I have been using Sandcastle Help File Builder to produce help files (HTML 1.0) and it's working pretty descent. However, Sandcastle Help File Builder gives you the opportunity to generate HTML 2.0 output, which is what is used in Visual Studio help system.
But what I haven't figured out is how can I integrate the HTML 2.0 help produced by SandCastle in Visual Studio.
Does anyone has a procedure (the steps needed) to make this happen?
Note:
Though I'm interested in any suggestions and tools you may have in mind, I would prefer the answers to focus on using Sandcastle (and Sandcastle Help File Builder).
Sorry, the note is not relevant.
Ok, you have HTML 2.0 help? Now you need to INTEGRATE it. There is nothing in sandcaastle to do that...
...look up HxMerge on the internet.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb164570%28VS.80%29.aspx
This is the tool needed to integrate your .hxs files into the visual studio help.
Btw., the "Sandcastle Help File Builder" is NOT a "Sandcastle Help File Builder", it is the "Help File Builder" - which existed long before Sandcastle. It is part of the HTML Help toolkit from Microsoft.
Related
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 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!
For my project I was need localization plugin. I dont find it and instead of write own console localiztion utility. I think this will be useful for community.
I want to wrap it into plugin for VS.
May be already exisists VS addings project templates?
Can anybody help me from what I should start?
Many thanks.
Download and install the Visual Studio 2010 SDK. It comes with plenty of sample code.
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
I really like the help files generated using SandCastle on my projects... is there a plugin for Visual Studio 2010 for SandCastle, or another good alternative program that integrates directly with Visual Studio?
SHFB has a VS2010 extension - available in the 1.9.3.4 (beta 2) release. You will need to check subsequent releases to make sure those continue to include the extension.
http://shfb.codeplex.com/releases
and details here - http://www.ewoodruff.us/shfbdocs/Index.aspx?topic=html/b128ad2a-787e-48c7-b946-f6953080c386.htm
No. Like "not yet".
Check SHFB on codeplex (SandCastle Help File Builder) - not VS integrated, but MSBuild intraetaeed.
Check DochProject on codeplex. That actually is what you want, but it is IIRC not YET out for the new version of sandcastle / Visual Studio;) Should not take long, though.
VSdocman integrates directly in VS 2010.