When I installed Visual Studio 2010, i figured out that it was not having a traditional windows based Help Viewer. The help topics were loaded in the Internet explorer.
I understand that online and offline help will be consistant if we use IE. Other than this, is there any reason for having the local help in the IE?
Is it possible to have a traditional Help Viewer? If possible How?
By default VS2010 comes with just Help Library Agent that is capable of showing the help documentation in the default browser.
Help Viewer power tool has to be installed separately to have a stand alone documentation program.
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/VisualStudio2010HelpViewerPowerToolBETAHelpIndexAndStandaloneHelp.aspx
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I'm working on a Windows Application that has been around more than 20 years. It has a help file (.chm) that is built manually outside of the solution (i.e. not by Visual Studio or MSBuild) by compiling it in Microsoft HTML Help Workshop 1.4 from 1999. I would like to migrate this to the latest format such that it can be built as part of the release mode build process.
Is there a way to import the project (based on .hhp file) into a tool that builds the modern .mhsc-format help files? According to this Wikipedia article there was something called Microsoft Help 2 which was "the help engine used in Microsoft Visual Studio 2002/2003/2005/2008", which came after HTML Help Workshop and was succeeded by Microsoft Help Viewer, which was supported starting with Visual Studio 2010.
Preferably, there exits a way to migrate the .hhp/.chm project directly to Help Viewer, or maybe I have to download VS2010 and do it in two steps if indeed those two migrations are themselves supported. This stuff is so old it's hard to find relevant information on it. Thanks.
MS Help Viewer (.mshc) was difficult to manage at the time. It was made mainly for companies like Microsoft who code their help from a database.
You'll find some viewers and tools like MshcMigrate e.g. getting you from .CHM and .HxS -> .mshc.
There is no longer any need to purchase a mshcMigrate licence. The licence is free to use See also free key.
If you expect the users of your application to have internet access, another approach is to publish the help as HTML pages on a web server and link directly to those from your application.
Before migrating please note (for your existing workflow) the CHM Viewer is part of the Windows OS. A special viewer isn't required.
I am using VS 2010 i am accessing it through remote desktop but when i run some page it is taking alot of time to load,i dont know why is there any quick solution for this?
Try disabling intellitrace in VS2010. There are numerous posts online, discussing this behaviour in VS2010. One of the tips should help you.
I am using Sandcastle Help file builder (1.9.4.0), Sandcastle (2.7.0.0) and .NET Framework 4.0 assemblies to generate the Class reference for Visual Studio.
I have used Framework version is .NET 4.0.30319 and Help File Format is MSHelpViewer and Presentation Style is vs2005 in Sandcastle Help file builder. It is working fine in VS 2010 (Help viewer 1.1). It shows Script error in VS 2012 (Help Viewer 2.0).
Shall I need to change any settings to solve this issue?
I randomly get this error. There's a lot of stuff online that requires you to mess with the registry and such. A much easier solution I found somewhere is to go to select Manage Content icon, and then make some change to the Help contents that you have selected, for example Add in some help topic that is currently not in, or Remove some topic. Then click Update, and its usually fine after that!
The local help in Visual Studio 2005 never comes back with anything. Also, if I'm not connected to the Internet, of course I get nothing. When I run dexplore eventually it takes 100% of cpu. Also, the F1 help doesn't work (of course). I've repaired both VS 2005, MSDN in other orders.
Any help will be appreciated!
THanks
-tim
Is this something that has always been an issue or just recently? You may have to uninstall and reinstall VS. You could work on this problem for hours but this may be your fastest option.
There's a setting in VS to use local help at Tools > Options > Help > Online (at least in VS2008).
Also, you might have a problem with one of the help packages installed. Microsoft has a tool, Namespace Sharp, that will help you check and repair your help system.
I installed the Local Help, but it did not appear until I quit VS 2010, and then from Task Manager, performed an "End process tree" on HelpLibAgent.exe. Then all the downloaded local help finally appeared.
Loading Help or clicking F1 in Visual Studio is horribly slow to load and has been on ever PC I have installed it on. Is there any optimizations that can be employed to ease this pain?
This is not the same question as Visual Studio Optimizations I am just trying to solve the problem with help loading.
Visual Studio (at least 2005 and 2008) defaults to searching online help before local help.
Did you install help locally when you installed Visual Studio? If you did, is it configured to search local help before searching online help?
FYI, in VS2005 and VS2008 the settings are located in Tools | Options | Environment | Help | Online.
It is Microsoft's way of reminding you of Benjamin Franklin's famous quote:
“He that can have Patience, can have what he will.”
... as in this case, Help.
Please refer to: Some pointers on increasing VS speed.
EDIT: after re-reading the question I see you were looking for speeding up HELP, not the IDE in general.