Information Not Found (in Help)

[wjburke2]

I seem to be getting this message a lot. I downloaded the enhanced help. I am set up to use local first. Just to limit network trafic. Is there something wrong with the way I have VB 2008 set up on my computer. Everyone was telling me how great the new VB help was before I installed it, I am not seeing it. The weird thing is many class and methods have changed enought that I need help more since I upgraded.

 

[jmcilhinney]

I don't know what "enhanced help" you mean. Have you installed the MSDN Library? That's where all the .NET Framework documentation is. If you've installed VB Express then you can get the MSDN Library Express from the here:

Downloads

You can download the full MSDN Library for VS here:

Download details: MSDN Library for Visual Studio 2008 SP1

One thing I'm not sure of is whether VB Express will recognise that full MSDN Library. If not then that doesn't mean that you can't still use the full library. It just means that you'll have to open the MSDN Library from its own shortcut rather than from the F1 key or Help menu in VB Express. You can still use the Contents, Index and Search functions within the MSDN Library once you've opened it, which is what I do the vast majority of the time anyway.

 

[Hack]

One thing I'm not sure of is whether VB Express will recognise that full MSDN Library. If not then that doesn't mean that you can't still use the full library. It just means that you'll have to open the MSDN Library from its own shortcut rather than from the F1 key or Help menu in VB Express. You can still use the Contents, Index and Search functions within the MSDN Library once you've opened it, which is what I do the vast majority of the time anyway.

Just as an FYI: I have the Express version on one of my machines, and I've always had to go the "shortcut" route rather than F1

 

[JohnH]

One thing I'm not sure of is whether VB Express will recognise that full MSDN Library. If not then that doesn't mean that you can't still use the full library. It just means that you'll have to open the MSDN Library from its own shortcut rather than from the F1 key or Help menu in VB Express. You can still use the Contents, Index and Search functions within the MSDN Library once you've opened it, which is what I do the vast majority of the time anyway.

VB Express recognizes the full MSDN Library, both VB 2005 and 2008 does, notice this warning in download page:

Concurrent installations of the Visual Studio Express Library and the MSDN Library for Visual Studio 2008 SP1 on the same computer will cause content redundancy, including duplicate search hits. If the Visual Studio Express Library has already been installed on your computer, please uninstall it before beginning installation of the MSDN Library for Visual Studio 2008 SP1.

Just as an FYI: I have the Express version on one of my machines, and I've always had to go the "shortcut" route rather than F1

I never had a problem with the F1 integration from Express to full local MSDN, though I always use the shortcut too, because I often refer to help when not programming in IDE just to read/lookup, and because I open/close several VS instances so with F1 the Document Explorer gets tied and closes also.

I am not seeing it

Filter-By "Visual Basic" option may hide a lot of info for you. I usually prefer "(unfiltered)".