I've just received a new development machine with VS2008 pre-installed. One of my favorite help features is the Dynamic Help pane. However, it currently shows "no links are available for the current selection" for everything.
I'm thinking that there's a config option or way to enable this. So far Google hasn't turned up anything and I think that I've exhausted all Tools > Options so I'm now turning to an even larger knowledge base...
Ideas?
If the MSDN library is not installed, VS must be set to use the web for help. I have experienced issues with mixed settings where it will try one method unless another is available.
Set help source: Tools > Options: Environment >Help > Online.
You may also want to check: Help > General and check "Show Help Using:" Mine is current set to "External Help Viewer"
I don't have MSDN library loaded locally.
Solution: Looks like the pre-installed VS2008 hadn't been correctly set-up. I found the VS2008 install location and re-ran the Help/Documentation installation and now it works.
You just need to reboot your PC... sounds funny, but it works. Then when you start Visual Studio again, you get a message that it's re-organizing the help files.
It always happens to me when I install some new library that installs a new help topic for Visual Studio. (for instance, SQL Server 2008 Books Online)