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title Help content and Help Viewer for SQL Server | Microsoft Docs
ms.custom
ms.date 06/27/2017
ms.prod sql-non-specified
ms.prod_service sql-non-specified
ms.service
ms.component sql-non-specified
ms.technology server-general
ms.reviewer
ms.suite sql
ms.tgt_pltfrm
ms.topic article
applies_to
SQL Server 2014
SQL Server 2016
SQL Server 2017
ms.assetid 51f8a08c-51d0-41d8-8bc5-1cb4d42622fb
caps.latest.revision 8
author craigg-msft
ms.author craigg
manager jhubbard
ms.workload Inactive

Help content and Help Viewer for SQL Server

[!INCLUDEappliesto-ss-xxxx-xxxx-xxx-md]

You can view SQL Server help content when you are online (connected to the internet) or offline. Help viewed online always shows the most up-to-date content. Offline help is static content downloaded and installed on your machine from online content, the Microsoft Download Center, or disk.

In SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) and Visual Studio (VS), you can choose to view help content in a browser or in the Help Viewer. This article shows you how to install the Help Viewer, how to install content for offline help, and how to view online or offline help for [!INCLUDEssSQL14_md], SQL Server 2016, and SQL Server 2017.

Note

  • Help is only available online when you press F1 for context-sensitive Help in SSMS or VS. There are no downloadable help sources for F1 Help.
  • The Help Viewer does not support proxy settings, and does not support the ISO format.

Install the Help Viewer

The Help Viewer has two versions: version 1.x supports SQL Server 2014 documentation, and version 2.x supports SQL Server 2016 and SQL Server 2017 documentation. You can also use Help Viewer 2.x to view offline Help for [!INCLUDEssSQL14_md], if you Install content from disk. The tools in the following table install Help Viewer.

Tool that installs Help Viewer Help Viewer version installed
SQL Server Management Studio (latest version) v2.x
SQL Server Data Tools for Visual Studio 2015 v2.x
Visual Studio 2017 v2.x (supports SQL Server 2016 Help only)*
SQL Server 2014 Management Studio v1.x
Visual Studio prior to 2012 v1.x

* To install the Help Viewer with Visual Studio 2017, click the Individual Components tab in the Visual Studio installer, click Help Viewer in the Code Tools category, and then click Install.

Note

  • Installing SQL Server 2016 only installs Help Viewer 1.1, which does not support SQL Server 2016 or SQL Server 2017 help.
  • Installing SQL Server 2017 does not install any Help Viewer.

View online help

Online help always shows the most up-to-date content.

Use SQL Server Management Studio

To view online help content in the latest version of SSMS, click View Help on the Help menu. Documentation displays in a browser.

HelpViewer2_SSMS_ChooseOnlineORLocalHelp

Use Visual Studio

To view online help content in the latest version of Visual Studio, do the following:

  1. Click Set Help Preference on the Help menu, and click Launch in Browser.

  2. Click View Help on the Help menu. Documentation displays in a browser.

    HelpViewer2_VisualStudio_ChooseOnlineORLocalHelp

Use Help Viewer v1.x

To view online help content with Help Viewer 1.x, do the following:

  1. Open the Help Library Manager by clicking Manage Help Settings on the Help menu.

  2. In the Help Library Manager dialog box, click Choose online or local help.

    HelpLibraryManager_MainPage_ChooseOnlineORLocal.png

  3. Click I want to use online help, click OK, and then click Exit.

    HelpLibraryManager_ChooseOnlineORLocalHelp_OnlineHelpSelected_dialog

Use SQL Server 2016 or SQL Server 2017 offline help

Install help content

This process installs the most up-to-date online help content at the time of the download.

  1. In SSMS or VS, click Add and Remove Help Content on the Help menu.

  2. Click the Manage Content tab.

  3. To install the Help from the latest online source, click Online in the Installation source area.

    HelpViewer2_ManageContent_OnlineSource

  4. Click Add next to the documentation you want to install, and then click Update.

    HelpViewer2_ManageContent_AddContent

    [!IMPORTANT] In Visual Studio, the Help Viewer application may freeze (hang) while adding the documentation. For more information about this issue, see Visual Studio Help Viewer freezes. To resolve the issue, edit the %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\HelpViewer2.3\HlpViewer_SSMS16_en-US.settings\HlpViewer_VisualStudio15_en-US.settings file to change the date in Cache LastRefreshed="<mm/dd/yyyy> 00:00:00" to some date in the future.

    The table of contents in the left pane automatically updates to include the documentation you've added.

    HelpViewer2_withContentInstalled

  5. (Optional) The Local store path box on the Manage Content tab shows where the documentation is installed on the local computer. To move the documentation to a different location, click Move, enter a folder path in the To field of the Move Content dialog box, and then click OK.

    HelpViewer2_Move Content Dialog

    After the content is moved, the new location is displayed in the Local store path.

    [!IMPORTANT] If a message appears indicating that the move operation has failed, close the message box, then close and reopen Help Viewer. The new location for the content should now appear in the Local store path.

View offline help

  1. In SSMS or VS, point to Set Help Preference under the Help menu, and choose Launch in Help Viewer.
  2. When you are offline and click View Help on the Help menu, you can access the help content you installed by using the table of contents in the left pane of the Help Viewer.

Use [!INCLUDEssSQL14_md] offline help

Install help content

  1. Navigate to the Product Documentation for Microsoft SQL Server 2014 download site and click Download.

  2. Click Save in the message box to save the SQLServer2014Documentation_*.exe file to your computer.

    [!NOTE] For firewall and proxy restricted environments, save the download to a USB drive or other portable media that can be carried into the environment.

  3. Double-click the .exe to unpack the help content file, and save the file to a local or shared folder.

  4. Open the Help Library Manager by launching SSMS or VS and clicking Manage Help Settings on the Help menu.

  5. Click Install content from disk, and browse to the folder where you unpacked the help content file.

    HelpLibraryManager_MainPage_InstallFromDisk

    HelpLibraryManager_InstallContentFromDisk_dialog1

    [!IMPORTANT] To avoid installing local help content that has only a partial table of contents, you must use the Install content from disk option in the Help Library Manager. If you used Install content from online and the Help Viewer is displaying a partial table of contents, see this blog post for troubleshooting steps.

  6. Click the HelpContentSetup.msha file, click Open, and then click Next.

  7. Click Add next to the documentation you want to install, and then click Update.

    HelpLibraryManager_InstallContentFromDisk_dialog2

  8. Click Finish, and then click Exit.

View offline help

  1. Open Help Library Manager, click Choose online or local help, and then click I want to use local help.

  2. Open the Help Viewer to see the content by clicking View Help on the Help menu. The content you installed is listed in the left pane.

    HelpViewer1_withContentInstalled_ZoomedIn

Next steps

Microsoft Help Viewer - Visual Studio

[!INCLUDEget-help-options]