topic Re: Offline Help window in LabVIEW 2022? in LabVIEW

Offline Help window in LabVIEW 2022?

aehkguu — Mon, 22 Aug 2022 02:24:50 GMT

How can I get Offline Help Window for LabVIEW 2022 Q3 Version, just like in LabVIEW 2021 and other previous versions?

Currently, in 2022 version, when I click on Help > LabVIEW Help..., it shows a webpage like this:

But I want it to show the older Help Window like this:

Is there any way to obtain the older Help Window for 2022 Version?

Re: Offline Help window in LabVIEW 2022?

Neil.Pate — Mon, 22 Aug 2022 14:51:57 GMT

I thought, surely not... so I tried.

takes me to

Seriously? This is a bit too ambitiously engineered for me...

Re: Offline Help window in LabVIEW 2022?

Hooovahh — Mon, 22 Aug 2022 15:03:03 GMT

NI made a subforum dedicated to the NI Product Documentation Center to get feedback. I would normally suggest you go there to give feedback, but after making the subforum, it seems NI forgot about it. Adding a barrier between a product and the help for the product is bad. Removing features from LabVIEW that people use often is also bad. I didn't really think that needed to be said.

Re: Offline Help window in LabVIEW 2022?

billko — Mon, 22 Aug 2022 16:40:19 GMT

@Hooovahh wrote:

NI made a subforum dedicated to the NI Product Documentation Center to get feedback. I would normally suggest you go there to give feedback, but after making the subforum, it seems NI forgot about it. Adding a barrier between a product and the help for the product is bad. Removing features from LabVIEW that people use often is also bad. I didn't really think that needed to be said.

How often are your computers not able to reach the internet that this is a worry? (Answer: ALL THE TIME if you work in an industry where your computers are not allowed network access!!! I'm just going to put a wild guess out there, but probably 90% of companies out there using LabVIEW has at least a few developer stations out there that can't be/aren't hooked up to the network.) This is stupidity at its finest.

Re: Offline Help window in LabVIEW 2022?

crossrulz — Mon, 22 Aug 2022 19:17:47 GMT

@billko wrote:
How often are your computers not able to reach the internet that this is a worry? (Answer: ALL THE TIME if you work in an industry where your computers are not allowed network access!!! I'm just going to put a wild guess out there, but probably 90% of companies out there using LabVIEW has at least a few developer stations out there that can't be/aren't hooked up to the network.) This is stupidity at its finest.

I'm in an industry where closed networks are more common than open networks. This commonly means no internet access. So, yes, we need a local help.

Re: Offline Help window in LabVIEW 2022?

billko — Mon, 22 Aug 2022 22:10:37 GMT

@crossrulz wrote:

@billko wrote:
How often are your computers not able to reach the internet that this is a worry? (Answer: ALL THE TIME if you work in an industry where your computers are not allowed network access!!! I'm just going to put a wild guess out there, but probably 90% of companies out there using LabVIEW has at least a few developer stations out there that can't be/aren't hooked up to the network.) This is stupidity at its finest.

I'm in an industry where closed networks are more common than open networks. This commonly means no internet access. So, yes, we need a local help.

I seriously believe there are no brains left at NI.

Re: Offline Help window in LabVIEW 2022?

JÞB — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 01:46:49 GMT

WOW Looking HERE the statement "NI did not create this content for this release" appears often.

It seems like NI relearned how to include bugs in releases.

Re: Offline Help window in LabVIEW 2022?

MichaelBalzer — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 02:04:57 GMT

I just double-checked the 2022 beta I still have installed, and it has the chm offline help (which looks to be for 2021). So NI have snuck this into 2022 Q3, with zero mention of it in the release notes. Anything else you've slipped in without telling us, NI?

I thought maybe NI dropped the old chm to satisfy Windows 11 support, but Win11 supposedly still supports opening and viewing chm files. Accepting that chm is an outdated format and needs replacement, the alternative should still be available offline for many of the reasons already stated.

The new online help is absolute garbage. I hate everything about it. It's obvious little thought has been given to actually using it - NI are just ticking requirements checkboxes. There is the offline help viewer, but I can't for the life of me find any offline help to download anymore (it was easy to find during the NXG era). Now it's just auto generated PDFs that don't seem to generate half the time.

It's become increasingly clear NI do not understand their users, or simply do not care.

Re: Offline Help window in LabVIEW 2022?

JÞB — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 16:31:52 GMT

Seredipity!

I was looking at my Laptop while posting via mobile when my eye caught this

About five minutes ago.

this suggests a offline help file exists and the next install has now started

I'll post back here after my laptopisaurus finishes wading through the swamp.

Re: Offline Help window in LabVIEW 2022?

Frozen — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 17:15:57 GMT

@JÞB wrote:

Seredipity!

I was looking at my Laptop while posting via mobile when my eye caught this

What version of LV are you installing... it is not evident it above image.

Re: Offline Help window in LabVIEW 2022?

JÞB — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 18:52:57 GMT

@Frozen wrote:

@JÞB wrote:

Seredipity!

I was looking at my Laptop while posting via mobile when my eye caught this

What version of LV are you installing... it is not evident it above image.

