How to: Use the Help Integration Wizard to Add a Help Collection to Visual Studio

The following procedures show how to use the Help Integration Wizard to create a Help collection from an existing .hxs file, how to generate a setup project for the Help collection, and then how to integrate the Help collection with Visual Studio 2008.

The Help Integration Wizard is installed with the Visual Studio 2008 SDK.

To create a Help collection

1. Start Visual Studio 2008. On the File menu, point to New, and then click Project to display the New Project dialog box.

2. In the Project Types pane, expand Other Project Types, and then click Extensibility.

3. In the Templates pane, click Help Integration Wizard, type TestCollection in the Name box, and then click OK.

   The Help Integration Wizard starts.

   

4. On the Choose Project Settings page, select Setup project, select Visual Studio 2008 from the Target drop-down list, and then click Next.

   

5. On the Select Collection Files page, click Add to display the Add Help Files dialog box. Browse to \Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Help 9\1033, select dv_dexplore.hxs and dv_commoner.hxs, and then click Open. The wizard adds dv_dexplore.hxs and dv_commoner.hxs to the Source Files list.

   

6. Click Next to the display the Build The TOC page.

7. In the Plugin Style box, select Flat.

   The top-level node disappears from the Help Collection TOC tree pane.

8. Click Insert Node on the toolbar.

   A blue node, titled "New Node," appears in the Help Collection TOC pane.

   

9. Click dv_dexplore in the Exclude From TOC list box and click Include.

   The top node of the dexplore.hxs table of contents, titled "Help on Help", is added below "New Node."

10. Click "Help on Help," and then click Move Node Right on the toolbar.

    "Help on Help" becomes a child of "New Node."

    

11. Click "New Node," and then click Properties on the toolbar.

    The Node Properties dialog box appears.

12. Expand dv_dexplore and select /html/04456c82-6afc-4ff1-bc96-e37eac772bc4.htm.

    The HTML title, "How to: Set Default Home and Search Pages", appears in the Title box.

    

13. Click OK.

    The top node in the Help Collection TOC pane has the title, "How to: Set Default Home and Search Pages".

14. Click Next to display the Set Collection Properties page.

15. Click Collection in the Category list.

16. In the Namespace box, type ms.test_collection.en, and then click Finish.

    

    The wizard generates a Windows Installer setup project for the Help collection.

17. Build the TestCollection setup project.

To add a Help collection to Visual Studio

1. Close all instances of Visual Studio 2008.

2. Navigate to <TestCollection project location>\TestCollection\Debug\

3. Right-click the TestCollection.msi file created in the previous procedure, and then click Install. Alternatively, you can double-click Setup.exe.

4. Follow the instructions in the setup wizard.

5. After TestCollection is installed, start Visual Studio 2008. On the Help menu, click Contents to display the Contents window.

   Observe that the top node of the TestCollection Help collection, titled "How to: Set Default Home and Search Pages," appears in the Contents window under New Node.

See Also

Tasks

Walkthrough: Registering and Integrating a Help Collection By Using Windows Installer

Concepts

Consuming Help Registration Merge Modules

Other Resources

Alternative Registration Methods

Deploying a Help Collection