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Microsoft Help Technologies Start Page

Welcome to the Microsoft Help technologies Web. Here you will find all of the information, documentation, and program files you need to get started creating Help solutions for Microsoft Windows.

Windows codename "Longhorn" Help announced!

In This Section

Microsoft HTML Help 1.4 SDK

Visual Studio .NET Help Integration Kit (Microsoft Help 2)

Microsoft Help Events

Microsoft Help MVP Program

Industry Supports HTML Help

Which Version of Help do I Need?

Currently there are two versions of Help available for use with Microsoft Windows: HTML Help 1.4 and Microsoft Help 2. 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.

HTML Help 1.4

While Microsoft develops future Help technologies, we encourage Help authors to continue using HTML Help 1.4. Visual Studio® .NET has great support for integrating HTML Help 1.4 content into the applications you build, see Application Assistance. There are also many 3rd party tools available that provide a rich authoring experience for HTML Help 1.x content. For some examples, see the WinWriters Online Help Resource Directory . You can download the latest HTML Help files from Microsoft HTML Help Downloads.

Microsoft Help 2

Microsoft Help 2 is intended exclusively for those who are shipping products that integrate with, or extend, Visual Studio.NET. 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 obtain the Help 2 components, tools, and documentation from one of the following places:

There are also 3rd party tools that provide support for Help 2, including FAR HTML and ComponentOne® Doc-To-Help® .

"Longhorn" Help

Microsoft is pleased to announce the Help system for the next version of Windows, codename "Longhorn". Please visit Introducing Windows "Longhorn" Help to find out more.