Coding Insomnia

Update

After installing the August CPT of Sandcastle, you’ll need to update to the latest version of the MSBuild script.

I’ve just released a new version of the MSBuild-script for Sandcastle. There are two new features and one new (though optional) requirement.

First of all, the new requirement is the Visual Studio .NET Help Integration Kit 2003 which contains Microsoft Help Compiler 2.

The two new features of the script are:

• Can now compile both CHM (Html Help 1.x) and HxS (Microsoft Help 2) files
• Supports custom content files (things like header, footer and copyright text)

You can download the following files:

• Sandcastle.zip
  Unzip the contents of this file to c:\Program Files\MSBuild\Sandcastle.
• SandcastleTest.zip
  This file contains a sample solution and a sample MSBuild script (called Documentation.proj).

Instructions are more or less the same as before:

1. If you haven’t already done so, install the Sandcastle June CTP. The scripts rely on a completly unmodified installation, so don’t make any changes to it (especially not the sandcastle.config file).
2. Unzip the contents of Sandcastle.zip to your MSBuild folder (usually c:\Program Files\MSBuild)
3. Unzip the contents of SandcastleTest.zip to wherever you like to keep your sample projects.
4. Open up the SandcastleTest.sln solution file and build the project.
5. Open a Visual Studio 2005 Command prompt, navigate to the SandcastleTest folder and run the one of the following commands:
   • MSBuild Documentation.proj
     To build a CHM file.
   • MSBuild Documentation.proj /t:DocumentationNew
     To build an HxS file.
   • MSBuild Documentation.proj /t:DocumentationAll
     To build both a CHM and an HxS file
6. Cross your fingers, and when the process is finished, look for the Output\SandcastleTest.chm and/or the Output\SandcastleTest.HxS files!
7. In order to actually view an HxS-file you’ll need to register it with MSHelp. Or, an easier way (just to see that it works) is to use the free H2Viewer-utility.