Channel 9 Forums - Coffeehouse - Integrate ebooks with Visual Studio http://mschnlnine.vo.llnwd.net/d1/Dev/App_Themes/C9/images/feedimage.png Channel 9 Forums - Coffeehouse - Integrate ebooks with Visual Studio http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums Channel 9 keeps you up to date with the latest news and behind the scenes info from Microsoft that developers love to keep up with. From LINQ to SilverLight – Watch videos and hear about all the cool technologies coming and the people behind them. http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums en Sat, 25 May 2013 03:56:08 GMT Sat, 25 May 2013 03:56:08 GMT Rev9 10 -10 -1 Coffeehouse - Integrate ebooks with Visual Studio Alot of books these days come with an ebook version on CD. Many of them are in Compiled HTML (CHM) format. Atleast the books from Microsoft Press.

Wouldn't it be great to be able to integrate the books you buy with Visual Studio? Drop the CHM file in a special directory and get it searched right alongside MSDN (and Codewize). I think that would be great. Right now I have to first find the file, open it and then search. Never happens.

Btw; what is the best tool to handle your CHM collection? Is there a tool that let you index and keep a searchable library?

/Lars.

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/4892-Integrate-ebooks-with-Visual-Studio/4892#4892 Wed, 28 Apr 2004 00:20:32 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/4892-Integrate-ebooks-with-Visual-Studio/4892#4892 lars 10 http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/lars/Discussions/RSS Coffeehouse - Integrate ebooks with Visual Studio great idea lars.

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/4892-Integrate-ebooks-with-Visual-Studio/96e840102276463abba79dea011821d6#96e840102276463abba79dea011821d6 Wed, 28 Apr 2004 00:43:01 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/4892-Integrate-ebooks-with-Visual-Studio/96e840102276463abba79dea011821d6#96e840102276463abba79dea011821d6 Jaz 10 http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/Jaz/Discussions/RSS Coffeehouse - Integrate ebooks with Visual Studio Brilliant!

Actually.. the Orielly C# in a Nutshell book comes with a CD that integrates itself into Visual Studio .Net

But yeah I think its a great idea!


Jake

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/4892-Integrate-ebooks-with-Visual-Studio/8bd8b47302444bd68cc59dea01182200#8bd8b47302444bd68cc59dea01182200 Wed, 28 Apr 2004 00:59:17 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/4892-Integrate-ebooks-with-Visual-Studio/8bd8b47302444bd68cc59dea01182200#8bd8b47302444bd68cc59dea01182200 GooberDLX 10 http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/GooberDLX/Discussions/RSS Coffeehouse - Integrate ebooks with Visual Studio Good. I have in one project integrated the architectual guidelines for a company in Visual Studio in that way. It was cool. But it is not that simple, anyway when I did it. (Maybe new tools has been released since then?)

The idea that you just but all your help files in one directory and it will be automatically included in VS is a great idea.

/dag

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/4892-Integrate-ebooks-with-Visual-Studio/a83d4dca526e48f3b7a59dea0118222d#a83d4dca526e48f3b7a59dea0118222d Wed, 28 Apr 2004 08:43:58 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/4892-Integrate-ebooks-with-Visual-Studio/a83d4dca526e48f3b7a59dea0118222d#a83d4dca526e48f3b7a59dea0118222d Dag 10 http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/Dag/Discussions/RSS Coffeehouse - Integrate ebooks with Visual Studio That option are already there;  MSDN stores help files in a xml collection, wich you can manipulate to include your own .chm collection if needed.

U need to find two files, msdnxxx.col and hhcolreg.dat
msdnxxx.col are the collection wich stores all your chm files.
msdnxxx.col is the collection registry, and stores details about your collection. 



1. msdnxxx.col is located under; 
 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\HTML Help Collections\Developer Collections

U will find a language key for your prefered language, and search for a key kalled filename, (the path on disk were msdnxxx.col are located. )

 
2.hhcolreg.dat file is located under;

Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\HTML Help

..

