Help Integration Wizard Overview

The Help Integration Wizard takes an .hxs file as input and produces a Visual Studio deployment project. You can compile the deployment project to produce merge modules or an .msi file that will install, register, and merge your Help collection with Visual Studio.

Procedures

To run the Help Integration Wizard

1. In Visual Studio, on the File menu, point to New, and then click Project to display the New Project dialog box.

2. In the Project Types pane, expand the Other Project Types folder, and then click Extensibility.

3. In the Templates pane, click Help Integration Wizard, type a project name in the Name box, and then click OK.

4. Follow the directions in the Help Integration Wizard pages.

Help Integration Wizard Pages

This section describes the options available on Help Integration Wizard pages.

Choose Project Settings

Control how your Help collection will be deployed.

UI Element	Description
Deployment Project Type	Determines the type of deployment project the wizard generates. The Setup project option creates both a merge module (.msm) project and a setup (.msi) project for your Help collection. Use this option when deploying the Help collection by itself. The Merge module project option creates a merge module (.msm) project for your Help collection. Use this option when packaging the Help collection for use by someone else's setup project.
Target	Specifies the version of Visual Studio with which your Help collection will integrate.

Select Collection Files

Choose the files that make up your Help collection.

UI Element	Description
Source Files	Lists the files (.hxs, .hxi, .hxq, and .hxr) that make up your Help collection. The wizard allows your collection to have multiple .hxs files or .hxs/.hxi file pairs, but only one .hxq file and one .hxr file.
Add	Displays the Add Help Files dialog box, which lets you navigate to files and select the ones you want for your Help collection.
Remove	Removes selected files from the Source Files list.

Build the TOC

Create your Help collection’s table of contents (TOC).

UI Element	Description
Help Collection TOC	Displays the Help collection’s TOC as it will appear in the Table of Contents window. Following is a key to the Help Collection TOC display: A red book icon represents the plug-in node of a hierarchical TOC. A blue book icon represents a regular node. A pink book icon represents a regular node that belongs to the TOC of an .hxs file. This type of node cannot be modified. A file icon represents a topic that belongs to the TOC of an .hxs file. This type of node cannot be modified. For more information, refer to the HelpStudio Lite Help system, which is accessible from the Help menu of the HelpStudio Lite development environment.
Toolbar	Offers commands for editing the Help collection’s TOC, such as inserting and deleting nodes, moving nodes up and down in the hierarchy, setting node properties, and so on.
Exclude From TOC	Lists.hxs files in your Help collection that do not participate in the collection’s TOC.
Include	Removes the selected .hxs file from the Exclude From TOC list and displays the file’s TOC in the Help Collection TOC tree view.
Exclude	Removes the selected .hxs file’s TOC from the Help Collection TOC tree view and displays the .hxs file in the Exclude From TOC list.
Plugin Style	Determines how the Help collection’s TOC will appear in the Table of Contents window. The Hierarchical option creates a TOC with only one top-level node. The Flat option creates a TOC that can have multiple top-level nodes.

Depending on the type of node selected in the Help Collection TOC tree view, clicking the Properties button on the toolbar displays one of the following dialog boxes:

Dialog Box	Description
Plug-in Node Properties	Allows you to change the title of a plug-in node of a hierarchical TOC.
Node Properties	Allows you to change the title, ID, and URL of a regular node.
TOC Properties	Allows you to change the ID of an .hxs file’s TOC and view its URL.

Set Collection Properties

Set the properties of your Help collection.

UI Element

Description

Category

Lists the categories of collection properties. The Collection option lets you assign a namespace and description to your Help collection. The HxC option lets you assign an ID, title, and version to the collection definition (.hxc) file. The HxT option lets you assign an ID and version to the collection TOC (.hxt) file. The K Index, F Index, A Index, and Named Url Index options allow you to assign an ID, title, and version to each of the collection’s index (.hxk) files.

See Also

Tasks

How to: Use the Help Integration Wizard to Add a Help Collection to Visual Studio

Other Resources

Getting Started with Help Content and Integration

Deploying a Help Collection