3.2.8 Creating Links and Pop-up Topics

Windows Help displays only one topic at a time. To enable users to view other topics, you must create hot spots that link your topics to other topics. You create a hot spot by using the \strike, \ul, or \uldb statement and a corresponding \v statement. When you create a link, you provide the text for the hot spot and the context string for the topic that is to be jumped to or displayed. The following example creates a hot spot named Glossary and establishes a link from the hot spot to the topic having the context string “glo1”:

You can find a list of terms used in this
help file in the {\uldb Glossary}{\v glo1}.

When Windows Help displays the topic with this hot spot, it places a line under the word Glossary and colors the word green. The context string is not shown, but if the user clicks on the hot spot, Windows Help jumps to and displays the corresponding topic.

The \strike and \uldb statements are used to create jumps to other topics. The \ul statement creates a link to a pop-up topic. Windows Help displays pop-up topics in a pop-up window and leaves the current topic in the main window.

You can also associate a Help macro with a hot spot in a topic. For example, the following \uldb and \v statements create a hot spot for the ExecProgram macro:

{\uldb Clock}{\v !ExecProgram("clock.exe", 1)}

Windows Help executes the macro whenever the user chooses the hot spot. Windows Help continues displaying the topic while it executes the macro, unless the macro causes a jump to another topic.