Activating Jumps

You can author a jump to be activated automatically when the topic is displayed or when the user chooses a hot spot.

Entry Macros

You can place entry macros in any topic and in the Help project file. Entry macros let you run one or more Help macros with the display of the Help file or a topic. Entry macros linked to topics can be activated by jump hot spots. For example, if users jump to a destination topic with an associated entry macro, the macro string for that topic is run automatically.

Entry macros are a powerful tool for configuring Help to display special topics or to provide helpful navigational feedback. Chapter 14, “Help Macros,” discusses the different ways a Help file can run macros and suggests how to use them in your Help file.

Using Entry Macros to Create Automatic Jumps

Entry macros have many uses, one of which is to create automatic jumps when a topic is displayed. For example, you can use an entry macro to display a group of topics—in the main Help window and in one or more secondary windows—when the user enters a particular topic.

When displaying groups of topics together, you should identify a master topic to display in the main window. By placing an entry macro in the master topic, Help can display the whole group of topics when users jump to the master topic. After displaying the master topic, Help processes the automatic jumps contained in the master topic and displays the appropriate topics in the other windows, as in Figure 8.7: