Additional CHM for VisualStudio F1?

Question

Is there a way to include additional help files (.chm) in VisualStudio (2010), so that when I press F1 (on a function), it automatically opens the new help file on the correct site? Thank you.

Answer 1

It's not possible in VS 2010. It was possible in VS 2002-2008 only (our product VSdocman can do it). To explain:

1. The Html Help 1 format (CHM) was used in VS 6 and earlier.
2. VS 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2008 used the MS Help 2 format (HxS). But it was possible to use also CHM for additional custom F1 help.
3. VS 2010 uses the MS Help Viewer 1 format (MSHC) and VS 2012 uses the MS Help Viewer 2 format (MSHC). There are only minor differences between them and you can consider them to be the same (some call this format as MS Help3). There is no way to include an additional help in a format other than MSHC.

So if you want to add your own F1 help, you need to create an MSHC file. It's not that difficult. It's only a list of specially formatted HTML files, zipped into single MSHC file. There are tools that help you with that. For example our VSdocman or free mshcMigrate.exe which can convert your existing CHM to MSHC.

Answer 2

Some more info on mshcMigrate

Copied from their site:

Inputs

Migrates both HTML Help & MS Help 2 to Help Viewer format. Converts projects files (.hxc, .hhp) & compiled help files (.hxs, .chm), as well as help source folders.

Outputs

Outputs include .mshc & .cab help package files as well as the .msha manifest file.

Other Features

The application includes several additional tools that allows you to test, install/uninstall, view the HelpLibManager output log, perform API calls, and explore the help library data store. The utility can also be operated in batch mode for overnight builds and command line operation