Viewing

After you generate HTML Help 1.x (.chm) documentation you can view it by pressing Show Documentation button on compilation dialog.

 

 

Later you can show the documentation if you go to output folder and start PROJECT_NAME.chm.

To see Visual Studio dynamic help integration including context-sensitive help, you need to restart Visual Studio. Then you can go to code editor and select expression with some method, property or other documented member. For example click on prop1 in expression If prop1 = "hello" Then. Now you should see prop1 Property link in dynamic help window and if you press F1, the proper topic should appear. If you invoke CHM topic in such way, the topic will display in Visual Studio help window and not in separate CHM viewer.

 

 

It is not possible to integrate contents, index and search of HTML Help 1.x documentation in Visual Studio. You must use Microsoft Help 2 format instead.

Deploying

When deploying your documentation you need to be careful about the following:

• CHM file should be registered in registry so that it can be referenced without specifying its full path.
• If you want to integrate documentation in Visual Studio dynamic help, you need to register special XML file. This file is generated by VSdocman in output folder under name PROJECT_NAME_dyn_help.xml and should be placed in VISUAL_STUDIO_NET\Common7\IDE\HTML\XMLLinks\LCID. LCID is language ID used on target computer. This path is usually: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET\Common7\IDE\HTML\XMLLinks\1033.

Both tasks are done automatically on your machine by VSdocman during compilation. However, you need to do it yourself on target machine during installation.

VSdocman is shipped with small command line tool HelixoftHelpReg.exe which does this task for you. All you need is to call it with proper parameters from your installation program. You can use HelixoftHelpRegQ.exe instead of it if you don't want any console window to appear during installation. To simplify the things even more, VSdocman generates batch file in output folder under name register_PROJECT_NAME.bat. It simply calls HelixoftHelpReg.exe utility with proper arguments. All you need to do is to copy all files (bat, exe, chm and xml) in one folder on target machine and call register_PROJECT_NAME.bat during installation.

When user uninstalls your component, you should also unregister the documentation. Again, HelixoftHelpReg.exe can do it for you. VSdocman generates another batch file in output folder under name unregister_PROJECT_NAME.bat. It simply calls HelixoftHelpReg.exe utility with proper arguments. You should call it from your uninstaller.

Distribution Policy

You can distribute your documentation with HelixoftHelpReg.exe utility only if you are registered user of VSdocman. You cannot distribute HelixoftHelpReg.exe if you are using evaluation (trial) or beta version of VSdocman.

Registered users can distribute HelixoftHelpReg.exe royalty-free but only with documentation generated by VSdocman or with documentation which contains parts generated by VSdocman.

See Also

View and Deploy Microsoft Help 2 Documentation | View and Deploy HTML Documentation | View and Deploy Solution Documentation | View and Deploy Context Help