Chapter 1 Exploring the Visual Studio Integrated Development Environment 25
TABLE 1-1 Comparing Help Between Versions of Visual Studio
Visual Studio 2008 Help Documentation Visual Studio 2010 Help Documentation
Local Help opened in a stand-alone
application viewer named Microsoft
Document Explorer.Local Help is browser-based and opens in your Web
browser.Document Explorer was coupled with Visual
Studio and could be updated only when
Visual Studio was updated.Because Help is browser-based and decoupled from
Visual Studio, it can be updated more frequently.Local Help was updated on a less frequent
schedule.Help can be updated on demand using the Help
Library Manager.
F1 Help sometimes took a long time to open. F1 Help is faster and search results are improved.
Help had a complete TOC tree of all topics. Help has a simplified TOC tree that just displays the
parent, peer, and child topics.
Local Help included an index. Help no longer includes an index.
Local Help and online Help experiences are
very different.Local Help and online Help experiences are very
similar.
Help documentation typically lists multiple
languages, such as Visual Basic, C#, C++,
and JScript, making it harder to read the
documentation.Help documentation displays the different languages
in a tabbed view and displays just the language you
are interested in.Note Because Help is decoupled in Visual Studio 2010 and can be updated regularly, your
experience might be different from the text and steps described in the next section.Managing Help Settings
Visual Studio includes a Help Library Manager to manage your Help documentation and
settings. Using the Help Library Manager, you can choose online or local Help, check for
updates online, and find or remove content.Help documentation for Visual Studio 2010 is delivered in two ways: local or online. Local
Help is typically installed during Visual Studio 2010 setup. (You can also add it later by using
the Help Library Manager .) Local Help is updated periodically, but you have to check the
Help Library Manager for updates. Online Help is available at http://msdn.microsoft.com/
library/. If you have an Internet connection, it is typically better to use online Help because
you will always be using the latest version of the Help documentation.