{"id":2964516,"date":"2026-05-13T11:08:57","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:08:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/?post_type=blog&p=2964516"},"modified":"2026-05-13T11:08:48","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:08:48","slug":"a-new-way-to-work-with-offline-help","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-pro\/announcements\/a-new-way-to-work-with-offline-help","title":{"rendered":"A New Way to Work with Offline Help"},"author":8932,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":""},"categories":[37101],"tags":[29901,29911,30121],"industry":[],"product":[764612,36651,36561,769412],"class_list":["post-2964516","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-announcements","tag-documentation","tag-help","tag-offline","product-allsource","product-drone2map","product-arcgis-pro","product-arcgisrealitystudio"],"acf":{"authors":[{"ID":8932,"user_firstname":"Kory","user_lastname":"Kramer","nickname":"Kory Kramer","user_nicename":"kkramer","display_name":"Kory Kramer","user_email":"KKramer@esri.com","user_url":"","user_registered":"2019-02-11 14:26:30","user_description":"Kory Kramer is a Product Manager for ArcGIS Pro, collaborating across multiple teams to contribute to the direction of product development. He is dedicated to listening to users and finding ways to convert that feedback into a product that continues to add customer value. In his free time, he tries to get outside as much as possible \u2013 often on trails, sometimes on a bike. He has recently started composting and is trying to get bats to take up residence in his backyard bat house.","user_avatar":""}],"short_description":"Offline help is changing with ArcGIS Documentation Center\u2014one place to install, manage, and update desktop help.","flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

With the Q2 2026 releases, we\u2019re introducing an important change to how offline help works across installed desktop applications\u2014ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS AllSource, ArcGIS Drone2Map, and ArcGIS Reality Studio. Offline documentation is now delivered through a new desktop application: ArcGIS Documentation Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":{"ID":2964517,"id":2964517,"title":"DocCenter","filename":"DocCenter.png","filesize":59876,"url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/05\/DocCenter.png","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-pro\/announcements\/a-new-way-to-work-with-offline-help\/doccenter","alt":"","author":"8932","description":"","caption":"The ArcGIS Documentation Center provides several ways for you to view information about the documentation sets that are available. This includes methods for sorting and filtering the documentation sets that are displayed on the Home and Library tabs. You can also change the settings for the application, see viewing history, and other information using the Menu button.","name":"doccenter","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":2964516,"date":"2026-05-01 22:14:31","modified":"2026-05-01 22:15:44","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1225,"height":600,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/05\/DocCenter-213x200.png","thumbnail-width":213,"thumbnail-height":200,"medium":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/05\/DocCenter.png","medium-width":464,"medium-height":227,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/05\/DocCenter.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":376,"large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/05\/DocCenter.png","large-width":1225,"large-height":600,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/05\/DocCenter.png","1536x1536-width":1225,"1536x1536-height":600,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/05\/DocCenter.png","2048x2048-width":1225,"2048x2048-height":600,"card_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/05\/DocCenter-826x405.png","card_image-width":826,"card_image-height":405,"wide_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/05\/DocCenter.png","wide_image-width":1225,"wide_image-height":600}},"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

This is much more than an implementation detail. It\u2019s a shift to a consistent, sustainable, and modern documentation experience, whether you\u2019re occasionally offline or working in a fully disconnected environment.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a look at what\u2019s changing, why we\u2019re making this move, and what you need to do to be ready.<\/p>\n

Background: how offline help has traditionally worked<\/h2>\n

Historically, offline documentation was only available for Pro through a separate application that was tightly coupled to specific versions and language packs.<\/p>\n

If you needed offline help, you installed a stand-alone help application. Each new release required uninstalling the old help system and installing a new one for each language needed. Documentation lived in different places for different products, and help was static throughout a release, not receiving periodic updates like the web help does.<\/p>\n

This approach worked for a long time, but it had some downsides, especially for users managing multiple ArcGIS applications, administrators supporting disconnected environments, and anyone who wanted up-to-date documentation (wait\u2014who doesn\u2019t want up-to-date documentation?) without repeated installation cycles.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s changing?<\/h2>\n

Starting with the Q2 2026 releases, offline help is moving to ArcGIS Documentation Center (Doc Center), a single desktop application that manages offline documentation for multiple ArcGIS products: Pro, AllSource, Drone2Map, and Reality Studio.<\/p>\n

With this change, offline help is no longer installed per product, per language, and per version. Instead, it is delivered as packages, called documentation sets, that you download and update as needed. If you use more than one desktop application, you\u2019ll immediately benefit from having a single, shared offline help system.<\/p>\n

Doc sets in non-English languages will still be available within a few months of each respective product release.<\/p>\n

Benefits of the new experience<\/h2>\n

From a user perspective, this new approach delivers several important benefits:<\/p>\n