Creating Links to Online Tutorials

Help version 3.1 includes limited support for creating links between an application’s Help file and an online tutorial. This means that you can create hot spots within the Help file that link to specific tutorial lessons. When the user chooses a tutorial hot spot, Help starts the tutorial application and informs it that the user has requested a tutorial lesson. Help then turns control over to the tutorial application so that it can run the lesson.

Creating tutorial links within a Help file requires cooperation from all sources:

nThe Help author is responsible for creating the hot spots that the user chooses to see a tutorial lesson.

nWindows Help is responsible for sending a message to the tutorial application and informing it that the user has requested a particular lesson. To send this message, Help may also have to start the tutorial application.

nThe tutorial application is responsible for starting and running the tutorial lesson and for returning control to Help when the user has finished using the tutorial.