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F1 help does not navigate to the correct ArcObjects page when working in VB .NET
Depending on the version of Visual Studio you're using, you may experience an issue when using F1 help and the Microsoft Document Explorer in Visual Basic (VB) .NET. The functionality of the VB .NET F1 help depends on your settings for where to look for help.
If you're not getting the correct results when you have an ArcObjects component selected, adjust the Microsoft Document Explorer settings to search local help first as shown in the following steps:
- Open the Microsoft Document Explorer.
- Click Tools, click Options, then click the Help node.
- Under the Help node, click Online.
- Verify that "Try local first" and "online" are both selected under the "When loading help content" area.
The help order needs to be set through the Document Explorer in Visual Studio. If it's set in the stand-alone help system from the start menu, it will not fix the F1 help navigation.
Hidden managed classes do not appear in VB .NET IntelliSense
Another common issue for Visual Studio developers is that hidden managed classes for the primary interop assemblies (PIAs) of ArcObjects do not always appear in VB .NET IntelliSense for Visual Studio.
All Component Object Model (COM) coclasses are converted to managed classes; the managed classes have the same name as the original, with "Class" appended. This conversion is part of the ESRI-provided PIAs for ArcObjects in .NET. For example, the runtime callable wrapper for the Point coclass is PointClass.
The managed classes that are available are shown as hidden types in the Visual Studio Object Browser. See the following screen shot:
On some computers, IntelliSense in Visual Studio for VB .NET does not display these hidden types, so typing the following code in Visual Studio will not show the hidden types:
On other computers, typing the following code in Visual Studio will show the hidden types:
Currently, there is no workaround for this issue. Developers need to be aware that they can use the hidden managed classes even though IntelliSense does not display them.