Select keyboard shortcut Ctrl+T to create a new topic.

or

Click the New Topic button on the Project tab.

or

Click the New Topic and Table of Contents Node button on the Table of Contents Layout editor toolbar to create a topic and a related table of contents node in one operation.

or

Select an existing topic on the Project Explorer and click Clone on the context menu to create a new topic that is a copy of that existing topic.

or

Right-click on a specific topic category and click New Topic from the context menu to add a topic to that category.

1. Select the topic or topics in the project explorer.
2. In the properties window, edit the required properties. The changes take effect immediately.

1. If you want to add a new topic category below an existing topic category, first select the topic category in the Project Explorer.
2. Click the New Topic Category button on the Project tab.
3. The New Topic Category is created and selected on the project explorer. The new project explorer entry is now in edit mode, and you can change the name of the new topic category.

1. Select the topic category on the project explorer.
2. In the properties window, type the new Name for the topic category.

1. Select the item or items you want to move.
2. Drag and drop them to the new required location on the project explorer. A drop indicator highlight appears as you drag the items around the project explorer, indicating where the items are moved to if dropped.

- or -

1. Use the Move Up and Move Down buttons to re-order topics within a topic category, or topic categories within the parent topic category.

1. Select Find button on the project explorer.
2. Enter part of the name or title of the topic or topic category you are looking for and press enter or select Find button in the edit box.
   The tool selects the first match on the project explorer.
3. The first match is selected on the project explorer. Press enter or click the find button in the edit box again to find more matches.

1. Move the edit cursor to the point in the Topic content where you want the hyperlink to appear.
2. Select the existing text that you want to use as the link caption for the new hyperlink.
3. On the Content Authoring tab, select the Hyperlink button.
   or
   Use the Hyperlink HotKey (Ctrl+K).
4. In the Link Designer dialog, select the target and enter the link caption for the new hyperlink.

1. Position the edit cursor at the point in the Topic content where you want to insert an image.
2. On the Content Authoring tab, select Image....
3. In the Select Image dialog, select the image you want to insert.
4. Select OK.

Select See Also Links on the topic editor View bar and click the New toolbar button.

or

Click the New button next to the see also section at the end of the topic content in the topic editor.

The link designer dialog displays allowing you to choose the target and caption for the new see also link.

Select Index Keywords on the topic editor view bar and click the New toolbar button.

To Enable or Disable Automatically Generated Index Keywords for a Topic

Creating Hierarchical Keywords

By default, keywords appear at the top level of the generated Index. You can create hierarchical keywords by using the | character. As an example, the following keyword:

Customer|Editing|Editing Customer Details

Appears in the generated Help System index as:

Customer

Editing

Editing Customer Details

You can include the same prefixes in multiple keywords. For example, the following two keywords, which could be defined in different Topics:

Customer|Editing|Editing Customer Details

Customer|Editing|Recording a Call

Appears in the generated Help System as:

Customer

Editing

Editing Customer Details

Recording a Call

Microsoft Help 2.x Links

When creating Microsoft Help 2.x systems, you can create two additional types of Index keywords in addition to those in the visible Index.

Associative Keywords allow you to assign keywords to Topics that you can use to create links from other Topics. As an example, you could assign an associative keyword to each Topic related to a specific concept in your Help System. You would then be able to create a Help 2 link using that keyword; at runtime the Help System would show a list of Topics matching the associative keyword when the link is clicked.

Context (F1) Keywords are used by Visual Studio to find Topics for the Dynamic Help window matching the current Visual Studio context. If you are developing Add-Ins, Designers, or Components for the Visual Studio IDE, you can contribute help context keywords. By defining matching Context Keywords in your Help System, you can provide your users with F1 or Dynamic Help content based on context.

1. Click the Project Settings button on the Project tab.
2. Under the Custom Properties section on Project Settings page, select Topic Properties.
3. Click the New toolbar button to define a new Topic Property, including the default value.

Once the new Topic Property is defined, select one or more Topics in the Project Explorer and then define the value of your custom Topic Property in the Properties Window.

You can use the Topic Property anywhere in the Topic Content by surrounding the Property Name with %% characters - e.g. %%MyCustomProperty%%. When the Topic is output, the %%MyCustomProperty%% placeholder is replaced with the current value defined against the Topic for that property.

Click the Add Sibling Node or Add Child Node toolbar button on the Table of Contents Editor. When the Project Link Designer dialog appears, select the Topic you want the new Table of Contents node to link to;

or

Select the Topic or Topics that you want to add to the Table of Contents on the Project Explorer. Drag and drop the Topics on to the Table of Contents editor in the desired location.

Highlighting new Topics in the Table of Contents makes it easier for users of your Help System to identify new content when you release a new version. HelpStudio provides a structured way to mark Topics as new in the Table of Contents.

By setting a date in the Build Profile Editor, HelpStudio automatically detects and marks new topics in the generated Table of Contents with a red check mark. If the Help System uses the light template, the word New appears on all new topics.

To Mark Topics as New using the Topic Creation Date

1. Open the Build Profile Editor.
2. Select New Content Highlighting option.
3. Check the Automatically highlight new items checkbox.
4. Select the date at which HelpStudio must consider the Topics as new.
5. Select Use the Topic Creation Date to determine if a Topic is considered new option to automatically identify Topics changed or created since the date value you specified.

To Mark Topics as New using a Custom Topic Property

1. Open the Build Profile Editor.
2. Select New Content Highlighting option.
3. Check the Automatically highlight new items checkbox.
4. Select the date at which HelpStudio must consider Topics as new.
5. Select Use a custom Topic property to determine if a Topic is considered new option.
6. Select New Property button.
7. On the New Property dialog, enter the Name as Change Date and select Property Type as Date & Time.
   The modification date to be used in determining new Topics can now be set using the Change Date property.

To Mark Topics as New using Mark as New Option

1. Go to Table of Contents Layout and select the topic you want to mark as new.
2. In the Properties section, under Appearance, check the Mark as New checkbox.
   In the generated Table of Contents, you see a red check mark or the word New on new topics based on the template.

Select Tasks on the Topic Editor View bar and click the New button.

The Task that is created is now associated with the current Topic and is listed on the Task list in the current Topic.