Help System Made Easy

[jfrost10]

Hey guys,

I was at a local bookstore today, and was flipping through this book:

http://www.microsoft.com/mspress/books/5773.asp

and I came accross something very kewl! If you're thinking of doing a custom help system, consider this first:

1. I'm pretty sure this is an ie thing, but if you ever want a button to open up a help window (i.e. the help dialog that opens whenever you click help>contents and index) just add this to some client side script:
window.showhelp(pathtodesiredhelpfile)


2. You'll notice the paramter that was passed into the code above was a path to a help file. Now, I have no idea how to use it (just found out tonight it existed), but vs.net has a built in help content generator! With it, you can basically create a help system just like regular windows applications.

If I get any more info (heh, meaning if I buy the book), or if someone knows any other information on this, add it on to the post.


jack

 

[Alcar]

can't wait to read that HOW TO by Jack =) Daren J. Lahey
Just another computer guy...

 

[Zarcom]

Yes it sounds intriguing since my next step will be to build a help system for my app. That'l do donkey, that'l do
Mark

 

[jfrost10]

OK guys, i bought the book! As i'm still playing with it, here's what you need to know to get as far as i've gotten (which really isn't far at all)


1. window.showHelp() is call you make in client-side code to open the browser's (IE that is) help window (has the nice yellow '?' i the corner). It takes a few different paramters:
- a url to a web page, like
window.showHelp('Help1.aspx')
- a path to a compiled help file.
window.showHelp('c:\\HelpSample.chm')
With this one, you can also tell it what help topic you
want it to display!
window.showHelp('c:\\SomeHelpTopic\\HelpSample.chm')
So thats what you need to know to get the help page to show. Now, about the editor:

VS.NET is supposed to automatically install the HTML Help Workshop on your system. You can find it by going to
ProgramFiles\HTMLHelpWorkshop
Basically, what you do is write html help files, but instead of having to manage hundreds of htem laying around, you just stuff them into one nice, neat file. Also, it gives you the ability to create Tables of Contents, add index entries, and add cross-references, associative links, and searches; so you can make your help system as robust as you want!

Once I actually create one of these things fully, I'll post more of an in-depth how to. But for now get in there and play around with it.


jack

 

[jfrost10]

One other thing:
There's also a program in the HTML Help Workshop directory called
flash.exe

I have no documentation on this, and the book doesn't cover it, but it looks to be a graphics editor especially for the help system. Just FYI if you wanted another kewl toy to play with.

Jack