Context-sensitive Help with compiled Help systems - Part 2
By Carol Johnston. Contact us if you would like a PDF version of this article.
Writing the content
It is important to decide what sort of information to include in the context-sensitive topics.
Dialog level
Dialog level Help usually provides one or more of the following:
- A general description of the dialog.
- A description of the various fields within it.
- Links to topics that provide Help on the tasks relevant to the dialog.
- If the dialog has only one task associated with it, step-by-step instructions on how to complete the task.
Field level
Field level Help usually provides a short topic with information about the selected field. This is usually in a popup window and is known as 'What's This?' Help.
When providing popup field level Help using Microsoft HTML Help
In this situation, the topics must be written in a text file. HTML Help does not support the use of graphics and formatting in popups. Even if you are using an authoring tool that has a method for producing formatted popups, this functionality is not applicable in a context-sensitive environment.
Write your text-only topics in a text file, using the syntax:
.topic context name
topic text
You can use more than one text file, but all the topics for any particular dialog must reside in the same text file. Since the context names are hard-coded into the text files, there is no need for aliasing.
The text file(s) must be included in the compilation of the Help project.
Example
A text-only topics file for the sales dialog in an application might start of like this:
.topic CTX_SALES_DIALOG_ADD_BUTTON 1010
Click this button to add a new sales item to the list.
.topic CTX_SALES_DIALOG_ADD_SALENAME 1020
Type in the product name using the correct capitalisation.
.topic CTX_SALES_DIALOG_ADD_SALEDATE 1020
Type in the date that the sale was confirmed in the format DD/MM/YYYY.
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