Customizing Dynamic Help

  • Article

You can change the number and type of links that appear in the Dynamic Help window to make it easier to find information. The Dynamic Help window provides links to information based on the portion of the integrated development environment (IDE) that currently has focus. Typically, the links that appear are related to the current task you are trying to accomplish or the current portion of the IDE that you are using.

Note   MSDN Help filters do not affect the Dynamic Help window. The Dynamic Help window automatically filters the topics in MSDN based on your actions within the IDE.

For example, you can:

  • Add or remove topic categories, or link groups.
  • Sort topic categories.
  • Add or remove topic types.
  • Specify the context that the Dynamic Help window uses to display links.
  • Change the number of links displayed for each topic category.

To display the Dynamic Help window

  • On the Help menu, choose Dynamic Help.

You can add or remove topic categories, such as Training and Miscellaneous, from the Dynamic Help window. Categories are displayed only if there are topics that correspond to the category and the current IDE context. The categories included in the default documentation set are Help, Samples, and Getting Started.

To add or remove topic categories

  1. On the Tools menu, choose Options.
  2. In the Options dialog box, choose Environment and then choose Dynamic Help.
  3. In the Categories list, select or clear the categories that are listed to add or remove them from the Dynamic Help window.
  4. Choose OK.

You can change the order in which the categories appear in the Dynamic Help window.

To sort topic categories

  1. On the Tools menu, choose Options.
  2. In the Options dialog box, choose Environment and then choose Dynamic Help.
  3. In the Categories list, select the category you intend to move and choose Move Up or Move Down.

Within categories, you can include or exclude several different topic types, such as Article and Orientation. For example, if you want to see only links to language reference topics in the Dynamic Help window, exclude all types except Syntax.

To include or exclude topic types

  1. On the Tools menu, choose Options.
  2. In the Options dialog box, choose Environment and then choose Dynamic Help.
  3. In the Topic types list, select or clear the types listed to include or exclude them from the links appearing in the Dynamic Help window.

You can also specify the context of the IDE that the Dynamic Help window uses to determine the scope of topics to display. This option can limit the number of topics displayed. For more information, see Dynamic Help, Environment, Options dialog box.

To specify the type of IDE context to use

  1. On the Tools menu, choose Options.
  2. In the Options dialog box, choose Environment and then choose Dynamic Help.
  3. In Show links for, select the context you want the Dynamic Help window to display topics for.

In addition, you can specify the total number of links that are displayed within each category. The links are displayed according to weighted relevance. The topics more likely to be useful to you are listed first, so if you limit the number of links displayed, you should still get the most relevant topics. You can display more links if you want to be able to quickly scan a greater number of topics related to your work or if your screen resolution and window placement allows you to see more links at a time.

To change the number of links displayed for each topic category

  1. On the Tools menu, choose Options.
  2. In the Options dialog box, choose Environment and then choose Dynamic Help.
  3. Select the Limit number of links per category check box and enter a number in the adjacent text box.

See Also

Dynamic Help Window | Dynamic Help, Environment, Options Dialog box | Adding Custom Links to the Dynamic Help Window