open a help file from access

[neemi]

Access 2002.

does anyone know how I can open a help file from access.

I have a form which a user enters details onto.

What I want to do is have a button which will open up a help file that tell the user how to use the form. I was thinking of maybe a chm file or something like that.

 

[KenReay]

Hi

Would using a hyperlink do the trick for you?

Regards

Ken Reay
Freelance Solutions Developer
Boldon Information Systems Ltd
Website needs upgrading, but for now -

http://www.kenneth.reay.btinternet.co.uk

UK

 

[neemi]

Yes that would work to open the whole help file, But what I want is to be able to open a certain file/document of the help file?

I want to open the relevant file in the chm?

 

[KenReay]

Hi

Have never used them, but forms have properties HelpFile and HelpFileContextId , does that help?

Regards

Ken Reay
Freelance Solutions Developer
Boldon Information Systems Ltd
Website needs upgrading, but for now -

http://www.kenneth.reay.btinternet.co.uk

UK

 

[waypoint]

You could bookmark your HTML help file and when inserting a hyperlink on the form, you'll see all the bookmarks, just pick.

I'm trying my own help facility (note that one of your thread respondents was Ken, and he ably assited me with a question on my code (below).

My method is to add a helpcontextid on the form's control(s) property and have records in my help table with a field called context. The user places focus on the control (where the screen.active.control gets tagged) then right clicks (where the mousedown event, button 2 initiates the help file lookup). The form is then opened with the correct filter criteria. Since it's part of the database, one can slice and dice and report these help components as one wants. This eliminates the need for adding buttons (hyperlinks) next to every text box in the form, and also avoids what I think is a fairly complicated way of building and managing chm. Unpolished sub below. I did not yet get a chance to add the access event cancel.

Private Sub System_Name_MouseDown(Button As Integer, Shift As Integer, X As Single, Y As Single)
Dim ctlCurrentControl As Control
Dim strControlName As String
Set ctlCurrentControl = Screen.ActiveControl
strControlName = ctlCurrentControl.Name

Dim stDocName As String

stDocName = "Form2"
stLinkCriteria = "[context]=" & Me.Controls(strControlName).[HelpContextId]
If Button = 2 Then DoCmd.OpenForm stDocName, , , stLinkCriteria
End Sub