Thanks for the link Steve. This document provides most of the missing information that I needed.

But, I had already found it by clawing around in the rabbit hole mentioned in the first post. Why is it so hard to find?

But the real point is, this document is in very good shape, it is pdf, well indexed with an interactive T of C, which can be traversed by the usual and well-known explorer type tool that can show all levels with expandable/collapsable points.

As such, it just emphasizes how deplorable the document is provided with VS for the rest of the documentation.

As for your comment about wanting to provide interactive online help within Visual Studio, I thought that worked just fine with CVF. If you could point out some specific advantages of the new system, it MIGHT be easier to swallow. But still the current system needs lots of work to be as useful as the old one.

Yes, quite right about the F1 feature. That is good. Too bad so much had to be sacrificed to get it.

The index probably is reasonably easy to use if you are familiar enough to have a good idea where you're going. But the organization has changed so much--and sometimes not intuitive (e.g. things that used to be in the document and aren't anymore) that it has become as frustrating as it is useful.

Sounds like this may be useful Ian, but I can't find it. This is a VS feature, right? A toolbar button? On what toolbar? Is there a way to get to it through the menus?

My third button from the left is the usual "Open File" but that's probably just because of my toolbar arrangement.

Well, this is interesting. My screen (see attached) doesn't look anything like yours. I am viewing help through Internet Explorer and you are using "Microsoft Help Viewer," whatever that is. Your browser section is very large and contains explandable nodes. Mine is very short and shows only a very limited topic heirarcy, and I see no way to adjust it.

So, some of the complaints I have registered don't even happen in your system. How do you do it? 

Don't know why my screenshot file didn't upload, trying again.

I do ask for help from inside Visual Studio. I've never done it any other way. IE is just what pops up, apparently as the default viewer. Is there some way to control this, some setting I have wrong?

Is it because I am using the VS shell that comes with IVF, instead of the full VS package? I'm not sure I want to dive into the VS service pack unless I know it is compatible with the shell.

Eureka! I have installed the SP on both computers I use, and the difference is amazing. This wipes out half of my complaint! Now if only the document could be provided as a pdf, so that I can peruse it as a document, outside of VS, and mark it up.

Steve, you might consider putting out a general alert about this help SP, since there are probably many users, like myself, who have no idea what the help system should look like. I have installed three different IVF versions on two different computers over the last two years, and have always suffered through the help viewed with IE, not knowing any better.

Eureka! Many thanks for the tip, Roman. This new "help" experience is way better, and solves about half of my complaints! It's still too bad that the document can't be provided as a pdf, so I can view it outside of the VS environment (e.g., on a different computer) and mark it up.

I have installed about three different versions of IVF on two different computers, and help had ALWAYS come up with Internet Explorer. I had no idea there was any other way.

Steve, you might consider putting out a general alert on this forum because there are probably lots like me, who are obsivious to the way Help is supposed to work.