LabVIEW and Drivers 2022 Q3 64-bit English

via NIPM downloaded yesterday. Also support back to 2018. Total @ 140 products. Install has been running about 14 hrs with a rest at one point.

Keep in mind I show 459 installed products.

Re: Offline Help window in LabVIEW 2022?

billko — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 21:15:49 GMT

@JÞB wrote:

@Frozen wrote:

@JÞB wrote:

Seredipity!

I was looking at my Laptop while posting via mobile when my eye caught this

What version of LV are you installing... it is not evident it above image.

LabVIEW and Drivers 2022 Q3 64-bit English

via NIPM downloaded yesterday. Also support back to 2018. Total @ 140 products. Install has been running about 14 hrs with a rest at one point.

Keep in mind I show 459 installed products.

Do you think automatic manual download was added to the stream? maybe the iso install has no such option?

Re: Offline Help window in LabVIEW 2022?

JÞB — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 22:19:13 GMT

@billko wrote:

@JÞB wrote:

@Frozen wrote:

@JÞB wrote:

Seredipity!

I was looking at my Laptop while posting via mobile when my eye caught this

What version of LV are you installing... it is not evident it above image.

LabVIEW and Drivers 2022 Q3 64-bit English

via NIPM downloaded yesterday. Also support back to 2018. Total @ 140 products. Install has been running about 14 hrs with a rest at one point.

Keep in mind I show 459 installed products.

Do you think automatic manual download was added to the stream? maybe the iso install has no such option?

Look what

I found after install finished

So, of course I ran that new exe and saw this

With the checkbox selected by default

Unchecking it, Launching LabVIEW 2022 Q3 and opening the detailed help for a For Loop (after a coffee break I assume some 1x init was done) got me here

Re: Offline Help window in LabVIEW 2022?

billko — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 22:11:59 GMT

@JÞB wrote:

@billko wrote:

@JÞB wrote:

@Frozen wrote:

@JÞB wrote:

Seredipity!

I was looking at my Laptop while posting via mobile when my eye caught this

What version of LV are you installing... it is not evident it above image.

LabVIEW and Drivers 2022 Q3 64-bit English

via NIPM downloaded yesterday. Also support back to 2018. Total @ 140 products. Install has been running about 14 hrs with a rest at one point.

Keep in mind I show 459 installed products.

Do you think automatic manual download was added to the stream? maybe the iso install has no such option?

No

Look what

I found after install finished

So, of course I ran that new exe and saw this

With the checkbox selected by default

Nice find!

Re: Offline Help window in LabVIEW 2022?

JÞB — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 22:28:38 GMT

You missed the big yellow button with the star in it Bill

Re: Offline Help window in LabVIEW 2022?

billko — Wed, 24 Aug 2022 02:37:36 GMT

@JÞB wrote:

You missed the big yellow button with the star in it Bill

Honestly I thought I did that. I'm never shy about hitting that button.

Re: Offline Help window in LabVIEW 2022?

MichaelBalzer — Wed, 24 Aug 2022 06:26:17 GMT

@JÞB wrote:

Look what

I found after install finished

So, of course I ran that new exe and saw this

With the checkbox selected by default

Thanks for finding that option. Strange its in an entirely different app, but I guess it applies globally to all NI products. A prompt when first launching the help from LabVIEW (or a supported product) to either go online or offline would've been better, but I'm just a LabVIEW user, not a UX Engineer ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Out of interest, can the new offline help directly open example VIs like the old chm help?

Re: Offline Help window in LabVIEW 2022?

Neil.Pate — Wed, 24 Aug 2022 14:24:12 GMT

Thanks, that works.

Still hate the new Help format, and my feelings towards it are not helped by the fact that it now takes nearly 30 s to open the help of an item.

Re: Offline Help window in LabVIEW 2022?

kisyou — Thu, 25 Aug 2022 08:56:39 GMT

Really speechless, NI's innovation is doing this? That's why I rarely update Labview, the more I update the less user-friendly.

Re: Offline Help window in LabVIEW 2022?

Salvador_Santolucito — Thu, 25 Aug 2022 14:46:22 GMT

Hi,

You may have noticed that over the summer, all of our product documentation is now available online at ni.com/docs In LabVIEW 2022 Q3, we are starting the transition of our in-product documentation to use our new online (and offline!) help systems. By default, products will send you to the new online documentation portal when you click a help link. However, we recognize that many systems are not internet connected, so we also install a copy of the help content locally on the system. LabVIEW will automatically re-direct help links to the offline help viewer when needed so there is nothing that you need to do. Just click the "more help" link in LabVIEW, and you will be taken to the most recent help available online (or the offline viewer will launch if necessary).

If you want to always launch the offline viewer, you can set that in the NI Help Preferences application.

There are several reasons we are making this change to our documentation experience. First, we want a consistent help experience between NI products, so while currently only LabVIEW Core has been migrated, in the coming releases we will migrate the remaining toolkits and modules, and other NI products will also use this system. Second, as some of you already noted, the existing CHM technology is outdated, has limited functionality, and is difficult to maintain.

As this is the first release of this new system, there are some limitations and kinks which we will work through in upcoming releases. Please let me know if you have any feedback!

Thanks,

Salvador Santolucito Chief Product Manager, NI