Create a help file and link to it from a form 1

[troyu]

I know that it is possible to create a Microsoft Help File, and have a Paradox form link to it. However, what about the new *.CHM Help files that is the standard now for Windows??
(I am using Paradox 5,0, as footpad knows.)

What I have right now for code to link to the old *.HLP file is

case textObjectName = "whatsNewText" : helpShowTopic(":NEWPROMOaradox.hlp","What's New&quot

What if I want to link to an HTML file, or a DOC file? Any ideas?

 

[footpad]

Troyu,

I'm not completely sure you're going to be able to use helpShowTopic() to display the new HTMLHelp format. Remember, that's a wrapper around the 16-bit API function. In turn, this is handled by the compatibility layer of the current 32-bit versions of Windoes and I'm not convinced that MS recompiled their 16-bit DLL's to support their new 32-bit HTML rendering engine.

If you happen to have an older copy of WinWord 6, you may find this link helpful:

http://support.microsoft.com/suppor...+Toolkit&Show=Alpha&Start=&Page=0&redirect=no

Yeah, it's a mess, but what do you expect?

The point being that since you're using a 16-bit version of Paradox, you're stuck using a 16-bit Help file implementation strategy.

Now, you might consider building your own HTML-based Help system, as many commercial vendors have done, and then launching the user's browser. For some hints with that, please see

http://techtricks.com/paradox/runbrowser.php3.

It outlines 32-bit solutions, but I think it might help.

Hope it does...

-- Lance