Using Help in Visual Studio .NET

The Visual Studio .NET Help collection presents information about languages, designers, and technologies in a variety of ways. Use the following links to read more about how you can get the help you need, when you need it.

In This Section

• Strategies for Using Help
  Discusses how you can get specific results from the variety of Help features in Visual Studio .NET.
• Document Conventions
  Shows how typographical conventions are used to indicate the meaning and function of text in Help topics.
• Graphics within Help Topics
  Shows the three different graphics that can be displayed in topic headers and describes how they link to additional types of information related to the topics.
• Tips for Using the Help Keyword Index
  Describes ways you can optimize and limit the results you get from using the Index window.
• Using the Combined Help Collection Manager
  Explains when and how you can select which Help collections to include in the default "Visual Studio .NET Combined Help Collection" (VSCC).

Related Sections

• Browsing Code and Components
  Explains how you can use the Object Browser to look inside the components, classes, and libraries your projects can use.
• Sample Viewer
  Use the Sample Viewer to load a sample solution and copy its source files, copy a sample's source files without loading the solution, or view a sample's non-binary source files.
• Creating and Using Filters
  Describes ways to narrow the scope of documentation that Help displays.
• Locating Information
  Summarizes the ways you can find topics and articles using Microsoft Document Explorer.
• Finding Information with Full-Text Search
  Describes how to use the Search window.
• Help, Environment, Options Dialog Box a
  Allows you to set options for Preferred Language and Preferred Collection.
• Customizing Dynamic Help
  Describes ways you can change the content displayed in the Dynamic Help window and context it uses to determine the links it provides.
• Customizing Microsoft Document Explorer
  Describes the various aspects of the viewer that you can change.
• Locating Readme Files
  Lists the various Readme files for the designers, languages, and products that are part of the integrated development environment (IDE).
• What's New in Visual Studio .NET
  Summarizes the new and enhanced features available with this version of Visual Studio.