Just installed the release version of VS2005 standard. Alas, F1 help is still broken. If I position the cursor over a word (for example HANDLE) and hit F1, the following happens:
1. If MSDN is set to use local help only, it always displays the topic-not-found page, even though on the left hand side, the topic is not only present, but selected. A single click on the highlighted item displays the correct information.
2. If MSDN is set to use online help first, then pressing F1 takes up to a minute (looks like multiple redirections happening), then either displays the topic-not-found page or displays something only vaguely related to the selected keyword. Oddly enough, the correct keyword is still present on the left-hand side, still selected, and still shows the correct help if clicked.
3. It's faster and more accurate to type the keyword into Google most of the time. Usually the first couple of hits has a link to the proper MS documentation page. That's nuts, guys.
This is the same behavior I saw in Beta 2. At least one other person reported it, and I didn't see a resolution posted (I may have overlooked it). I sort of assumed it would be fixed by the time the release version came out, since F1 help for function syntax is kind of central to an IDE.
Do you have a workaround or fix handy I want to use only local 99% of the time, because the stuff I need is 99% Win32 API declarations and constant names (how many possible combinations of flags are there for CreateFile ).
VS 6's MSDN help was almost instantaneous, and never told me it couldn't find a page it had already selected....
- j.
[remove the nospam stuff from my address to reply by email]
Help still broken
Hot Topic
- creating Addins
- Loading Help slow...
- Web Part Templates
- Open Website from Source Control takes long time
- Visual SourceSafe & Access 2003
- Simple element Drag'n Drop example in WBA
- How to do this in C#
- Getting contact information from Outlook and Exchange without security message?
- How to Add Fixed Assets in GAT?
- How to prevent autoformatting on dates in excel.
Visual Studio
- What is the difference between Word ML in 2003 and 2007?
- How do I Develop a WCF Service on OS WinXP SP2 with VS 2005 Installed
- VSTO download for students, beginners
- How do you change connection to SQL View at runtime
- textblock doesn't support ContentTemplate using Style
- Office automation - getting a built-in constant with late binding from .NET
- solution level tasks
- Modify the Constructor thats generated from svcutil
- Switch between Actionpanes
- Inherited Style Setter for base child nodes error, how to?
Help still broken
jalpizar
Is Help working for you now
Michael Blome
Visual C# Documentation Manager
steveio54
1. Yes, and help works perfectly except for the F1 thing. If I start the help manually, I can search, browse by expanding the contents, and read all the documentation.
2. On this machine at the moment, my table of contents is set to "(unfiltered)" in the "Filtered By" drop-down box, and I see 9 collapsed categories: Development Tools and Languages, Enterprise Servers and Development, Mobile and Embedded Development, .NET Development, Office Solutions Development, Web Development, Win32 and COM Development, Knowledge Base, and Help on Help.
Note: I've had this problem on Beta 2 and on all the versions of the released environment (Standard, Pro, and Team), on several different machines and different OS installations on those machines.
I'm using Beta 2 on 32-bit XP at the moment, and that's the Table of Contents list I showed above. My latest install of Team, on 64-bit XP, has only three categories: Development Tools and Languages, Win32 and COM, and Help on Help. AFAIK, the behavior has been identical on every install I've tried. I restored some of the old installations from tape, and one of them had the Help key (with the 8.0 value) you were asking about. The rest did not.
Is there a remove/clean/reinstall procedure that will reregister everything
- j.
szesteve
It concerns me that your machine does not have anything under HKLM\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0\Help.
1. Did you install MSDN library for Visual Studio 2005
2. What do you see in Table of contents when you open the library Can you please send me the names of the top level nodes in the TOC
Thanks
Khairun Jamal
MSDN
Christof
I had none of those values. In fact, I had no Help key under HKLM\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0 at all.
I added Help\0x0409\{E589AA14-E52E-4f7c-88CF-E4E3C1260EEE}, and the three values under this key, but saw no change in behavior after doing so.
- j.
nkh121
Jeffry, I don't have an answer to your "remove/clean/install" question; I want to gather a little more information.
