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I need suggestions for creating a Help system for a Visual Basic Program.

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  #1  
Old February 7th, 2006, 01:55 PM
Athono Athono is offline
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I need suggestions for creating a Help system for a Visual Basic Program.
I need suggestions for creating a Help system for a Visual Basic Program.

We have a requirement to provide "on-line help" to our Visual Basic program. What I believe they mean is the sort of Help functionality that one normally sees in C++ generated program.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

I have been told that the file type is a .CHM file that the help system uses. Is there a Help Component in Visual Basic?

What I would really like to do is to have the user choose between having the help be displayed in either .CHM or .HTM format. So, is there a web browser component in Visual Basic too?
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Old February 7th, 2006, 03:10 PM
Scorpions4ever Scorpions4ever is offline
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1. In your VB application, add this code to be executed on startup.
Code:
App.HelpFile = App.Path & "\helpfile.chm"

2. Set the HelpContextID property of your forms and controls to the IDs in the CHM file for various sections.

This will make the help work.

If you want to popup help separately (as a result of a dialog action or whatever), simply declare this function and constants:
Code:
Declare Function HtmlHelp Lib "HHCtrl.ocx" Alias "HtmlHelpA" _
   (ByVal hwndCaller As Long, _
   ByVal pszFile As String, _
   ByVal uCommand As Long, _
   dwData As Any) As Long

Const HH_DISPLAY_TOPIC = &H0
Const HH_HELP_CONTEXT = &HF

and call this as follows:
Code:
Call HtmlHelp(frmMain.hWnd, "c:\help\helpfile.chm", HH_DISPLAY_TOPIC, ByVal "Topic1.htm")
Call HtmlHelp(frmMain.hWnd, App.HelpFile, HH_HELP_CONTEXT, ByVal CLng(12345))
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Last edited by Scorpions4ever : February 7th, 2006 at 03:14 PM.
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Old February 7th, 2006, 06:18 PM
Doug G Doug G is offline
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Take a look at the htmlhelp section of www.mvps.org
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Old February 7th, 2006, 06:26 PM
Athono Athono is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Scorpions4ever
1. In your VB application, add this code to be executed on startup.
Code:
App.HelpFile = App.Path & "\helpfile.chm"


OK, but how do I create the .CHM file? What tool does this?
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Old February 7th, 2006, 07:55 PM
Scorpions4ever Scorpions4ever is offline
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There is a HTML Help tool that comes with microsoft Office. There are also other freeware CHM file creators available.
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Old February 7th, 2006, 09:48 PM
Doug G Doug G is offline
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And Microsoft gives away their .chm creation tool, look on the MS site for the htmlhelp sdk download.
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Old February 13th, 2006, 07:56 PM
Athono Athono is offline
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I think for a first pass at this I am going to just launch an .ADP file inside a launched IE. How would I do this in Visual Basic?
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