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MS Help 3 was the code name used during development of [[Microsoft Visual Studio|Visual Studio 2010]] offline help.
{{db-histmerge|Microsoft Help 3}}
The official name for VS 2010 help is [[Microsoft Help System]]
'''Microsoft Help System 1.x''' is the offline help system (local help) developed by [[Microsoft]] that ships with [[Microsoft Visual Studio|Visual Studio 2010]] and its associated [[MSDN Library]].
Microsoft Help System 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.
The first 1.0 beta release will ship with the VS 2010 Beta 2 (due out sometime late 2009).
==History==
* Jan 2008 - April Reagan [MS PM] blogs that [[Microsoft]] will replace [[Microsoft Help 2]].
* Apr 2009 - At [[WritersUA]] 2009 conference [[Microsoft]] announced Microsoft Help System 1.x will ship with [[Microsoft Visual Studio|Visual Studio 2010]].
==File Format==
Help files has a ".mshc" (Microsoft Help Container) file extension and is simply a standard [[ZIP_(file_format) | Zip file]] renamed. It contains no proprietary files, just the authors content files.
A compiler (Workshop) is not required. Instead help files are ripped ([[Index_(information_technology) |Indexed]]) at installation time.
Topics files are written in XHTML 1.x 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.
==See also==
* [[Windows Help|Microsoft WinHelp]]
* [[Microsoft Compiled HTML Help]]
* [[Microsoft Help 2]]
== External links ==
* [http://blogs.msdn.com/aprilr/ April’s Weblog]
* [http://blogs.msdn.com/help3team/ Microsoft Help 3.0 Team Blog]
* [http://www.mshelpwiki.com/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=Help3 Microsoft Help 3.x]
* [http://www.helpware.net/mshelp3/ Microsoft Help 3]
[[Category:Online help]]
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