Context-sensitive help

Rick Esterling -- rick@eco.twg.com
Monday, January 15, 1996

Hi all,

I'm using MSVC 4.0/MFC 4.0 for a WinNT, 32-bit, dialog-based application
(CWinApp and CDialog derived objects only).

Even though my project is only a dialog-based application, I'd still like
to provide context-sensitive help as is built into MFC.  

CWinApp includes a member method, OnContextHelp(), and several references
in the documentation would have you believe that CWinApp alone is capable
of doing context-sensitive help, but one look at CWinApp's source code (in
apphelpx.cpp) reveals that all that really happens is that this call gets
passed down to CFrameWnd::OnContextHelp().  Obviously, a dialog-based
application doesn't include a CFrameWnd derived object.

Does this mean my only alternative is to hand code context sensitive help
for any and all dialog-based applications?  

Thanks,
Rick

-------------------------------------------------------------

Rick Esterling                     The Wollongong Group, Inc.
Senior Software Engineer           McLean, VA
http://widget.eco.twg.com:1080     http://www.twg.com

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Dave Brooks -- info@brooksnet.com
Wednesday, January 17, 1996

[Mini-digest: 3 responses]

At 12:35 PM 1/15/96 -005, Rick Esterling wrote:
>Does this mean my only alternative is to hand code context sensitive help
>for any and all dialog-based applications?  

Nope; in my dialog I have a Help button with ID set to the constant ID_HELP.
I run "makehelp" (I have the compilation step turned off); this generates
the right tags in foo.hm (where "foo" is the project).  I have a help topic
with this tag; how you do that depends on the help authoring tool you are
using ... and there may be in import step involved, again depending on the
tool.  Then, it works.

BTW, congrats on making context sensitive help; I do that with all dialogs,
menu ids, and windows in my application.  I only wish more people actually
read help :-)  But many do.

Dave
**************************************************************************
David L. Brooks                             Brooks Internet Software, Inc.
info@brooksnet.com        1-800-523-9175 MST         http://brooksnet.com/
 Home of RPM, a new LPD server for Windows - check the Web page for demo!

-----From: DOUG MILLER 

I could have sworn AppWizard had an option to enable context sensitive
help.  (This is the case in VC++ 2.x; it's a checkbox in step 2 of 4 in
AppWizard.)

A way to add it in after the fact would be to generate a skeletal app   
with
and without context sensitive help and incorporate the differences into
your app.


 ---
With scissors, there can be no good haircuts.

-----From: kitk@mudshark.sunquest.com (Kit Kauffmann)

I found no alternative & coded a context-sensitive help system for dialogs 
which automatically adds the little context-help button just to the right or 
left of your regular help button (shortening it, of course).  Since I 
inherit all dialogs from a parent which includes all the hard stuff, each 
dialog simply adds a dialog-specific 'help-map'.  I'm legally constrained 
from distributing this, but I hope that is enough to get you started...

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