Unity Offline Reference Manual?

Hey everyone,

do any of you happen to know if Unity has or plans to release all of their documentation in physical/digital form? More specifically in a book/PDF style with table of content, dictionary, hierarchies, etc.

I try to simply PDF print the online documentation pages via Chrome but some of the information on the page gets truncated if it is too long.

 

All the docs are installed onto your hard drive when you install the editor. There's no need to hit every single page of the online docs. Prior to 4.5 we had a single page called printable.html which was intended for printing. I can't see that with 4.5, so either it got forgotten, or it's been removed for some technical reason.

 

I reckon the documentation can be printed. I remember seeing a printable version somewhere...

 

The new doc systems have been designed so that they can produce multiple output formats, one of which is XSL-FO. Due to the "technical reasons" Graham mentioned above, the XSL-FO styling hasn't been fully implemented yet but it will allow us to produce PDF in a form nicely formatted for printing. As a bonus, we think we can also flip a switch on the formatter to generate RTF files. These might be useful, say, for teachers who want to incorporate sections of doc text into teaching materials produced with a word processor. No promises yet, and we'll have to see if there is any serious demand for formats like this but we have at least done the basic preparation for them. Also, we will need to investigate what users' priorities are for new doc formats. iPad, Kindle, handheld, print friendly, dyslexia friendly... all feasible but which would benefit users the most?

 

I'd like anything printable that I can just take to a print shop or something. Right now I have about seven Unity reference tabs open and it's already a pain to just read through these things on my computer instead of just having a manual I can dogear/highlight without having to switch from the editor.

 

Thanks for the feedback, Graham. I checked in the Unity Inspector and the Unity folders on my drive, but I could not find anything that was a formatted .docx, .pdf, .txt, etc. but I was able to find a very well made collection of HTML files. Check out my post below for more information.

 

Hi everyone,

If you look in this folder of your drive: C:\Program Files (x86)\Unity\Editor\Data\Documentation\Documentation,
and click on the "printable.html", it will open your default browser and provide you with a massive, printer formatted offline reference manual with hyperlinks.
Also, if you click on the welcome.html file you will be brought a directory and clicking on the User Manual and Scripting Reference links on the bottom right will take you to the offline pages, too. The Scripting Reference page provides you with a search box to quickly look for the information you need.

I hope this was able to help any/all of you. Kudos to Graham for pointing us in the right direction to start looking.

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If you have Unity installed, it's on your hard drive. Check my post below for the exact information.

 

Or you could browse it on a tablet... Probably cheaper after about three versions and you can even keep search functionality.

 

I have just downloaded Unity and don't have the "printable.html" file - how do I create the pdf?

 

printable.html isn't shipped any more. All of the documentation are installed on your computer, still.

 

Don't print it. Nº1 benefit of docs is the search function!

Unless you want it for other reasons, such as it's cool to have a physical version of the docs... besides that, it's faster to have it right on your computer.

 

"WORKSFORME - WONTFIX"

 

I´d like a printable version so I could transfer it to my kindle using:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/send-to-kindle-for-google/cgdjpilhipecahhcilnafpblkieebhea

So please consider those who want to read the manual extensively without straining their eyes. We spend too much time looking to a monitor.

TIA,
R.

 

+1 for printable manual.

 

If I can download the manual from iBooks store that would be great. So that I will be able to hold my iPad/iPhone on the train to work and still learning Unity. Which I would feel more comfortable this way rather than watch offline video tutorial.

 

The Documentation directory does not exist in my installation. I am using Unity 5.5 f03 64-bit. As mentioned earlier, printable.html does not exist anymore. Also welcome.html does not exist anymore. It was replaced with a video clip welcome.ogv. The inspector has a very tiny book icon (thanks for helping me notice it! ) that sends me to the online documentation.

 

Did you make sure you had 'Documentation' enabled when you installed Unity?

 

How might I download/transfer it to my iPad? You have any idea?

Just got one so I have no idea how they work as far as file transferring and such.

 

Use a cloud-based storage system to transfer the files like Dropbox or iCloud. Just install the documentation normally to your computer and then transfer the folder containing the HTML files to your tablet.

They're under Unity's Install Folder\Editor\Data\Documentation\Language Code\ for Windows. No idea for macOS.

 

Thanks. I have a Windows PC. I just got the tablet a few days ago as a gift, and am trying to find a use for it.

 

With an iPad, you need to use DropBox. The iPad won't let you manage files like PDF or HTML files. With DropBox, you can manage your files/folders using your PC, and then view those through DropBox on the iPad.

 

I copied the "Manual" folder over. I can go in and view individual pages, but I tried one of the links and they don't seem to work. Nor do I see a way to pull the whole folder into the "offline" tab or whatever (I'd have to do it file-by-file).

Any tips?

 

Did you copy the docs into a folder in your DropBox account, or did you use some other method?

 

I copied the Manual folder over by downloading the Dropbox app onto my computer, opening the new Dropbox folder that appeared, then copying the folder.

 

Documentation here:
https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/OfflineDocumentation.html

 

Probably not exactly what you want, but you can try Zeal or Dash because they have Unity3D 'docet' and some decent offline browsing capabilities.

 

Am I the only one that hates studying on screens? I'd really like to print some pages of the manual but there's not printable version and I want to get rid of the menus etc.
I think I'm going to edit page by page in order to get the result I want, but I'm wasting bunches of time

 

The most recent post to this topic is now 8 years old. Users still have the same need for offline documentation, but none of the old paths in the comments above work anymore [there is no Unity folder in Program Files (x86)]. If you click the Download: Offline Unity Documentation link, it downloads a zipped folder. Inside the unzipped Manual folder there are over 2,000 separate htm files. Anyone know how to make those files appear in an organized TOC?

 

I've used Zeal for offline docs viewing. Once Zeal is installed, you go to Tools > Docsets download and install the Unity docset. It takes a while. But now you've got a nice, quickly-searchable offline docset.

 

open the index. (index.html)

 

When I execute "index.html," this is what I see (and the search doesn't work):

 

Not sure what you mean by "execute", but just just open it in a web browser, it is just an html file. The search works just fine.