Visual Studio .NET contains a large number of Help topics pertaining to all of the languages and tools that it hosts, as well as to the user interface. Most of these topics have links to them that appear in the Dynamic Help window at the appropriate time. A new feature of Visual Studio .NET allows you to display links to your own custom content, such as Help topics, Web URLs, project files, HTML pages, and Word documents, in the Dynamic Help window along with the Visual Studio .NET content without having to compile a Help file. This is done by creating an XML file.

This XML file is based on a schema called vsdh.xsd. When you author the XML file using the tags defined in vsdh.xsd and then place it into a project where you want your Help topics to appear, your topic links appear in the Dynamic Help window.

Although anyone can add their own links to Visual Studio .NET Help files, the following people would probably find it particularly useful:

• Add-in Vendors — Can add links to custom Help topics for their Add-ins, or to relevent web sites.
• Professors / Academic Instructors — Can add links to class code projects, custom documentation, syllabuses, notes, and homework assignments.
• IT Managers / Group Leads — Can add links to corporate coding procedures, internal process documentation, and Help topics for internal libraries and DLLs.

See Also

Creating Basic XML Help Files | Creating Advanced XML Help Files | Customizing Dynamic Help | Dynamic Help Window