Help Files (2000)

[MichaelRead]

In the past, I have resorted to using the combobox click event to change a label caption to the cell contents in a "Help" sheet. This has worked fairly well so far.

Was just wondering if it is possible using VBA to use the question mark mouse icon similar to the picture below. If not, does anyone have any better or more professional looking suggestions for a help file? (I would like to avoid using a browser to open an html file)

[Hans Pottel]

You can make a 'hlp' helpfile, using Word (rtf format) and by making a project file. To do this you can make use of the Microsoft Help Workshop, which you can download free of charge from Microsoft's website. It is not as easy as making a html helpfile, but once you understand how it works, you can make a compiled helpfile, which you can launch as a stand-alone helpfile or easily from within VBA.

[MichaelRead]

Quite interesting making this help file. Seems like there are several different components, which, when put together, make the help file. The end result is fairly mean however!

Thanks (nice to see you back)

[Hans Pottel]

Mike,

Here are some interesting sites to help you create your helpfile. From the first link, you can also download the help compilers.
http://www.helpmaster.com/hlp-musthave.htm
http://www.winhelp.net
http://www.sinterphase.com/winhelp.htm
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/6793/helpsurv.htm
http://www.easyhelp.com

[MichaelRead]

Hans, do you have any tips on creating the topics? The help file for the Help File Maker indicates that you should insert a # symbol as a footnote symbol. I have tried various formats of inserting the footnotes and it will not recognize the topics when I compile.

[Hans Pottel]

For each topic you need to create a new page, using page break in the word rtf file. I recommend making a contents page as well. On that page you use the titles of the topics, double underline them (to create topics) and add a hidden reference immediately after the double underlined title, like this (I don't know how to double underline it here, but in the rtf document, be sure you used the double underline format)

IntroductionIntro

The word 'intro' should be placed immediately after the double underlined topic title and formatted as hidden text. This is the reference that you need to put as a footnote after the # symbol. As such, after compilation, the topic title can be used to click on and the hidden text is the reference to the page where that topic is explained.

Another hint to make your helpfile:
In the Help Workshop program, you can select 'Map'. Here you can add the same 'topic' references (that is, the hidden text you used as reference) and simply put:

intro=100

This will appear as:
[Map]
intro=100

After compilation, you can force VBA to immediately jump to that specific topic, by adding the number 100 after the filename, like this

Application.Help ThisWorkbook.Path & HelpfileStr, 100

(Here I assumed that you have stored the Helpfile in the same path as your add-in and I used HelpfileStr as a string constant with the name of the Helpfile.

Hope this helps.

[MichaelRead]

Just walked in the door from work...thanks for taking the time to give me that lengthy explanation. Will try it later tonight.