Need help on 'Help' for vb.net

[jsteph]

Hi all,
I'm very new to vb.net, and I'm trying to avoid bombarding everyone here with stupid questions, so my first try at help is always, well, Help. But in the vs environment, when I go to the Help menu, there are a dizzying array of 'options'.

First is Dynamic Help. Resonse: "No links are available
for the current selection." Ok, I had nothing selected, I want general help on a specific topic.

Second is Contents. Response: A dialog box with 'Filtered by:', and an EMPTY dropdown and I can't type anything else into it.

Third is Index. Response: Same as above for 'contents', except that I now have 2 useless choices--this includes 'Look For:', which I can type into, but no 'Search' button, and nothing happens when I hit enter or tab out of that field.

Fourth is Search. Response: Similar to above 'Index', but now I do have a Search button, but it returns "Unspecified Error".

My Installation went clean, I did all the updates, and I do have an active internet connection (if the web is where help is now stored), so I don't understand why this doesn't work. I really miss the old, reliable .hlp files.

Can anyone give me help on Help? Thanks,
--Jsteph

 

[RebeccaLynn]

which version of vb.net?

Somtimes, the easy answer is the hardest to find.

 

[jsteph]

RebeccaLynn,
Thanks for responding. I'm not sure which version anymore, it's 'Standard' edition, and it's a corporate install, which I just un-installed due to this and other issues--I'm going to try and re-install and see if that helps.
--jsteph

 

[jalbao]

Do you remember installing the MSDN cd's - there should be three cd's (maybe two, I can't remember).

The help files are on the MSDN cd's that come with Acemdemic and higher versions - I don't believe the MSDN comes with Standard version.

But you may be interested to know that the content on the cd's is the same as the content that is located at the MSDN website.

 

[jsteph]

Well, now that you mention it, I don't recall installing the msdn cd's. I spent what seemed like an hour inserting no less than 6 MS cd's--a Resource Kit, a Knowledge pack, a 'manual' cd with .pdf's, and 3 install cd's. I guess we're getting to the point now with CD's as the Install medium that we got to with floppy disks a few years ago--needing a whole box of them to install something. I'm sure we have the msdn cd's here somewhere, I'll find them. Thanks,
--jsteph