If you are working on projects in a team all team members should also be using exactly the same version.

See also:

The Project Converter

Text Formatting and Styles

Dynamic Styles

Working with Tables