nDisplay definitions of important terms in pop-up windows.Windows Help treats the How To Use Help file as just another Help file. The process for creating the instructional Help file is identical to the process for creating the main Help file: you create topic files, make links between topics, add graphics, create a project file, and build the Help file using the Help compiler.
You can use the same Help features in your instructional Help file that you can use in the main Help file. For example, you might:
nDisplay definitions of important terms in pop-up windows.
nUse hypergraphics to describe the information model you’re using.
nAdd your own custom buttons that let users access information in the file.
Users can take advantage of any features you add, as well as the standard Help features, when looking for information in the instructional Help file.
As previously mentioned, Windows Help provides a basic Help file named WINHELP.HLP that you can customize for your own project. The following topic files and graphics, which are used to build the basic How To Use Help file are also included:
| Filename | Description |
| WINHELP.BAS | Basic instructions to get users started using Help |
| WINHELP.BUT | Explanations of the Windows Help buttons |
| WINHELP.CMD | Explanation of the Windows Help menu commands |
| WINHELP.GLY | Definitions of terms used in the Help file |
| WINHELP.HOW | Step-by-step instructions for using Help features |
| WINHELP.IDX | Contents screen for the Help file |
| WINHELP.KBD | Keyboard equivalents used in Help |
| WINHELP.HPJ | Help project file used to build the Help file |
| BULLET.BMP | Bullet symbol used in bulleted lists |
| DOIT.BMP | Symbol used to indicate step-by-step instructions |
| HNDPOINT.BMP | Picture of the Help hot-spot cursor |
You can customize these files in any way that you want, or you can create your own instructional file from scratch.
Note:
If you use these files, you should change the name of the Help project file used to build the Help file so that your custom Help file doesn’t overwrite the default Help file when you install your product on a user’s machine. The standard Help file is used to display Help for all other applications for Windows. You should also install your custom Help file in the same directory as your main Help file.