Project Properties Reference > Visual Studio Help

This section allows you to edit the HTML templates that define the layout and general appearance of your topic pages in all HTML-based output formats. See Using HTML Templates for full details.

This is a shared section:

Note that the same HTML templates are used for all four HTML-based output formats (HTML Help, Browser-Based Help, eBooks and MS Help 2.0). They are accessible in several locations in Project Properties but no matter where you edit them you are always editing the same templates. You cannot save different templates for the individual formats.

Simple editing mode:

When the Let me edit HTML code directly option at the top of the dialog is not selected you can only define some basic options for the HTML template. This mode is recommended if you do not have experience with editing HTML code!

Note that simple editing mode adjusts the template settings for all help window definitions, both the Main window and any secondary user-defined help window types you may have defined in the Help Windows section.

Let me edit HTML code directly:

Activate this check box to view and edit the HTML code of the template. See below for details on direct HTML editing mode.

This button automatically clears the HTML template and reloads the default template, overwriting any changes you have made. Use with caution!

If you select the button accidentally just click .

Text above topic:
Text below topic:

Any text you enter in these two editing boxes will be inserted on every page above and below the main text of your topic.

Note that you can only use plain text. No formatting or HTML tags are allowed.

Topics with headers have <Top>, <Previous> and <Next> links:

Activating this option adds additional navigation links to the headers of your topic. These links always point to the Top topic (the home topic defined in Common Properties > Language Settings) and the Next and Previous topics in your help.

You can edit the captions of the links in the Caption column but you cannot change their functionality.

By default the links are text-only. You can create button links by selecting graphics files for your buttons in the Image File column. Use the browse button to locate the graphics files.

HTML editing mode:

When the Let me edit HTML code directly option at the top of the dialog is selected you can edit all the code of the HTML templates for your help window definitions manually. In this mode you can also edit the templates of the Main help window and your user-defined help window types separately (i.e. windows defined in the Help Windows section). Experience in editing HTML code is necessary for using this mode!

Note that switching back to simple editing mode from HTML editing mode will overwrite all your changes with the default templates, for all window types! If you do this accidentally just select Cancel.

HTML template for window type:

Select the help window type whose template you want to edit here. Each help window type definition has its own template that can be edited separately.

By default only Main and Popup are displayed. Other templates will only be listed if you have defined additional help window types in the Help Windows section.

Note that the Popup template is only used when you output popups as HTML-encoded topics. See Creating popup topics for details.

Editing window:

The editor provides full HTML syntax highlighting to make editing easier. To enlarge the window for easier editing just resize the Project Properties window.