F1 for help in VS
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wout de zeeuw wrote:
If you're on some method with the cursor, and press F1, you get the help for that method. Quite convenient.
That is when it gives the correct advice on the technology that you are using. For C++ users it seems to never get it correct. Especially if you have enabled SDK help. Maybe it actually works for .NET users. I do not know because I never rarely use .NET.
John
That's what I've found. .NET F1 help is dead-on most of the time. F1 help for Win32, SDK, and MFC are whimsical, usually being routed to help for the Media Player version 5.2 SDK (dated 1998). Of course, it's my firm belief that this is a deliberate policy of Microsoft. It's part and parcel of their effort to deprecate/abandon native-mode development in general, and C++ in particular.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
I think I have some residual muscle memory left over from back in the day as I occasionally press F1 in Visual Studio when I need to know something. After waiting 10 minutes for the Help to update itself to reflect changes it takes me to some arcane corner of the MS world which I am sure is fascinating to some people but rarely reflects anything I am interested in.
I use it all the time (when using VS anyway). It does go horribly wrong some times, but I tell it to never try to access online help so at least it goes wrong quickly -- at which point I usually go to http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms229335(v=VS.90).aspx[^] and RTFM. My biggest complaint is that when I have a syntax error and try to use F1 to get the proper syntax, it brings up an explanation of the error instead :mad: . Also when it pulls up a general discussion of some topic rather than the class I'm trying to use X| .
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I think I have some residual muscle memory left over from back in the day as I occasionally press F1 in Visual Studio when I need to know something. After waiting 10 minutes for the Help to update itself to reflect changes it takes me to some arcane corner of the MS world which I am sure is fascinating to some people but rarely reflects anything I am interested in.
I press F1 for caffeine. There's always enough time to acquire some before the IDE comes back. :-\
Anna :rose: Tech Blog | Visual Lint "Why would anyone prefer to wield a weapon that takes both hands at once, when they could use a lighter (and obviously superior) weapon that allows you to wield multiple ones at a time, and thus supports multi-paradigm carnage?"
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I never had an issue with it. If you're on some method with the cursor, and press F1, you get the help for that method. Quite convenient.
Wout
Is your VS build available externally, or only to MS employees?
-- What's a signature?
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Is your VS build available externally, or only to MS employees?
-- What's a signature?
I guess the first, since MS employees don't have access to my build.
Wout
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I never had an issue with it. If you're on some method with the cursor, and press F1, you get the help for that method. Quite convenient.
Wout
Really? I keep finding that searching for say, Dispose finds an implementation for some class other than the class or interface that introduced it (IDisposable in this case, for some reason matched System.Web.Control.Dispose in the F1 search I just did. Searching "MSDN dispose on google" by contrast found: 1. IDisposable.Dispose Method (System) 2. Implementing a Dispose Method as the first two matches - a much better result. I really appreciated the suggestion of tying it in to a Macro - single keystroke F1 help that works. I've also used the C++ F1 help - now that is just an abortion of an excuse for help, fathered by an abomination.
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THAT was funny (unlike the joke posted above, which was not at all funny).
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997 -
But F1 is still often useful in non-MS software.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997 -
I hadn't realised this wound other people up! I replaced it with a macro to Google a while ago. I have written up how as a Tip/Trick and just posted it here: http://www.codeproject.com/Tips/156089/Making-F1-do-something-useful-in-Visual-Studio.aspx[^] But in case it isn't available yet (moderation does take a while, sometimes) the process is: For Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Studio 2010: 1) Open VS, and on the Menu bar select "Tools...Macros...New Macro Project" 2) Call the project "GoogleSearchMSDN" 3) I'm so sorry about this, but VB is involved here. Not my fault, honest! 4) Rename the default Module1 to "DoGoogleSearchMSDN" - right click on the module name in the left hand pan, select "Rename" 5) Enter the following code as the module body:
Sub GoogleSearchMSDN() Dim url As String Dim searchFor As TextSelection = DTE.ActiveDocument.Selection() If searchFor.Text <> "" Then url = "www.google.com/search?q=MSDN+" + searchFor.Text Else url = "www.google.com/search?q=MSDN" End If DTE.ExecuteCommand("View.URL", url) End Sub- Build and save your module. 7) Use the menu bar again: "Tools...Options...Environment...Keyboard" 8) In the "Show commands containing:" textbox, type "Google" - you should see your new macro. 9) Go to the "Press shortcut keys" box, and press F1 10) Press OK. F1 now searches for "MSDN" plus whatever you highlighted.
Real men don't use instructions. They are only the manufacturers opinion on how to put the thing together. Digital man: "You are, in short, an idiot with the IQ of an ant and the intellectual capacity of a hose pipe."
Awesome, thanks for the tip.
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Of all the things wrong with VS, this is at the top of my list. My personal coping strategy: I have set up a macro to take a highlighted word or phrase and throw it at google, prefixed with 'msdn'. Wonder of wonders, I find what I'm looking for, nearly always #1 result. The google search is opened in a window inside VS.
Best wishes, Hans
This is exactly what I do but the manual way. I don't have a macro set up. What did you do to set this up? Is this set up in Visual Studio itself or some other macro app? I'd really like to do the same. Thanks!
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This is exactly what I do but the manual way. I don't have a macro set up. What did you do to set this up? Is this set up in Visual Studio itself or some other macro app? I'd really like to do the same. Thanks!