I wont do the whole DRA( dont repeat yourself), so instead I did a little search...and found a nice article telling more about this...


http://www.codeguru.com/Cpp/W-P/help/msdn/article.php/c6507/

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/4892-Integrate-ebooks-with-Visual-Studio/ea1d9f8723a8478897449dea0118225b#ea1d9f8723a8478897449dea0118225b Wed, 28 Apr 2004 09:34:07 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/4892-Integrate-ebooks-with-Visual-Studio/ea1d9f8723a8478897449dea0118225b#ea1d9f8723a8478897449dea0118225b prog_dotnet 10 http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/prog_dotnet/Discussions/RSS Coffeehouse - Integrate ebooks with Visual Studio This tool looks interesting (support for compiled help only):

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dv_vstechart/html/integration_wizard.asp

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/4892-Integrate-ebooks-with-Visual-Studio/47273c847e7d4dd199cf9dea01182286#47273c847e7d4dd199cf9dea01182286 Wed, 28 Apr 2004 13:21:41 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/4892-Integrate-ebooks-with-Visual-Studio/47273c847e7d4dd199cf9dea01182286#47273c847e7d4dd199cf9dea01182286 bitmask 10 http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/bitmask/Discussions/RSS Coffeehouse - Integrate ebooks with Visual Studio A few books already come in that format. Mickey Williams' Visual C#.Net offers the choise between a .chm setup or integration with VS.

What I would rather ask is for a msReader version of the books. Trying to read these files with a Pocket pc is  pretty much impossible. I'm using Peter Tewesbuy's chm reader (http://www.codeproject.com/ce/chmreader.asp), but it takes a long time to move from one section to the next.

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/4892-Integrate-ebooks-with-Visual-Studio/f68c67aa408440d383049dea011822b1#f68c67aa408440d383049dea011822b1 Wed, 28 Apr 2004 15:13:22 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/4892-Integrate-ebooks-with-Visual-Studio/f68c67aa408440d383049dea011822b1#f68c67aa408440d383049dea011822b1 curobosqui 10 http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/curobosqui/Discussions/RSS Coffeehouse - Integrate ebooks with Visual Studio
It seems like VS should make it easy to integrate help for a class lib into your current project.  For example...  If I'm using a class library that has a chm help file, there should be a way to include a reference to the help file for the project.  This way I can access the chm from inside VS when working on that project.   For other projects, that don't use this class lib, the help file would not be included in lookups.  
 
It would be really neat if the class lib could include a reference to it's help file so that VS could make this all happen automatically.  Maybe this is planned in VS 2005....

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/4892-Integrate-ebooks-with-Visual-Studio/5f51a7c8e3da49c994a09dea011822f6#5f51a7c8e3da49c994a09dea011822f6 Fri, 14 Jan 2005 22:53:25 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/4892-Integrate-ebooks-with-Visual-Studio/5f51a7c8e3da49c994a09dea011822f6#5f51a7c8e3da49c994a09dea011822f6 Void 10 http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/Void/Discussions/RSS Coffeehouse - Integrate ebooks with Visual Studio Have you purchased any high priced ebooks recently? Have you noticed all the online gurus are pumping out monsterous sized ebooks, packed with filler, and they're selling them for $97!

The majority of these fluffed-up monsters would be reduced to just a few pages without all the needless, page count expanding filler.

Not too long ago, I purchased a high priced ebook from a well-known AdSense expert who claims to make thirty thousand dollars a month from AdSense. I spent hours reading thru all the garbage to find the only wisdom there was to fool people into thinking the ads were part of your site navigation links.

In order to defend the high price, the ebook had page after page of frivilous, unnecessary information, just to increase the bulk. If this ebook was cleaned of all the unrequired garbage, it would shrink to less than one tenth its current size, but that wouldn't sell.

Recently, a new generation of ebooks has appeared - ebooks without all that extra baggage that's only there to make you think you're getting value. The idea here is that you get the important information you're really looking for, without all the junk. Cost effective ebooks that inform you, teach you AND they won't put a dent in your bank account.

How cheap? How about seven dollars?

Take a look at this 
http://sevendollarsolution.com

Huge Selection of $7 Ebooks

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/4892-Integrate-ebooks-with-Visual-Studio/889223680d234db1918c9dea0118233f#889223680d234db1918c9dea0118233f Fri, 27 Jul 2007 10:47:15 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/4892-Integrate-ebooks-with-Visual-Studio/889223680d234db1918c9dea0118233f#889223680d234db1918c9dea0118233f carsondanfield 10 http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/carsondanfield/Discussions/RSS Coffeehouse - Integrate ebooks with Visual Studio For API Documentation, Sandcastle produces CHM files (help 1.0) but also HxS Files (Help 2.0).  These are the ones which can be integrated into Visual Studio.

 

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/4892-Integrate-ebooks-with-Visual-Studio/574a7e0a396a47c787e69dea01182382#574a7e0a396a47c787e69dea01182382 Fri, 27 Jul 2007 10:54:37 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/4892-Integrate-ebooks-with-Visual-Studio/574a7e0a396a47c787e69dea01182382#574a7e0a396a47c787e69dea01182382 ben2004uk 10 http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/ben2004uk/Discussions/RSS