Delphi Help-Booster

If you are using Delphi 2006 [Turbos excluded] or Delphi 2007 and haven't seen/used Delphi-PRAXiS Help-Booster by Daniel R. Wolf, you're missing out on the fastest access to the Delphi help files there is.

From the Help-Booster page:
Anyone who ever worked with the Help-System of Delphi 2006/2007 will know that it is terribly slow. This is caused significantly by the internals of the new Windows Help-System, which is - compared to earlier versions of Windows - really slow. This is precisely where the Delphi-PRAXiS Help-Booster comes into play: It links into the IDE and uses its own help-index, which makes available the help-content significantly faster.
Important: The original help of Delphi must still be installed, because the Help-Booster offers just an alternative access to the content of help and does not come up with a copy of the help-content. The original help function of Delphi is still available, not affected and can still be used in parallel as before. Right now the index of Help-Booster includes the reference to VCL/RTL and the most relevant parts of the PSDK. Additional entries, especially from third-party, can be added in a future version by yourself.

There is also a short video that shows how it integrates into the IDE and some of the advantages. One tip that the video doesn't show is how, like all of the other docking windows, you can set it up as a 'fly-out' and have fast access to help at your fingertips. Now, when I select >> Help-Booster - search "keyword" from the right-click menu the fly-out opens with a list of all the possible topics for me to choose from. Optionally, pin the window open and type whatever you need to know into the search textbox - it's very fast.

How can you beat features like this [from the Help-Booster page]:

• Manual search (also substrings)
• Context-sensitive search using a shortcut in the editor (default is F2)
• Context-sensitive search using a right-click in the editor (context-menu, entry at the bottom)
• Online-search in our forums (Delphi-PRAXiS) by preceding the searchterm with dp: (connection to the internet needed)
• Online-search in our CodeLibrary by preceding the searchterm with cl: (connection to the internet needed)
  (Example: cl:findfirst)

If you need to use the help files ... get this add-in and install it today.

Oh, BTW, it [only] works with the IDE "Welcome page" enabled, if you've disabled/removed it ...

 

Thanks for stopping by ...
Dave

February 2008 Help Update - CDS 2007

Don't miss Nick's Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene #58 where he mentions that the February Help Update for CodeGear Developer Studio 2007 and Delphi 2007 for Win32 has been released.

If you're looking for a bit of information on the installation process Dr. Bob has already posted  Help Update 2 for RAD Studio 2007 (Feb08) on his blog which contains some information you will want to read.

[the easiest way to keep up on all this is to stop by DelphiFeeds frequently - if you don't already]

I've had a browse around the new help file and was actually fairly impressed with it although I did notice a few spots where there is still improvement to be had. Having said that though, it's all pretty subjective. If you follow Nick's Blog [and you should] you'll have read about some significant shortcomings neophytes are having in getting up to speed with Delphi in the comments posted on Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene #57. Would the improvements [supposing they had access to D2007] meet their needs? I expect there is still work to be done to get to that point. Me, I liked what I saw -but- the problem with that is, I've gotten used to not using the help system so it's hard to actually see what's been improved. With what I've seen, I expect that will change and I'll become a little more reliant on the F1 key again.

Keep up the good work CodeGear!

 

Edit:

The install will create a folder under your "My Documents" called "Rad_Studio_Help_Downloads" where it stores the 317MB [in my case] of files. I guess it's OK to delete ... I'm going to.