Did you know… How to use F1 to get Help?

Once upon a time, a computer programmer drowned at sea.  Many <insert occupation here> were on the beach.  They heard the screams of “F1 F1”, but no one understood…

F1 can take you to a help topic based on the context of what you are currently doing.  For example, consider the language keyword class.  If I did a search for class using Search in the Microsoft Document Explorer (DExplorer) filtering on the C# Language, the first several hits refer to Class Libraries.  However, if I opened a C# project (or just create a new C# file if you’re playing along at home), place the cursor (or selected) the word class in

 public class Class1 {

I get the following topic

Class (C# Programmer’s Reference)

It’s all about context.

I should also note, as it is my custom to do so, that F1 is bound to the command Help.F1Help.  There’s nothing keeping you from binding it to F2, if your heart so desires.

Happy Visual Studio’ing!