In this topic, you'll find a summary of the usability improvements we've made to the NetAdvantage for .NET help over the past several volume releases.
2007 Volume 3 Release
Here's how we've improved the help since the 2007 Volume 2 release:
- Revamped Content and Index Filters -- In previous releases we had over a hundred filters in the installed help making it difficult to use the "Filter by" drop-down list, in the Contents and Index pane. This list of filters has been narrowed down to just 11, grouping controls/frameworks into specific categories. To see what category a control/framework falls into, see Installed Help Filter Categories.
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Improved Installed Help Search -- The NetAdvantage for .NET help now plugs into some of the standard Microsoft® Technology filters (ASP.NET, Windows Forms, and .NET Development) that are available in the Technology drop-down list in the Search Window; thus allowing you to filter your local help search results for more accurate searches.
Note: When searching for Infragistics specific topics or members the results shown in the local help are the only results that could be specific to Infragistics. The exception to the local help results is if you have installed other Microsoft SDKs' help, as some of our classes have the same names (e.g., Excel, Tools). - How Do I Pages for Windows Forms and ASP.NET -- Visual Studio 2005's help viewer brought about a new toolbar option called "How Do I", which allows the consolidation of help topics about common tasks or technology for quick reference. When you install the NetAdvantage for .NET help two options appear in this drop-down specific to NetAdvantage for .NET (Infragistics NetAdvantage for Windows Forms and Infragistics NetAdvantage for ASP.NET). Selecting either option brings you to a page of links for several controls/frameworks in the NetAdvantage for .NET product. Selecting a link takes you to that control/framework's section in the help. In addition, at the bottom are links to the Infragistics DevCenter, and Peer-to-Peer Newsgroups/Forums.
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F1 Help Available -- F1 help has been restored for the API members. F1 help allows you to select an Infragistics member (class, property, method, event, etc) inside Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, and press F1 to have the member's associating API topic appear in the Document Explorer.
Note: The selected member's class topic may not appear when F1 is selected if the MSDN Library isn't installed. It will take you to one of the selected member's sub-pages (members overview, events overview, etc). If you have the dynamic help window open you can click the link available for the selected member to see its main class topic, and avoid this navigation to the sub-pages. -
Infragistics Inherited Members Linked -- Members in the API that have "Inherited from Infragistics..." next to them, now have that member linked to provide ease of navigation.
Note: Members that inherit from System still are not linked at this time.
2007 Volume 2 Release
Here's how we've improved the help since the 2007 Volume 1 release:
- Restructured the "The Toolset" section -- In the Windows Forms section of the help, we restructured the "The Toolset" section so that there are two new sub-sections: "Frameworks" and "Code Libraries". The new "Frameworks" section now houses the existing "Presentation Layer Framework (PLF)" and "Application Styling Framework (ASF)" sections. Also, the new "Code Libraries" section provides access to information on the existing "NetAdvantage CAB Extensibility Kit" as well as two new sections for the 2007 Volume 2 release: "Infragistics Excel Engine" and "Infragistics Document Engine".
2007 Volume 1 Release
Here's how we've improved the help since the 2006 Volume 3 release:
- Revamped and updated the Getting Started section -- We've added more topics to the Getting Started section so that you have even more information on how to get up and running with the product and the help. Specifically, we've added topics on how to successfully install the product and run ASP.NET samples on the Microsoft Windows® Vista operating system. We've also reorganized the section to make it easy for you to find the topics you're looking for.
- Rebranding of NetAdvantage AppStylist™ -- The NetAdvantage AppStylist product has been rebranded to NetAdvantage AppStylist for Windows Forms to distinguish it from NetAdvantage AppStylist for ASP.NET, which is a new product in the 2007 Volume 1 release. All references to NetAdvantage AppStylist (including logos) have been changed to NetAdvantage AppStylist for Windows Forms.
2006 Volume 3 Release
Here's how we've improved the help since the 2006 Volume 2 release:
- Online survey -- What you think about our help documentation matters a lot to us. At the bottom of each help topic, we've added a link to an online survey. Please take a moment to fill it out, so we can know more about you -- our customers -- and so you can let us know what you think needs to be improved in our help. Improvement of the content and usability of our help is a high-priority project for us, so your feedback will help us to make better documentation!
- New product logos -- On each landing page of our help, you'll notice a new and improved logo for each of our products: NetAdvantage for .NET, NetAdvantage for Windows Forms, and NetAdvantage for ASP.NET. The new product branding helps to add polish to the documentation, and helps to underscore which section (ASP.NET versus Windows Forms) you're viewing.
2006 Volume 2 Release
Here's how we've improved the help since the 2006 Volume 1 release:
- Added filtering -- We've added filtering functionality to the installed help version so that you can now filter the results displayed in the Contents and Index tab by selecting criteria (e.g., "Developer's Guide", "API Reference Guide", "New Features", or a specific control/component) from the "Filtered by" drop-down list at the top of the Contents tab. This feature will help to reduce the amount of time it takes to find specific topics or sections in the installed help.
- Revamped WinChart/WebChart's help documentation -- We have restructured and revised the content in the "WinChart"/"WebChart" section of the help (in the Developer's Guide > The Toolset > Controls and Components section). It's now so much easier to find key information on the Chart control. For example, we've moved the "Chart Types" section higher up in the hierarchy, and created two categories in this section called "2D Charts" and "3D Charts".
- Made each control/component a glossary term -- To ensure that you can easily obtain high-level information about a NetAdvantage for .NET control/component, we have made the first mention of each control/component in a topic a glossary term (orange text). With only a single mouse-click, a blue box appears, giving you a brief description of the control/component, the name of the control/component in the Microsoft® Visual Studio® toolbox, and the namespace to which the control/component belongs.
- Applied syntax coloring of code samples -- We have set syntax coloring for all of the code samples (Visual Basic, C#, and JavaScript) in our help topics so that specific code elements (e.g., comments and keywords) stand out from the rest. We colored the syntax of our code samples according to the syntax coloring of the Visual Studio IDE. Now reading and reviewing the code will be much quicker than when the code samples were displayed in all-black text.
Known Issues and Limitations in the Help
