by Goran Mitrovic in 1999-2001.
Download:
Version 2.04
Version 1.1
Requirements:
- Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0 with MSDN Library installed
Purpose:
You probably discovered how complex MSDN Library is - there are thousands of articles nicely sorted in its Contents Tree. However, have you noticed how hard is it to find articles you used, every time you resume work on your project? If you had, I believe you’ll find SmartHelp (very) useful.
Features:
Contacts:
E-Mail:
New versions:
http://fly.srk.fer.hr/~gmit/smarthelp.htm
Snail Mail:
Goran Mitrovic
Trg kralja Tomislava 5
48000 Koprivnica
History:
2.04 (21. Feb 2001) - Old-style Copy to clipboard
shortcut (CTRL+INS) will
also
work
- SmartHelp now also works
with Digital Visual
Fortran
6
- Added option to hide
icons in favorites menu
- Html window will get
focus after MSDN favorite is
selected
- While debugging, it is now
possible to position Dock
above
Variables dock
- WndTabs 3 support is
added, while custom WT2.5 build
is
removed from the distribution (look into
Options/WndTabs event/more
for details)
2.03 (19. Sep 2000) - Bug (almost) fixed - Visual Studio freezed while
Topics Found dialog
is shown; look into
Troubleshooting Options
page for more details
- Bug fixed - Find
keyboard shortcut (CTRL+F) will work
now
- Bug fixed – Output
Window won't be closed any more
after
ESC key is pressed inside HTML window
- Bug fixed - Ctrl(+Shift)+TAB
will select next (or
previous)
tab in Dock window
- Bug fixed - Start
event works again
- Bug fixed - Dock
positioned to right border will
slide again while
being opened/closed
- Bug fixed - After Dock or
F1 hotkey is invoked, or
Dock window is opened or
closed, appropriate focus
will
be set (hopefully, all combinations are now
covered)
2.02 (1. Sep
2000) - Bug fixed - Remember MSDN position option won't
save
position of minimized or maximized MSDN window
any
more
- Dock window is now
refreshed after opening to prevent
MSDN Library rendering bug
- SmartHelp now works on
German versions of Visual
Studio/MSDN
- Dock will now get focus
when opened alone and, when
Dock is closed, focus will move
to HTML or source
window
(whichever is in front)
- Added Favorite
event - useful if you want Dock to
open
after invoking MSDN favorite
- Added Hotkey2 event - useful
if you want to control
Dock visibility via
keyboard
- Hotkey modifiers (ctrl,
alt, shift) will work now
2.01
(25. Aug 2000) - Installer will now exit if any
instance of Visual
Studio is running during
the installation
- Bug fixed - DevStudio
won't start if Start Event
doesn't
open HTML window; now ok
- Bug fixed - If F1 key was
pressed on function already
opened
in MSDN, HTML window wouldn't show; now ok
- Bug fixed - If F1 key was
pressed on keyword that
doesn't
exist, Dock wouldn't show (with Index tab
activated);
now ok
- Bug fixed - CTRL+C (copy
to clipboard) combination
now
works inside HTML window
- Try to guess position
option now works even if no
workspace
is loaded at the moment
- Dock position can be
changed on-fly (that is –
without
restarting Visual Studio)
- Dock can automatically be
placed above Workspace dock
(AutoGuess Dock
position option)
- Added Remember MSDN
position option that is useful
on
multiple monitors systems
2.0 (20. Aug
2000) - added Visual Studio Integration feature
- Maximum favorite name
enlarged from 64 to 256 chars
- Both slash and backslash
characters are now allowed
in
favorites names
- Add Favorite
dialog will make up default name for all
new
items
- Added new types of
favorites - Source files and Tools
- Hierarchy of favorites
can be significantly extended
using
folders
- Bug fixed - favorite
article can be recalled if tab
other than Contents
is selected
- New configuration GUI;
hopefully, this one won't have
problems
with small fonts
- Help is now integrated in
GUI
- Bug fixed - hopefully
final fix for using Workspace's
Help.layout file after
closing Workspace bug
- Added Always refresh
MSDN Contents option (probably
uninteresting
for most users)
- MSDN window cannot be
closed any more while
configuration
is storing or restoring
- Added proper installer
and uninstaller
- Added SmartHelp-aware
version of WndTabs 2.5 with a
bonus
feature
- tab order remembrance for
each Workspace
1.1 (28. Mar
2000) - In Add Favourite dialog, Expand item option is now
disabled
in meaningless situations
- Always open MSDN
option changed to much more useful
- If the MSDN isn't opened,
and you pressed F1-key or
selected MSDN Favourite, after opening, MSDN's
Contents tree layout will be restored. This feature
won't work if you have Visual Assist version earlier
than 3.0.0.1090.
- Added Advanced
dialog (probably uninteresting for
most
users)
- Bug fixed - crashing while
opening Workspace
- Bug fixed - using
Workspace's Help.layout file after
closing
Workspace
- Some minor internal
changes
1.01 (16.
Feb 2000) - Added support for at least one more version of MSDN
Library
1.0 (13. Feb 2000) - Initial release
Copyright and registration:
Although I have copyright to both add-in and it's source, you can use them for free. However, I used a lot of my time and knowledge to implement Visual Studio Integration feature, so that part of SmartHelp isn't free. Registration fee is $7.00 payable at https://www.regnow.com/softsell/nph-softsell.cgi?item=4273-1. If you are a Croatian citizen, you can register for 35kn - contact me for details before sending your money.
Thank you for your support.
Disclaimer:
I simply cannot and won't be responsible for any damage made with SmartHelp. I can only hope such scenarios are impossible. Also, before registering, please try trial option first because I cannot guarantee Integration feature will work on all configurations and Visual Studio versions.
My other products:
A WndTabs plugin that
highlights the tab of a window which will be displayed after pressing a
Ctrl+Tab hotkey – CtrlTabTabHighlighter.zip.
Links:
WndTabs – http://www.wndtabs.com
Visual Assist – http://www.wholetomato.com
TX Text Control – http://www.textcontrol.com