The Help Authoring Template Commands

The Help Authoring Templates do not have their own menus. Instead, they make use of the existing menus in Word for Windows by either modifying the functionality of a standard command or by adding a new command to a standard menu. The Help Authoring Templates modify four menus: the File menu, the Edit menu, the View menu, and the Insert menu.

The File Menu

The authoring templates modify four commands on the standard Word for Windows File menu: New, Open, Save, and Save As.

Command Description

New Creates, new, untitled topic file or template.
  When you create a new topic file, it is based on one of the Help Authoring Templates instead of the Word for Windows NORMAL.DOT default template.
Open Opens an existing Help topic file or template.
  When you choose this command, the Help Authoring Templates assume the file type is .RTF rather than the Word for Windows standard .DOC format.
Save Saves changes to the current Help topic file.
  If the Help topic file is untitled, the Help Authoring Templates prompt you for a name.
  Note The Help Authoring Templates save topic files in .RTF format rather than the Word for Windows standard .DOC format.
Save As Saves the current Help topic file under a new name.
  Note The Help Authoring Templates use the .RTF extension as the default extension rather than the Word for Windows standard .DOC extension.

The Edit Menu

The authoring templates add three commands to the standard Word for Windows Edit menu: Topic, Hotspot, and Graphic.

Command Description

Topic Displays Help topic information in a dialog box so you can edit it.
  You can use this command whether the topic actually contains footnotes or if you used another editor to add the footnotes to the topic.
  Note The Help Authoring Templates ignore any footnotes not at the beginning of the topic or not supported by the templates, including all MULTIKEY footnotes.
Hot Spot Displays information about a hot spot in a dialog box so you can edit it.
  If you have not selected a hot spot before choosing this command, you will see an error message.
Graphic Displays information about a bitmap reference so you can edit it.
  You can select all or part of the bitmap reference before you choose the command, but do not select any other text or you will create an error.

The View Menu

The authoring templates add three commands to the standard Word for Windows View menu: Topic, File, and Selection.

Command Description

Topic Builds the current topic as a Help file and then displays the resulting file in Windows Help.
File Builds the entire topic file as a Help file and then displays the resulting file in Windows Help.
Selection Builds the text and graphics you selected and then displays the resulting Help file in Windows Help.

The Insert Menu

The authoring templates add four commands to the standard Word for Windows Insert menu: Topic, Jump or Popup Hotspot, Macro Hotspot, and Graphic.

Command Description

Topic Adds a new Help topic to the topic file.
  The authoring templates add new topics at the end of the topic file, or immediately before the current topic. (The current topic is the topic where the insertion point is located, even if the insertion point is at the beginning of the file.) If you want to insert the new topic in a specific place, be sure the insertion point is positioned properly before you choose this command.
  If this is the first topic you are adding to the file, no page break is inserted after the topic information.
Jump or Pop-Up Hot Spot Inserts a jump or pop-up hot spot in the Help topic.
  Note In WHAT30.DOT this command is simply Insert Hot Spot.
Macro Hot Spot Inserts a macro hot spot in the Help topic.
  Note This command is only in WHAT31.DOT.
Graphic Inserts a bitmap reference in the Help topic.