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.