Microsoft Help Viewer: Difference between revisions

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{{short description|Offline help system by Microsoft}}

'''Microsoft Help 3.x''' is a new help system developed by [[Microsoft]] due to ship with [[Microsoft Visual Studio|Visual Studio 2010]] and its associated [[MSDN Library]].

{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2014}}

{{more citations needed|date=January 2021}}

{{Infobox software

| name = Microsoft Help Viewer

| screenshot_size = 300px

| developer = [[Microsoft]]

| replaces = [[Microsoft Help 2]]

| operating system = [[Microsoft Windows]]

| genre = [[Help system]]

}}

'''Microsoft Help 3.xViewer''' ('''HV''') is athe newoffline help system (local help) developed by [[Microsoft]] duethat ships with versions of [[Microsoft Windows]] including and subsequent to ship[[Windows with8]], as well as [[Microsoft Visual Studio|Visual Studio 2010]] and its associated [[MSDN Library]].

Microsoft Help 3Viewer 1.x supersedes [[Microsoft Help 2]] which wasis the help system used by [[Microsoft Visual Studio]] 2002/2003/2005/2008 and [[Office 2007]]. It is shipped with VS 2010. Microsoft Help Viewer 2.x is backwards-compatible with 1.x and is shipped with the operating system as well as VS 2012+.

Although Microsoft Help Viewer was referred to as '''MS Help 3.x''' during development, it is a wholly new product and technically unrelated to [[Microsoft Help 2]]. With the growing need for a general Unicode-based help system, has become the default help system for [[Windows 10]].

==History==

* Jan 2008 - April Reagan [MS PM] blogs that [[Microsoft]] will replace [[Microsoft Help 2]].

* Apr 2009 - At [[WritersUA]] 2009 conference [[Microsoft]]April Reagan and Anand Raman announced Microsoft Help 3.0 will ship with [[Microsoft Visual Studio|Visual Studio 2010]].

* 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

* April 2010 - Microsoft Help Viewer 1.0 is RTM (Release to Manufacturing) as part of the Visual Studio 2010 release.

* March 2011 - Microsoft Help Viewer 1.1 ships with Service Pack 1 of Visual Studio 2010.

* August 2012 - Microsoft Help Viewer 2.0 ships with Visual Studio 2012 and the Windows 8 OS.

The HelpPane Viewer is found in Windows 10. The version appears to be 2.3.

==File Format==

==User Experience==

A Microsoft Help 3.x file has a ".mshc" (Microsoft Help Container) extension and is simply a standard [[ZIP_(file_format) | Zip file]] renamed. It contains no proprietary files, just the authors content files.

The [[user experience]] 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.

A compiler (Workshop) is not required. Instead help files are ripped ([[Index_(information_technology) |Indexed]]) at installation time.

Microsoft Help Viewer 2.0 uses a COM runtime library, so the taskbar applet is no longer used. The format is unchanged.<ref>{{cite web |title=Help Viewer - MSHelpWiki |url=http://mshelpwiki.helpmvp.com/mshelp/help-viewer |website=mshelpwiki.helpmvp.com |access-date=11 February 2020 |archive-date=30 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191230063537/http://mshelpwiki.helpmvp.com/mshelp/help-viewer |url-status=live }}</ref> The runtime API is accessible via .NET dlls used in VS2012 and Windows 8; they are equivalent except for a name change.<ref>{{cite web |title=HV2 API Calls - Microsoft Help Viewer 2.0 |url=http://hv2.helpmvp.com/doc/api |website=helpware hv2 |access-date=11 February 2020 |archive-date=25 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200225205652/http://hv2.helpmvp.com/doc/api |url-status=live }}</ref> VS2012 ships a more sophisticated toolkit (HlpViewer and HlpCtntMgr), while Windows 8 only has a one-pane HelpPane program.<ref>{{cite web |title=Microsoft Help Viewer 2.0 |url=http://hv2.helpmvp.com/doc/abouthelpviewer2 |website=hv2 ,helpmvp |access-date=11 February 2020 |archive-date=21 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200221174122/http://hv2.helpmvp.com/doc/abouthelpviewer2 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Topics files are written in XHTML 1.1 compatible HTML. Standard HTML [[Meta_tags | Meta Tags]] are used to define various topic attributes including the Table of Contents (TOC), Visible Index and F1 Keyword list.

==File Formatformat==

Help files from Microsoft Help Viewer have a {{tt|.mshc}} file extension. They are ordinary [[Zip file]]s containing HTML documents. Special meta tags are provided for navigation, and there is support for signing the help bundle.<ref name=hv2>{{cite web |title=Help File Format - Microsoft Help Viewer 2.0 |url=http://hv2.helpmvp.com/doc/file-format |website=helpware hv2 |access-date=11 February 2020 |archive-date=25 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200225205632/http://hv2.helpmvp.com/doc/file-format |url-status=live }}</ref>

==See also==

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* [[Microsoft Help 2]]

==References==

== External links ==

{{Reflist}}

* [http://blogs.msdn.com/aprilr/ April’s Weblog]

* [http://www.mshelpwiki.com/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=Help3 Microsoft Help 3.x]

== External links ==

* [http://www.helpware.net/mshelp3/ Microsoft Help 3]

* [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/help-viewer/overview Microsoft Help Viewer documentation]

* [http://kb.helpwaregroup.com/ms-help-viewer MSHC tools from helpware]

{{Microsoft Windows components}}

[[Category:OnlineSoftware help]]