Closing Secondary Windows

Because secondary windows are independent windows, they do not close by themselves. The user has the greatest responsibility for closing a secondary window, but applications can also close a secondary window. When dealing with Help requests from different applications, Help automatically closes secondary windows to avoid situations in which the content of the main Help window and the secondary window are totally unrelated.

The following list describes all the possible ways to close a secondary window:

nThe user can choose the Close command from the Control menu (or double-click the Control-menu box).

nThe user can choose a custom control provided by the Help author that executes the CloseWindow macro.

nThe user can open a new Help file.

nThe user can exit Help.

nThe application can send a HELP_QUIT message to Help and close Windows Help.

nThe application can send a CloseWindow macro to Help and close a specific secondary window.

nAnother application, different from the one currently displaying the secondary window, can request Help. This request will cause Help to close any open secondary windows and display the requested Help file in the main window.

Note:

If a different application from the one displaying Help topics requests Help and requests Help to display a topic in a secondary window, Help will close the main window before opening the new Help file and displaying the topic in the secondary window.