1. Please open the Dynamic Help window (available from the Help menu in Visual Studio). Put your cursor on DWORD or HANDLE in your source code. Are there any hyperlinks listed in Dynamic Help window under the "Help" heading when you do that If not, what words do appear under that heading
2. The correct Help page for F1 on HANDLE is compiled into a Help file named "winprog.hxs". Please search your hard disk drive to determine whether that file is installed on your computer.
3. I'm wondering if F1 works in any other context: What happens if you open the New File dialog box from the File menu and click the " " button Do you get an appropriate Help page in return Or do you still get something saying "topic not found"
Regarding the presence of "DWORD" in the Index pane when F1 fails:
What you're seeing is a fallback attempt to provide you with information, even though the F1 mechanism isn't working properly. The Help engine recognizes that the F1 mechanism is failing. So it takes the string from the code editor, passes it to the Keyword Index where it pastes it into the "Look for" box. If there's a direct match with that term in the Index, the associated Help page will be displayed. Or at most, you should simply have to click the term or press ENTER to make the associated Help page appear. I'm curious whether there is a direct match in the Index for the term "DWORD". If not, that would seem to indicate that that needed page is missing from the documentation collection, which is what I am getting at in #2 above. I doubt this is the problem.
Aihm Ezzo
Nope, sorry, no luck yet.
Experimenting today with a fresh install of VS, on a fresh install of XP-64 with nothing except Windows Update patches.
Trying with Team Edition for a change. Version 8.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200).
Behavior unchanged from all previous experiences.
Suggestions welcome.
- j.
Christian Q
Did you try uninstalling Document Explorer, and then reinstalling from your VS2005 disk There were issues similar to what you mention in the beta versions of dexplore, but as far as I know they were all fixed for RTM. Let me know if that works for you.
Michael
ashish.
Yes, after VS 2005 install, at the screen with the Finish button, there's a list of things to do next, one of which is install MSDN. I did that, using the MSDN that came with VS 2005. Do I need to download MSDN separately and install it, too
VinnyH
Information that might be useful.
I have noticed that when I go to tools->options->help->online there are no providers listed in the "Search These Providers" listbox. If I click the download codezone list button. It generates an error saying that the list could not be loaded.
One thing that I did that might explain some of this is that I imported my environment settings file from the Beta version. I wanted to preserve my environment and not spend hours dinking with it. Ironic, because now I have spent hours dinking with this.
I did a tools->import and export settings->reset all settings and it failed saying that it could not reset the settings for help, favorites, etc.
I did a repair install on visual studio and the problem still exists.
Help would be appreciated.
-Carl
Eddie1507
Paul O'Rear
Developer Division User Education
Redshift
I'll give it a try and report back.
- j.
Aadi1
Did you install MSDN content for VS2005 Just makin' sure.
If so, do you see all of that content when you choose Help->Contents or Help->Index.
Some more questions:
Are you connected to the internet
Are you behind an proxy that requires authentication
Thanks and sorry for the frustration...
- Jeremy
AReSGodOfWar
Finally had a chance to try your suggestion. Alas, the behavior is unchanged.
When I open a project and place the cursor on "DWORD" in a variable declaration, then press F1, I get the help-not-found page (ms-help://MS.VSCC.v80/dv_commoner/html/1702ec84-76f9-4a82-9043-9ab8acb8aa5e.htm in my installation).
This happens even though I've selected local-only help, and DWORD is highlighted in the Look For box on the left side of the screen. I've tried with online and local, local only, and all the permutations. I get the same behavior no matter what.
It doesn't matter what kind of variable or API or keyword I try to look up: F1 always gives me the same page, but the proper word is selected and ready to go in the list of the left.
I've gotten the same behavior on several installs, both upgrade and virginal, 64-bit and 32-bit. I don't think the problem is an install failure.
I could use some *cough* help here.
- j.
Jiebo Guan
Can you please check and see the following registry entries and make sure you have VS_Docs = 8.0
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0\Help\0x0409\{E589AA14-E52E-4f7c-88CF-E4E3C1260EEE}]
@="MSDN Library for Visual Studio 2005"
"Filename"="ms-help://MS.MSDNQTR.V80.en"
"VS_Docs"="8.0"
Thanks
Khairun Jamal
MSDN