| Dec 2001 |
Posted to
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.helpauthoring From:
"Shane McRoberts [MSFT]" <shanemc@microsoft.com> |
|
The Microsoft® Help team has decided to postpone
the public release of Microsoft Help 2. This difficult decision is based on
customer feedback that we should postpone the release until we can provide a
complete solution. Although we had planned to release a beta version of Help 2
this past summer, it won't be available until at least calendar year 2003.
While Microsoft continues to move forward with Help 2 technology, we encourage Help authors to continue using HTML Help 1.x. The upcoming release of Visual Studio .NET has great support for integrating HTML Help 1.x content into the applications you build. There are also many 3rd party tools available that provide a rich authoring experience for HTML Help 1.x content. The Help 2 engine will be provided with several developer-related products, including Visual Studio .NET, MSDN Library, .NET Framework SDK, and Microsoft Office Developer. We are also developing an SDK to enable component developers and others to integrate their Help content into Visual Studio .NET's Help system. We will announce details of this SDK when it is available. Shane McRoberts |
| Jan 2003 |
Posted to
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.helpauthoring From:
"Shane McRoberts [MSFT]" <shanemc@microsoft.moc> |
|
The Microsoft® Help team has decided not to release Microsoft Help 2 as a
general Help platform. This is primarily in response to customer feedback that
the most important thing is providing a standard Help experience on everybody's
machine. With that in mind, we are focusing our work efforts on providing a
great Help experience in the next client release of Windows (codename
"Longhorn") rather than on releasing an interim solution that is not integrated
with the operating system. While Microsoft develops future Help technologies, we encourage Help authors to continue using HTML Help 1.x. Visual Studio® .NET has great support for integrating HTML Help 1.x content into the applications you build, see http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa983560(VS.71).aspx. There are also many 3rd party tools available that provide a rich authoring experience for HTML Help 1.x content (for some examples, see http://www.winwriters.com/restools.htm [not a Microsoft site]). The Help 2 engine will continue to be provided with several of Microsoft's developer-related products, including Visual Studio .NET, MSDN® Library, Microsoft .NET Framework SDK, and Microsoft Office Developer. Component developers and others who need to integrate their Help content into the Help system in Visual Studio .NET can do so using the Visual Studio Help Integration Kit (VSHIK). See http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa700819.aspx for more information. There are also 3rd party tools that provide support for Help 2, including FAR HTML (http://www.helpware.net/FAR/index.html [not a Microsoft site]) and ComponentOne® Doc-To-Help® (http://www.componentone.com/helptools.aspx [not a Microsoft site]). Shane McRoberts This posting imposes no obligations upon Microsoft and is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. Some of the sites listed above are not under the control of Microsoft and Microsoft makes no representations whatsoever concerning the content of those sites. These links are provided as a convenience to you. Such listings do not constitute an endorsement, authorization, sponsorship, or affiliation by Microsoft with respect to such sites, their owners, or their providers. The information, software, or products found on these sites have not been tested by Microsoft and Microsoft therefore cannot make any representations whatsoever with respect thereto. |