Using the OS/2 Toolkit Help Files with the Microsoft Advisor

ID Number: Q73507

1.00 1.10 | 1.00 1.10

MS-DOS | OS/2

Summary:

With a minor help file "patch," the Help files that ship with the OS/2

Presentation Manager (PM) Toolkit versions 1.1 and 1.2 may be accessed

directly from the Microsoft Advisor Help system that ships with

Microsoft language products such as C versions 6.0, 6.0a, and 6.0ax

and the Microsoft Macro Assembler (MASM) version 6.0.

The patch is needed for the links from PWB.HLP to OS2.HLP and

OVERVIEW.HLP that must be corrected in order to avoid a context error

when selecting OS/2 Overview or OS/2 API from the main Microsoft

Advisor contents screen.

More Information:

The Help files that ship with the PM Toolkit do not contain the

correct links that the PWB.HLP file looks for. When choosing Help on

OS/2 API or OS/2 Overview from the Microsoft Advisor Help System

screen while inside PWB, an error message such as the following may be

generated:

Help on topic not found:

OS2.h.contents

From inside QuickHelp, the same selection may generate this message:

Topic not found or database closed

The easiest way to fix this problem is to create an intermediate Help

file patch that contains the contexts that PWB.HLP cannot find. The

sample Help file patch below will accomplish this.

If you do not want to create the patch, you may work around the errors

and access the OS/2 Help files with the following methods:

1. In PWB, press ALT+A, type "Introducing MS OS/2" or "OS/2 API"

(without the quotation marks), and press F1. These could also be

assigned to macros. For example:

HelpOverview := arg "Introducing MS OS/2" pwbhelp

HelpOS2API := arg "OS/2 API" pwbhelp

2. Using QuickHelp, select the topic from the categories menu, or press

S to perform a search, and enter "Introducing MS OS/2" or "OS/2 API"

as the search topic.

Help File Patch

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

.context OS2.h.overview

.context OS2.h.contents

.topic OS/2 Help Button Patch

.length 8

.freeze 3

\i<\p\aUp\vhv\v\i>\p \i<\p\aCon

tents\vhv\v\i>\p \i<\p\aIndex\vvx\v\i>\p \i<\p\aBack\v!B\v\i>\p

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

\i<\p\aOS/2 Overview\vOVERVIEW.HLP!Introducing MS OS/2\v\i>\p

\i<\p\aOS/2 API\vOS2.HLP!OS/2 API\v\i>\p

-*-

Notes on the above patch:

1. The two lines in the Help file source that follow the ".freeze 3"

line must be placed together on one line. Due to line length

limitations they are broken down in the example. Leave the first of

the two lines indented as it is and bring the second line up to the

end of the first to correctly form the word "Contents."

2. This Help file is designed to match the style of the other Help

files, but certain graphics characters cannot be displayed here. If

you want the style to match exactly, convert all the angle brackets

(> and <) to ASCII characters 16 and 17, convert the asterisk at

the bottom (in the -*-) to an ASCII character 4, and convert all

the dashes in the dashed line to ASCII character 196.

3. To create the Help file, use the following HELPMAKE command:

HELPMAKE /E7 /T /O<outfile> <sourcefile>

where <outfile> is the name you gave to the patch source file and

<sourcefile> is the name you want to give the actual help file

(for example, PATCH.HLP).

4. Move the completed patch Help file to the directory with your other

Help files or add the path to the patch to your HELPFILES

environment variable.

5. When using QuickHelp, in order to return to the main Microsoft

Advisor Help System screen, you will need to use the History

feature, or else go back and select Microsoft Advisor from the

Categories menu.