Which version of Book Online are you on?

Published 20 May 09 10:12 PM | MartinBell

Today whilst I was looking for something in Books Online for a blog post, I noticed that I had an old version of Books Online (BOL) installed. I only realised this because MSDN had additional information which my local copy didn’t have.

Books Online follows a different release schedule to the SQL Server service packs. So although I had SQL Server 2008 SP1 installed, BOL was still only the RTM version.

So how do you know which version you are running?
 
SQL Server 2000

It’s pretty safe bet that we will not see another version of Books Online for SQL 2000! But if you are still using this version you can check the version by going to the “Copyright and Disclaimer” topic, and at the bottom is a version number.

Copyright and Disclaimer Topic 

If you have version 8.00.00 it is the RTM version.

SQL 2000 RTM Version

You can download the June 2007 version of BOL which the download page says version 8.00.03 although the version on the “Copyright and Disclaimer” topic is 8.00.02.

SQL 2000 RTM Version

SQL Server 2005/2008

Books online changed for SQL Server 2005, the “Copyright and Disclaimer” topic does not exist although there is a “Legal Notice for Documentation” page, but it does not have a version number for BOL. The easiest way to tell your version is the banner on each topic has the version included as the release month and year (the title bar may also have a month and date in it). E.g If you go to the “SQL Server Database Engine” topic, the RTM version of BOL for SQL Server 2005 will say “SQL Server 2005 Books Online” and similarly for SQL Server 2008 it will say “SQL Server 2008 Books Online”

SQL 2005 RTM

SQL 2005 BOL RTM Version

So if you have the SQL Server 2005 Books Online version released in September 2007 it will say “SQL Server 2005 Books Online (September 2007)”



At the moment the latest version of BOL for SQL Server 2008, is the January 2009 release. The topic header will read “SQL Server 2008 Books Online (January 2009)”

SQL 2008 BOL January 2009

If you don’t have the latest version of BOL you can always go to the “Downloading and Updating Books Online” topic and click on the link to the SQL Server 2008 Books Online Download Page (there is a similar link the the SQL 2005 Books Online).

A little time spent studying books online is always worthwhile, it is usually quicker to search for information there, than to search online or wait for a question to be answered in a newsgroup. Like any indexed system, knowing the right sort of keywords to use can produce better results, but sometimes the information just isn’t there and that is what I found today, my next blog entry will explain what I was looking for!

Filed under:

Comments

# DavidWimbush said on May 21, 2009 08:05 AM:

Thanks for the reminder, Martin. There's a gotcha here, though. I just went via 2005 Books Online to the update web page, found I was out of date, and started the download. When it was about 75% done I closed Books Online and the download vanished too!

# MartinBell said on May 21, 2009 11:12 AM:

You are correct, clicking the link creates a browser TAB within Books Online. If you went to the page using Internet Explorer this issue does not happen. I don't tend to browse from BOL as you restrict the window size. You can right click the link in BOL and open in an external window to avoid this.

# Alexander Gladchenko said on May 21, 2009 11:41 AM:

После того, как BOL стал обновляться через Microsoft Update , этот вопрос, наверняка, будет волновать

# MartinBell said on May 21, 2009 12:49 PM:

Using Babel fish Alex's comment translated to this:

"After BOL began to renew through Microsoft Of update, this question, for sure, it will disturb"

One thing I did not mention was that BOL can be updated through Windows Update... but not everyone allows this, or reviews what is available regularly! If you are not up-to-date, check windows update as there may be many things waiting to be installed :)

# MartinBell said on May 23, 2009 07:13 AM:

The January version of Books Online has already been superceded see go.microsoft.com/fwlink

# Bol Sql Server | More More Pics said on July 6, 2011 05:41 PM:

Pingback from  Bol Sql Server | More More Pics

# Bol Sql Server | More More Pics said on July 6, 2011 05:41 PM:

Pingback from  Bol Sql Server | More More Pics

This Blog

SQL Blogs

Syndication