Creating and Using Subsets

You can use MSDN Library subsets to display only the information you are interested in. By selecting a subset, you filter the topics that appear in the table of contents, full-text search, and F1 look-up. When a subset is selected and you click the Index tab in the navigation pane, the entire Index will appear, but keywords that are not included in the active subset appear dimmed and are unavailable.

Subset definition is based on the structure of the table of contents. The MSDN Library ships with predefined subsets based on common ways of using the Library. You can use these predefined subsets to filter topics or you can define your own subsets. You can use a predefined subset as a starting point and save the results with a new name or you can define subsets from the entire table of contents. Subsets that you create are added to the list of available subsets and are saved between sessions.

To select the active subset

In the navigation pane, select a subset from the Active Subset dropdown menu. If no subsets are defined, the only option is Entire Collection.

To define a subset

1. From the View menu, click Define Subset.
   
   
2. In the Select subset to display dropdown list, select New to start with all nodes available, or select an existing subset to use as the base for your subset.
   
   
3. Select a node in the Available Items list box. Click Add.
   
   
4. Continue adding nodes until the subset is complete.
   
   
5. When the subset is complete, enter a title in the Save new subset as edit box and click Save.
   
   
6. Click Close.

Note   When you add a node to a subset, the top-level node (book) takes precedence, so if you add something from a book and later add the whole book, the item added first doesn't appear twice.

Using subsets to narrow a full-text search

1. On the left pane of the online documentation, click the Search tab.
   
   
2. In the Active Subset list, click the name of the subset you want to search.
   
   
3. Enter your search text.
   
   
4. Click List Topics to begin your search.

To edit or remove a subset

You can remove a node from the subset by highlighting it in the Items included in current subset list box and clicking Remove. The user interface contains an Add All and a Remove All button to allow a quick way to accomplish these tasks. Note that subsets cannot be merged or combined.

Note   Some document links may be broken if the destination topic does not exist in your currently selected subset. Instead of linking to the topic you want, you may see the default Topic Not Found page. If you suspect that a topic you want to link to is located in another subset, set your active subset to an appropriate subset or to (Entire Collection).