Microsoft Help System
Encyclopedia
Microsoft Help Viewer 1.x is the offline help system (local help) developed by Microsoft
that ships with Visual Studio 2010
and its associated MSDN Library
.
Microsoft Help Viewer 1.x supersedes Microsoft Help 2
which is the help system used by Microsoft Visual Studio
2002/2003/2005/2008 and Office 2007.
This is a new product and does not use any of the old help 2 code base. During development it was referred to as MS Help 3.x. With the growing need for a general Unicode based help system, it has the potential of becoming the next general help system for Windows.
renamed. It contains no proprietary files, just the author's content files.
A compiler (Workshop) is not required. Instead help files are ripped (Indexed
) at installation time.
Topics files are written in XHTML 1.x compatible HTML. Standard HTML Meta Tags are used to define various topic attributes including the Table of Contents (TOC), Visible Index and F1 Keyword list.
for Microsoft Help Viewer 1.x is that topics can be viewed in any installed web browser
-- a separate application, such as the Microsoft Document Explorer included with Microsoft Help 2, is not necessary. The browser-based model is meant to provide a more lightweight navigation, downloading, and reading experience than earlier help-viewer models.
Visual Studio 2010 includes a taskbar
applet in the Windows notification area (system tray) that arbitrates between viewing offline help and online help in the browser when F1 is pressed, and resolves help topic URI
s to the proper topic page. It also includes a "library manager" application to manage the download, installation and uninstallation of help topics on the system, as well as whether to prefer online help when connected to the Internet.
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
that ships with Visual Studio 2010
Microsoft Visual Studio
Microsoft Visual Studio is an integrated development environment from Microsoft. It is used to develop console and graphical user interface applications along with Windows Forms applications, web sites, web applications, and web services in both native code together with managed code for all...
and its associated MSDN Library
MSDN Library
MSDN Library is a library of official technical documentation content intended for developers developing for Microsoft Windows. MSDN stands for the Microsoft Developer Network. The MSDN Library documents the APIs that ship with Microsoft products and also includes sample code, technical articles,...
.
Microsoft Help Viewer 1.x supersedes Microsoft Help 2
Microsoft Help 2
Microsoft Help 2.x is a proprietary format for online help files, developed by Microsoft and first released in 2001 as a help system for Visual Studio .NET and MSDN Library....
which is the help system used by Microsoft Visual Studio
Microsoft Visual Studio
Microsoft Visual Studio is an integrated development environment from Microsoft. It is used to develop console and graphical user interface applications along with Windows Forms applications, web sites, web applications, and web services in both native code together with managed code for all...
2002/2003/2005/2008 and Office 2007.
This is a new product and does not use any of the old help 2 code base. During development it was referred to as MS Help 3.x. With the growing need for a general Unicode based help system, it has the potential of becoming the next general help system for Windows.
History
- Jan 2008 - April Reagan [MS PM] blogs that MicrosoftMicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
will replace Microsoft Help 2Microsoft Help 2Microsoft Help 2.x is a proprietary format for online help files, developed by Microsoft and first released in 2001 as a help system for Visual Studio .NET and MSDN Library....
. - Apr 2009 - At WritersUA 2009 conference April Reagan and Anand Raman announced Microsoft Help 3 will ship with Visual Studio 2010Microsoft Visual StudioMicrosoft Visual Studio is an integrated development environment from Microsoft. It is used to develop console and graphical user interface applications along with Windows Forms applications, web sites, web applications, and web services in both native code together with managed code for all...
. - Nov 2009 - Preview of new offline help ships with the VS 2010 Beta 2.
- Jan 2010 - Formal name changed from Microsoft Help 3.0 to Microsoft Help Viewer 1.0
- 12th April 2010 - Microsoft Help Viewer 1.0 is RTM (Release to Manufacturing) as part of the Visual Studio 2010 release.
- 3rd March 2011 - Microsoft Help Viewer 1.1 ships with Service Pack 1 of Visual Studio 2010.
File Format
Help file has a ".mshc" (Microsoft Help Container) file extension and is simply a standard Zip fileZIP (file format)
Zip is a file format used for data compression and archiving. A zip file contains one or more files that have been compressed, to reduce file size, or stored as is...
renamed. It contains no proprietary files, just the author's content files.
A compiler (Workshop) is not required. Instead help files are ripped (Indexed
Index (information technology)
In computer science, an index can be:# an integer that identifies an array element# a data structure that enables sublinear-time lookup -Array element identifier:...
) at installation time.
Topics files are written in XHTML 1.x compatible HTML. Standard HTML Meta Tags are used to define various topic attributes including the Table of Contents (TOC), Visible Index and F1 Keyword list.
User Experience
The user experienceUser experience
User experience is the way a person feels about using a product, system or service. User experience highlights the experiential, affective, meaningful and valuable aspects of human-computer interaction and product ownership, but it also includes a person’s perceptions of the practical aspects such...
for Microsoft Help Viewer 1.x is that topics can be viewed in any installed web browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
-- a separate application, such as the Microsoft Document Explorer included with Microsoft Help 2, is not necessary. The browser-based model is meant to provide a more lightweight navigation, downloading, and reading experience than earlier help-viewer models.
Visual Studio 2010 includes a taskbar
Taskbar
In computing, a taskbar is a bar displayed on a full edge of a GUI desktop that is used to launch and monitor running applications. Microsoft incorporated a taskbar in Windows 95 and it has been a defining aspect of Microsoft Windows's graphical user interface ever since. Some desktop environments,...
applet in the Windows notification area (system tray) that arbitrates between viewing offline help and online help in the browser when F1 is pressed, and resolves help topic URI
Úri
Úriis a village and commune in the comitatus of Pest in Hungary....
s to the proper topic page. It also includes a "library manager" application to manage the download, installation and uninstallation of help topics on the system, as well as whether to prefer online help when connected to the Internet.
See also
- Microsoft WinHelp
- Microsoft Compiled HTML Help
- Microsoft Help 2Microsoft Help 2Microsoft Help 2.x is a proprietary format for online help files, developed by Microsoft and first released in 2001 as a help system for Visual Studio .NET and MSDN Library....