Implementing User Assistance

Once you have created your help files, you must then make this information available in your application. User assistance has many elements, including the following:

Readme files and other introductory material for the user to refer to, even before installing the application
Printed, online, or electronic documentation
Email, telephone, or onsite support by product specialists
Wizards, builders, and other user interface components designed to guide the user through a process
Help files, pop-up help, and ToolTip details for individual controls

Within your .NET application are three main ways in which you can provide integrated user assistance:

Help files You may use the HelpProvider component to show a traditional Help file.
Pop-up help You may use the HelpProvider component to provide pop-up help for a dialog box.
ToolTips The ToolTip component can be used to provide quick help for individual controls.

The HelpProvider Component

The HelpProvider component can be used to link your application and an associated Help file. By placing a HelpProvider component on your form, it extends other objects on the form to include help- related properties. The extended properties will automatically appear in the Properties list for the form and its controls, which may be accessed using the ShowHelp and ShowHelpIndex methods .

The HelpNamespace property of the HelpProvider component specifies the Help file or target URL to use, whereas the NelpNavigator and HelpKeyword properties specify the information to show from the file.

Table 10.1 displays the possible values for the HelpNavigator property.

Table 10.1. Values of the HelpProvider.HelpNavigator Property

Value	Meaning
AssociateIndex	Displays the first topic listed in the index for the specified HelpKeyword .
Find	Displays the search page of the specified Help file.
Index	Displays the index for the specified Help file.
KeywordIndex	Displays the index for the specified HelpKeyword .
TableOfContents	Displays the table of contents for the specified Help file.
Topic	Displays the topic identified by the specified HelpKeyword .

Pop-Up Help

Sometimes opening a full Help browser window isn't the best solution. For example, the user may be carrying out a simple, focused task in a dialog box. In this case, switching to another window for help isn't a good idea. Pop-up help may be used to display focused help information, without opening a separate Help window.

After placing a HelpProvider control on your form, you can provide pop-up help by entering text within the HelpString property for each control.

Clicking the Help button on the form's toolbar and then clicking a control will display the HelpString text for that control.

To display a form's Help button, set the HelpButton property to True, the MinimizeBox property to False, and the MaximizeBox property to False.

The ToolTip Component

Another useful component that extends the properties of the controls on your form is the ToolTip component. By placing a ToolTip component on your form, you may provide a short text string for each control that will be displayed when users hover their cursor over the control.

The four properties you can configure to control the timing (in milliseconds ) of a ToolTip display are as follows :

InitialDelay The delay before the initial ToolTip is displayed.
AutoPopDelay The time that the ToolTip remains visible.
ReshowDelay The delay before subsequent ToolTips are displayed as the cursor moves across controls.
AutomaticDelay A single value used to set all three of the other properties. InitialDelay is set equal to AutomaticDelay , AutoPopDelay is set to 10 times AutomaticDelay , and ReshowDelay is set to one-fifth of AutomaticDelay .