The Low Bandwidth Version of the MSDN Library

Published 16 March 09 10:44 AM

This weekend Mary Lee posted on the VB Team blog some tips for navigating the MSDN Library. One thing she mentioned that was interesting to me (that I didn't even know about) is that there is a low bandwidth version of the library online that you can use. Take any library URL and place "(loband)" in the page name, i.e: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc488280(loband).aspx

Then you can persist this by clicking on the link at the top of the page:

msdnloband

This removes the large table of contents that displays on the left hand side and should help out those developer communities on low bandwidth connections. Give it a try and let us know if it works.

Enjoy!

by Beth Massi
Filed under: ,

Comment Notification

If you would like to receive an email when updates are made to this post, please register here

Subscribe to this post's comments using RSS

Comments

# Mike said on March 16, 2009 2:01 PM:

Hmm, the loband version sounds like a great idea for the MSDN Help Viewer to use (when it displays online documentation of course, the local version is fine). To bad that it seems to consistently ignore the "Persist low bandwidth view" setting.

Waiting for a new CTP/Beta version of VS2010, I've heard that the help system has been changed :)

# Beth Massi said on March 16, 2009 2:19 PM:

Hi Mike,

I'm not sure how it works but I assume it's using cookies to persist the setting. I noticed that if I clicked the "back" button on the browser to a page in normal view the setting was lost, but otherwise it seems to be working for me. I'll send your feedback to the doc team. Thanks!

-B

# Beth Massi said on March 16, 2009 2:31 PM:

Hi Mike,

Question for you -- which browser are you using? I'll pass this info along to the right folks.

Thanks again!

# Mike said on March 16, 2009 2:44 PM:

I'm using IE8 (on Win7 Beta or Vista) but I'm not sure why that matters. More exactly:

1) I'm talking about the MSDN Document Explorer that ships with Visual Sudio 2008

2) Use document explorer to get help for some .NET class/method/property etc. (note that I'm talking about the "online" help feature of the document explorer)

3) Edit the url to contain (loband). It works but if you try to use the "Persist low bandwidth view" option then Document Explorer doesn't appear to remember that. In IE it works fine.

# Beth Massi said on March 16, 2009 2:55 PM:

Thanks Mike, I'll pass this info to the doc team.

# Kwolk said on March 19, 2009 2:07 AM:

Hi Mike, Beth,

For the low bandwidth view we use a cookie and for the Document Explorer view we rely on the user agent.  Our current logic is to honor the user agent string over the cookie setting, but we will take a look at changing this.  

We use this feature to change the presentation for different devices.  Here are some other devices:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library(pda)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library(robot)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library(printer)

We are releasing an updated low bandwidth experience later this month.  We have added some navigation links on the left side of the page.  Please take a look and send us your feedback (there is a feedback link on the updated experience).

Thanks.

# Inside MSDN and TechNet said on March 26, 2009 3:28 AM:

The Library Experience (LEX) team is proud to announce the release of low bandwidth (loband) Beta! Please

Leave a Comment

(required) 
(optional)
(required) 

  
Enter Code Here: Required

About Beth Massi

Beth is a Program Manager on the Visual Studio Community Team at Microsoft and is responsible for producing and managing content for business application developers, driving community features and team participation onto MSDN Developer Centers (http://msdn.com), and helping make Visual Studio one of the best developer tools in the world. She also produces regular content on her blog (http://blogs.msdn.com/bethmassi), Channel 9, and a variety of other developer sites and magazines. As a community champion and a long-time member of the Microsoft developer community she also helps with the San Francisco East Bay .NET user group and is a frequent speaker at various software development events. Before Microsoft, she was a Senior Architect at a health care software product company and a Microsoft Solutions Architect MVP. Over the last decade she has worked on distributed applications and frameworks, web and Windows-based applications using Microsoft development tools in a variety of businesses. She loves teaching, hiking, mountain biking, and driving really fast.

This Blog

Syndication

Bookmark and Share

Add to Technorati Favorites


Your Host:
Me!
NOTE: The opinions expressed here are MY OWN and are not necessarily those of my employer, partners, customers, friends, or family. ALL content presented AS-IS, for entertainment purposes only with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY expressed or implied.
Page view tracker