Sapien PowerShell Help v2.1.48 is a free tool from the creators of PowerShell Studio and PrimalScript (and other developer utilities).
Its description is:
“The built-in help command in the PowerShell console is useful if you just need some quick look up, but for browsing and reading, the console simply isn’t good enough. Our PowerShell Help tool allows importing any PowerShell XML help file or about file and puts all of this combined information on your desktop, notebook or tablet.
Browse, learn and evaluate server-side PowerShell modules on your tablet from anywhere-the module does not have to be installed on your computer to get to the help information.”
I’ve already found it very useful and, if I’m honest about my fat-fingered typing skills, mouse-clicking is often a welcome change from typing (and correcting) Get-Help commands. 🙂
The UI is minimal – just a menubar with three panels within 2 panes beneath. The left-hand pane is – as per usual – used for navigation. It contains a single Content panel showing 5 expandable main areas – About, Aliases, Cmdlets, Providers and Modules. The right-hand pane is dominated by a larger Topic panel with a smaller panel underneath that can be toggled between Notes and Search Results:
Expanding the main areas in the Content navigation panel reveals an astonishing amount of subject matter entries. Clicking on an entry expands the information into the right-hand Topic panel under headings like Short Description, Long Description, Notes and See Also* links.
There’s just so much information contained within this tool that I’ve only just scratched the surface so far. However, I won’t say anything more except that I’m very pleased that I stumbled across it. You’ll either be intrigued and want to explore for yourself or will have no interest at all.
Use the download button(s) on the right-hand side of this Sapien Free Tools page – https://www.sapien.com/software/sapien_free_tools
Hope this helps…
*As an aside, I think it’s a shame that several of the See Also links suffer from ‘link rot‘ as Microsoft has removed so much background documentation… MSDN being a prime example.
