weblog.helpinfo.eu

Paul O’Rear [MS] (was a Help MVP) has finally got his Namespace# 2.0 tool released on the MS web site. And it’s free! :-) 

A nice MS Help 2.0 diagnostics tool that goes beyond the features of Namespace.exe (free tool with VS SDK). It allows you to view all Help 2.0 namespaces on your system and drill into the files and information associated with each namespace.

• http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/NamespaceSharp
  Click on the “Download” tab.

Great tool. Very similar features to our FAR H2 Utilities and reads Namespace information a little faster than FAR. Requires .NET 2.0 runtime (which you should already have if VS is installed).

WinHelp is a bit outdated and you may ask for a newer system which is a good replacer for WinHelp. Try the successor to WinHelp, HTMLHelp 1.x, which uses HTML topic files and provides an API for some programmatic access. HTMLHelp can be generated using Microsoft’s HTML Help Workshop tool, which produces a .CHM file but it’s a bit outdated too.

For the current state of play, see this article:
http://www.winwriters.com/articles/news/news_2007_1201.htm

You may also want to take a look at “Converting WinHelp (HLP) to HTMLHelp (CHM)”:
http://www.help-info.de/en/Help_Info_WinHelp/hw_converting.htm

Nikolay Dobrev posted a nice artical on how to create what he calls MS Help 2.x place holders. That is a base collection that you can plug / unplug all your other collections into, and so keep your companies H2 docs gathered together in once place.

Thanks for sharing this - see Nikolay’s Blog

April Reagan’s thoughts on the future of the MSDN Library (local help), an often ignored, but critical feature for many developers. April also talks about her ThinkWeek paper that Bill Gates commented on, talks about the two big priorities for the next release and asks C9′ers for feedback on their thoughts for how to modernize local help.

• MSDN Channel9 Video (posted 30 Jan 2008):
  http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=377501
• Aprils Blog:
  http://blogs.msdn.com/aprilr/default.aspx

Just want to have some XAML graphs displayed in a help topic and rather have them in a vector format seemed to be a problem. One request was that the user can see without having to install additional plugins (as needed for SVGs).

Assuming that anybody reading a help file about code using WPF/XAML/Silverlight have it installed already and is able to see it. Otherwise a “Get Microsoft Silverlight” is displayed. The Silverlight.js included is the one shipped with the Silverlight SDK.

Download a CHM example (and HTMLHelp Workshop Project) to see how it works.

HHReg, a popular free HTML Help registration utility designed by EC-Software has been updated to version 1.2 and now comes with a dual-language binary that contains English and German. HHReg is designed for end users and security is a critical issue! For this reason, HHReg detects the system language and automatically switches the user interface language.

See: http://www.ec-software.com/products_hhreg.html

Microsoft’s Live Search Maps is a free global mapping and search service that lets you search for things in specific locations, see bird’s eye or 3D views of many major cities, find traffic reports, and explore your world in new ways.

Hannover (Germany) as one of the major cities in the north of Germany is online now.

• Town Hall
• Royal Gardens of Herrenhausen (created in 1666).
• Central Railway Station

Enjoy!
Ulrich

WinHelp32 Download for Vista (32bit and 64bit versions) is now available on the Microsoft Download Center.

With this release, Vista customers can now install the WinHelp application on their system and securely view .HLP files on Windows Vista. This release applies to Windows Vista x86 and x64 only.

The WinHelp for Vista KB article will be updated with release documentation soon. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917607/en-us

Microsoft has released Windows Vista to manufacturing in anticipation of a November 30 business launch and a wider January 2007 launch to consumers.

Vista includes the new Assistance Platform Help 1.0 with content for the Help and Support Center. Only Microsoft, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) and corporate users will be able to customize this help content for the operating system and OEM help.

AP Help 2.x is not available yet. Microsoft no longer have immediate plans to release a public version of AP Help. So, Microsoft has not decided if it will be an assistance platform for third-party vendors or another Microsoft-only platform.

Within Business Desktop Deployment 2007 (BDD 2007) is the AP Help SDK. This is primarily for integrating Microsoft and OEM help content into Vista Help. It is not recommended for general use. BDD can be run on Windows XP but you will need Vista (and possibly Win 2003 SP1 server) to test the output. See BDD 2007 Download.