Microsoft Help 2
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Microsoft Help 2.x is a proprietary format for online help files, developed by Microsoft and first released in 2001 as a help system for Visual Studio .NET (2002) and MSDN Library.
Microsoft Help 2.x files are made with the Help 2.0 Workshop (VSHIK), a help authoring tool.
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[edit] History
- March 2001 - Microsoft announced Microsoft Help 2.x at WritersUA (formerly WinWriters) conference.
- January 2003 - Microsoft decided not to release Microsoft Help 2 as a general Help platform. Help 2 remained a Visual Studio Help integration tool.
- August 2003 - Borland have released C# Builder. Documentation is all in Microsoft Help 2 format and displayed in DExplore.
- December 2005 - Microsoft continues support of Help 2 by releasing the Help Integration Wizard which is Visual Studio 2005 compatible.
[edit] File Format
A Microsoft Help 2.x file has a ".hxs" extension. A compressed .HxS help file (help title) is compiled from a set of topic pages written in a subset of HTML, a .HxC main project file, an .HxF include file, a .HxT table of contents, a .HxA attribute definition file, and a number of .HxK indexes (keyword Index, NamedURL index, optional associated and context links indexes).
Microsoft Help 2 files can be viewed by a third-party tool Help Explorer Viewer.
[edit] Applications
This format was originally intended only for the help system used by Visual Studio .NET 2002 help, MSDN Library and TechNet, but now it is widely used in many IDEs, like the Borland .NET IDEs.
