Creating a Help Center in VB.NET - vb.net

I'm developing a program in vb.net, and I want to add in some help pages to the program, without using web-based help, so more like when you hit F1 in the Microsoft Office programs.
Is there a straightforward way of doing this, other than just making it via lots of forms?
Thanks in advance!

Perhaps a small Sqlite database with the help content and a help browser that reads the content from the database?
Other than that you have CHM and HLP formats. With CHM you can use the HelpProvider to provide this information to your user.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Compiled_HTML_Help

Related

How to make Prezi-like graphics in VB.Net?

Does anyone know how Prezi (The fancy presentation software) is made ? I need to create an application with a module that includes some graphical features like in Prezi.
I'm talking specifically about the graphical library.
I have been looking to DirectX or XNA but I'm not sure if this would be the right choice...
Any help would be much appreciated :) !
Cheers in advance.
I might not fully understand the "graphical library", but I think the answer you're looking for is that Prezi presentations are rendered in Flash, you can probably "embed" them in your application, are they are available on their website through Flash, or locally on your computer without a browser, with a Flash player.

how do i create help files in vb.net?

can I create help files in html help and add it to vb.net or are there another way to implement help system on vb.net I want to create custom help files
The .CHM file format (Compiled HTML) is the current format used for help files wit Winforms/WPF .Net application.
There are a variety of ways to create CHM files. I'd suggest checking out this question for more details on how to accomplish this.
For ASP.Net applications, you would need to generate your own help pages.
Tutorials
Creating help files and linking them to a VB application
MSDN Documents

Is it possible to have a treeview in Microsoft Word with VBA?

I was looking at software to write novels and stories and they have basically the same organizational format. They have a tree on the side and folders for organizing. Here are some examples:
http://storyist.com/assets/screenshots/StoryistCollage-Full.jpg
http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener_pages/screenshotcommentary.php
I have Microsoft Word and being a programmer (among other things), I wondered if there is a way to use VBA controls and create this look and organizational process in Word.
Is there any way to do that? If there is, how would I begin? Or, is this something I need to do standalone?
EDIT: Here is what I am looking for:
http://writingoutliner.com/software-features/project-based-writing-for-long-documents.php
Is this possible solely with VBA?
Your question if broken down would be something like this
I wondered if there is a way to use VBA controls and create this look and organizational process in Word
Is there any way to do that? If there is, how would I begin?
Is this something I need to do standalone?
Unfortunately Word would be a wrong choice if you want that kind of professional Look. If you want a standalone I would recommend creating a CHM (Compiled Help Modules) file. It would look something like one of your Windows Help File.
There are many free software's that can create CHM Files for you. One such link is here.
If you want a really amazing tool (I use the same and unfortunately it is not free) then check out Help and Manual 6
If you still want to do it in word, you will have to use VBA and then use the Treeview Control in a userform. The biggest disadvantage of Treeview is that it is not distributable. To see how to work with Treeview control, see my other reply here.

Controls Based Security in a Windows Forms Application using VB.NET

I need to implement, Controls Based Security in a Windows Forms Application using VB.NET. I tried google but did not get anything much to work with.
I would like if someone, could suggest some books or tutorials.
Thanks
I'd recommend looking at Jesse Liberty's very detailed article: Controls Based Security in a Windows Forms Application, which includes full source and demonstrates one nice approach to this problem. While the article is in C#, the concepts should all translate to VB.NET exactly.

Quickest way to convert a VB.Net desktop application to a mobile web application?

I have an application that is written in VB.NET, using the System.Windows.Forms.Form as the front-end GUI.
It runs perfectly on my Windows machine however recently there is a business requirement to convert this application to run as a web application so that people could view them in their blackberries when they go to the URL.
Is there any quick way to perform such a conversion or I will have to translate the code line-by-line for such cases?
Any help is appreciated!
Thanks!
Is there any quick way to perform such a conversion
No, not that meets your requirements. You can build custom winforms controls that can be hosted in internet explorer, but that won't help users accessing your app from a blackberry.
will I have to translate the code line-by-line for such cases?
No, it's much worse than that. Many of the things you do in a Winforms app just won't translate to the web well. You'll have to re-write and re-think a lot of your existing code. Essentially, you're not only re-building the app from from scratch, but you're doing it for a platform with which you have no prior experience. In other words, it might even take longer than building the original.
I know it's not what you were hoping to hear, but thems the breaks.