Iain,
> So, Microsoft have dumped Winhelp.
More or less, yes, although the WinHelp executable is still
available from the Microsoft Download Center for those users who
don't have it. That's just Vista and Windows Server 2008 users at
the moment, I believe.
> HTMLHelp:
> - Vastly inferior context sensitive help support
(graphics, formatting etc.).
> Perhaps this has improved ?
If you're happy to use a third-party solution like KeyHelp
then, yes, much improved. See:
http://keyworks.net/keyhelp.htm
http://helpware.net/htmlhelp/how_to_whatsthis.htm
> New MS Help System:
> - Not published ?
This is true for the Assistance Platform (AP) Help used in
Vista. At the moment, we don't know whether a public version of
this will ever be made available. I'm not even sure that there's
anyone at Microsoft who is actively working on this anymore.
Microsoft Help 2.0 is still around for those who want to
integrate their help content into the Visual Studio .NET help
system.
There's a little more information on all of this here:
http://www.winwriters.com/articles/news/news_2007_1201.htm
For the time being, I believe the recommendation is broadly:
use HTML Help (.chm) for locally installed help; Help 2.0 for .NET
help integration; and browser-based help for anything that the
first two formats don't suit.
Pete
Iain,