Add Context-Sensitive Help to an Application | Microsoft Windows Architecture for Developers Training Kit

Features of the Help System

Windows NT and 95 provide a Help system that is backward-compatible with the Help system in Windows 3.1. You can use the Windows Help compiler to generate Help files that will run on either system.

Windows Help:

Uses a single entry screen.
Displays tasks in secondary windows, with scroll bars if necessary.
Uses shorter tasks and more keywords.

A new feature known as associative links enables you to provide open -ended links between a topic in your file and multiple topics in other files.

Single Entry Screen

In the Windows Help system, the Contents, Search, and Index components are combined into one main screen. When a user chooses the Help Topics command from a menu, the main screen appears. This screen has two tabs: the Contents tab and the Index tab. The first time the user chooses Help Topics, the Contents tab is on top. After that, the most recently displayed tab is on top.

The Contents Tab

When using Help, a user clicks a category of topics (a book icon), and then clicks the desired topic (a page icon).

In Windows, the Contents tab does not list every topic in Help; it lists only the topics that beginning users are most likely to need. More obscure topics are accessed through the Index tab. This design limits the length and depth of the Contents tab to make it easier for beginning Windows users to find the information that is most important to them.

The Index Tab

The Index tab displays a comprehensive index to the topics in the Help file. It contains a list of the keywords provided by the Help file author. The user can choose a topic by clicking a keyword with a mouse or by typing the keyword.

If the keyword is associated with multiple topics, Help displays a dialog box that lists the associated topics for the user's selection.

Secondary Windows Display Help Tasks

All descriptions are displayed in a secondary Help window. Secondary windows can have one or more of the following properties:

They automatically include the Help Topics and Print buttons in the nonscrolling region.
By default, they are always on top of other windows. This allows users to view a Help task while performing the task.
They dynamically size themselves (vertically) to match the length of the topic, so the topic covers the least amount of screen necessary.

Help tasks in Windows have shorter descriptions than they had in previous versions of Windows. This design allows users to complete tasks without searching through complex conceptual material and takes up less space on the disk. Some of the space saved by using shorter descriptions is taken up by the expanded keyword list in the Index.

Associative Links

The Help system provides a method for specifying links to associate multiple topics. Associative links are unlike traditional jumps, which provide one-to-one links between topics. Instead, associative links provide open-ended jumps , which make your topic available to other Help files, even those that you don't know exist.

Lesson Summary

Online Help is an important feature of any application. Often the skill level of your audience determines the type of information you provide. Novice users require a different type of information than intermediate or advanced users. A Help system for all types of users should document menu commands, procedures, definitions, features, and functions.

Your application can use content-sensitive Help, ToolTips, or What's This? Help to provide information to users. In context-sensitive Help, when a user presses F1, the Windows Help system will automatically start, load the specified Help file, and move to the appropriate topic. ToolTips are small labels that display when the mouse pointer is held over a control. What's This? Help provides a link to a help topic that is displayed in a pop-up window. It can be initiated from a toolbar button, a menu item, or a button on the title bar of a dialog box.

Windows 95 and Windows NT provide a help system that is backwards -compatible with Windows 3.1. Windows Help uses a single entry screen, displays tasks in secondary windows, uses shorter tasks and more keywords.