This has just been submitted as a tip here: http://www.codeproject.com/Tips/156089/Making-F1-do-something-useful-in-Visual-Studio.aspx[^]
Best wishes, Hans
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I hadn't realised this wound other people up! I replaced it with a macro to Google a while ago. I have written up how as a Tip/Trick and just posted it here: http://www.codeproject.com/Tips/156089/Making-F1-do-something-useful-in-Visual-Studio.aspx[^] But in case it isn't available yet (moderation does take a while, sometimes) the process is: For Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Studio 2010: 1) Open VS, and on the Menu bar select "Tools...Macros...New Macro Project" 2) Call the project "GoogleSearchMSDN" 3) I'm so sorry about this, but VB is involved here. Not my fault, honest! 4) Rename the default Module1 to "DoGoogleSearchMSDN" - right click on the module name in the left hand pan, select "Rename" 5) Enter the following code as the module body:
Sub GoogleSearchMSDN() Dim url As String Dim searchFor As TextSelection = DTE.ActiveDocument.Selection() If searchFor.Text <> "" Then url = "www.google.com/search?q=MSDN+" + searchFor.Text Else url = "www.google.com/search?q=MSDN" End If DTE.ExecuteCommand("View.URL", url) End Sub- Build and save your module. 7) Use the menu bar again: "Tools...Options...Environment...Keyboard" 8) In the "Show commands containing:" textbox, type "Google" - you should see your new macro. 9) Go to the "Press shortcut keys" box, and press F1 10) Press OK. F1 now searches for "MSDN" plus whatever you highlighted.
Real men don't use instructions. They are only the manufacturers opinion on how to put the thing together. Digital man: "You are, in short, an idiot with the IQ of an ant and the intellectual capacity of a hose pipe."
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This has just been submitted as a tip here: http://www.codeproject.com/Tips/156089/Making-F1-do-something-useful-in-Visual-Studio.aspx[^]
Best wishes, Hans
Thanks Hans! For those interested I just added an alternate version at the end of the tip Hans posted the link to. My alternate version opens the search outside of Visual Studio in the user's default browser. It also searches on the word the text cursor is on if there is no selection, much like the original F1 functioned. I'm lazy and I don't like to have to select the entire word just to search on it. :) Have fun!
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I hadn't realised this wound other people up! I replaced it with a macro to Google a while ago. I have written up how as a Tip/Trick and just posted it here: http://www.codeproject.com/Tips/156089/Making-F1-do-something-useful-in-Visual-Studio.aspx[^] But in case it isn't available yet (moderation does take a while, sometimes) the process is: For Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Studio 2010: 1) Open VS, and on the Menu bar select "Tools...Macros...New Macro Project" 2) Call the project "GoogleSearchMSDN" 3) I'm so sorry about this, but VB is involved here. Not my fault, honest! 4) Rename the default Module1 to "DoGoogleSearchMSDN" - right click on the module name in the left hand pan, select "Rename" 5) Enter the following code as the module body:
Sub GoogleSearchMSDN() Dim url As String Dim searchFor As TextSelection = DTE.ActiveDocument.Selection() If searchFor.Text <> "" Then url = "www.google.com/search?q=MSDN+" + searchFor.Text Else url = "www.google.com/search?q=MSDN" End If DTE.ExecuteCommand("View.URL", url) End Sub- Build and save your module. 7) Use the menu bar again: "Tools...Options...Environment...Keyboard" 8) In the "Show commands containing:" textbox, type "Google" - you should see your new macro. 9) Go to the "Press shortcut keys" box, and press F1 10) Press OK. F1 now searches for "MSDN" plus whatever you highlighted.
Real men don't use instructions. They are only the manufacturers opinion on how to put the thing together. Digital man: "You are, in short, an idiot with the IQ of an ant and the intellectual capacity of a hose pipe."
Thanks for the clear and quick tip! For those interested I just added an alternate version at the end of the tip in the link. My alternate version opens the search outside of Visual Studio in the user's default browser. It also searches on the word the text cursor is on if there is no selection, much like the original F1 functioned. I'm lazy and I don't like to have to select the entire word just to search on it. :) Oh, also, 95% of the time the result I want is in the first hit. For instance, when searching Google for "msdn ActionResult" the MSDN page for the ActionResult Class is the first one on the list. So, my new version also allows you to hit Shift+F1 (or whatever you map it to) to go directly to the first result, much like the I'm Feeling Lucky button on Google.
modified on Friday, February 11, 2011 3:12 PM
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You really ought to include
-site:experts-exchange.com
in your URL
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend; inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. -- Groucho Marx
:cough: I do. :cough: I also have that in my default search, so it gets added to every "normal" search I do as well...
Real men don't use instructions. They are only the manufacturers opinion on how to put the thing together. Digital man: "You are, in short, an idiot with the IQ of an ant and the intellectual capacity of a hose pipe."
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I think I have some residual muscle memory left over from back in the day as I occasionally press F1 in Visual Studio when I need to know something. After waiting 10 minutes for the Help to update itself to reflect changes it takes me to some arcane corner of the MS world which I am sure is fascinating to some people but rarely reflects anything I am interested in.
Maybe you people should upgrade to VS 2010. Microsoft revamp the help system. Its web based even with local help files. And you no longer get the 10 minute waits.
