Getting Help (Visual C# Express)
The Help files that are included with Visual C# Express Edition are a subset of the MSDN Library for Visual Studio Express Editions. The files can be installed onto a local computer from the Visual C# Express Edition CD, or they can be downloaded from the Internet. The MSDN Library for Visual Studio Express Editions is a subset of the full MSDN library. You can view both the local Express documentation and the full online MSDN documentation by using the Help browser called Microsoft Document Explorer. However, if you view online MSDN content, you should realize that some topics you can access might not apply to Visual C# Express Edition.
Note
If you install both the MSDN Library for Visual Studio Express Editions and the full MSDN Library, you may see duplicate content in the Table of Contents. If you want to install the MSDN Library, you should uninstall the MSDN Library for Visual Studio Express Editions first.
There are five ways to access Help:
F1 Search
Search
Index
Table of Contents
How Do I
Online vs. Local Help
To find the Help Options property page, on the Tools menu, click Options, expand Environment, expand Help, and then click Online. You may have to click Show All Settings to see the options. On the Help Options property page, you can specify the following options for search and F1 search behavior:
Try the full online MSDN library first, then your local documentation.
Try the local MSDN Library for Visual Studio Express Editions first, then the online documentation.
Try only the local the MSDN Library for Visual Studio Express Editions.
These options will also appear the first time that you start any search. The online MSDN documentation may contain more recent updates than the local documentation. Therefore, if you have an Internet connection when working in Visual C#, we recommend that you set the search option to try the online MSDN library first.
You can also install either the full MSDN Library or the MSDN Library for Visual Studio Express Editions by downloading it from MSDN.
F1 Search
F1 provides context-sensitive search capabilities. In the code editor, you can access the Help documentation for C# keywords and .NET Framework classes by positioning the cursor on or just after the keyword or class member and pressing F1. When a dialog box or any other window has the focus, you can pressF1 to receive Help for that window.
An F1 search displays no more than one page. If no match is found, an informational page that provides some troubleshooting tips is displayed.
Search
Use the search interface to return all documents that match any specified term or set of terms.
The following illustration represents the Search interface:
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You can also use the Help Options page to specify whether you want to search Codezone Web sites and also the MSDN library. Codezone sites are run by Microsoft partners and provide useful information about C# and the .NET Framework. Codezone content is only available online.
The same online versus local search options apply to both Search and F1 Search.
In the Search interface you can narrow or broaden your search by specifying what kinds of documents to include. There are three options: Language, Technology, and Content Type. You will generally obtain the best results by checking only those options that apply to your current development scenario.
Index
The index provides a quick way to locate documents in your local MSDN Library for Visual Studio Express Editions. It is not a full-text search; it searches only the index keywords that have been assigned to each document. An index lookup is generally faster and more relevant than a full-text search. If more than one document contains the index keyword that you specify in the index search box, a disambiguation window opens and enables you to select from among the possible choices.
By default, the Index window is located on the left side of Document Explorer. You can access it from the Help menu.
Table of Contents
The MSDN Express library table of contents shows all the topics in the library in a hierarchical tree view structure. It is a useful tool for browsing through the documentation for an idea of what is in the library, and for exploring documents that you might not find through index or search. Often, when you find a document through F1, index, or search, you might want to know its location in the table of contents so that you can see other, related documentation. Click the Sync with Table of Contents button in the Document Explorer toolbar to locate the currently displayed topic in the MSDN Express library.
How Do I
How Do I is a filtered view of the MSDN Express library that mostly includes documents called How-to's or Walkthroughs that show you how to perform a specific task. You can access How Do I Help from the Document Explorer toolbar or the Help menu, or the Start page.