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Let's have simple

SELECT 'a'

Whenever I press F1 on SELECT keyword, standalone installed SSMS 2016 launches web browser to display online help.

I want F1 to open local help for SELECT keyword.

What I have done so far:

  1. Menu Help > Add or Remove Help Content, added books SQL Shared Language reference, Books Online, Developer Reference so help page for SELECT (Transact-SQL) is now available in help index.

  2. Migrated help repository from C: to some more convenient place.

What else needs to be done?
Maybe checking option "I want to use local help" in help settings? But it is not present any more in SSMS 2016.

I also examined the Registry and was hunting for proper registry key(s) listening to SSMS using Process Monitor tool, but the SSMS did not seem to read anything resembling online/offline option at the moment of pressing F1.

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miroxlav
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1 Answers1

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SSMS 2016 help is broken. See these connect items, which you can vote for:

https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/details/2826366/f1-help-in-ssms-2016-always-opens-online-content-ignores-local-help-library

and

https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/details/2828609/ssms-2016-help-viewer-1-1-pops-up-help-docs-never-found

UPDATE: the issue came fixed in SSMS 2016.4.1. From download page:

Fixed an issue where the F1 Help always opened online content. Users can now select whether they prefer online or offline help via the "Set Help Preference" in the Help menu.
Microsoft Connect item #2826366

miroxlav
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techvslife
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  • Actually, first connect item you linked is mine, created as follow-up for this question. :) Second is yours, but it has insufficient steps to reproduce: they are not mentioning any help setup before pressing F1 etc. – miroxlav Jun 20 '16 at 21:00
  • on the second, no setup is needed--pressing F1 on a property sheet in ssms 2016 either fails or brings up help 1.1. (There are no steps to reproduce other than pressing F1). – techvslife Jun 21 '16 at 06:51
  • SSMS 2016 comes with Help Viewer 2.2, isn't it? (SSMS 2016 is based on Visual Studio 2015 Isolated and this version has Help Viewer 2.2.) Attempt do bring Help Viewer 1.1 looks like a misconfiguration locally on your machine. Did you try to install SSMS 2016 in clean environment to verify whether your issue still persists? – miroxlav Jun 21 '16 at 07:19
  • Yes it comes with help 2.2 and help 2.2 will come up under "Help, View Help" menu in ssms (though non-local). However local help 1.1 comes up if you press F1 from a property sheet for a database for example (right click on a database in SSMS explorer and go to properties, then F1 on a field). In other contexts and other places, people get application error messages, or an online error page (i.e. tries to go to non-local help). But there is no misconfiguration--this is on clean machines. ssms 2016 help is broken period--I think there is nothing for you to do but wait for MS to fix it. – techvslife Jun 21 '16 at 18:39
  • If I remove help 1.1 from installed programs, then SSMS 2016 always goes to online help (but not to local help 2.2). – techvslife Jun 21 '16 at 21:44