HelpContextID, HelpFile Properties (Microsoft Access)

Applies To

  • HelpContextID Property — Bound Object Frame Control, Chart Control, Check Box Control, Combo Box Control, Command Button Control, Form, Image Control, Label Control, Line Control, List Box Control, Option Button Control, Option Group Control, Rectangle Control, Report, Subform/Subreport Control, Text Box Control, Toggle Button Control, Unbound Object Frame Control.
  • HelpFile Property — Form, Report.

Description

  • HelpContextID — You can use this property to specify the context ID for a topic in the custom Help file specified by the HelpFile property setting.
  • HelpFile — You can use this property to specify the name of a custom Help file for the current form or report.

Setting

  • HelpContextID — Enter a Long Integer between 0 and 2,147,483,647. The default setting is 0.
  • HelpFile — Enter a string expression that contains the path and filename of a custom Help file created with the Windows Help Compiler.

You can set these properties using the property sheet, a macro, or Visual Basic.

Remarks

You can create a custom Help file to document forms, reports, or applications you create with Microsoft Access.

When you press the F1 key in Form view, Microsoft Access calls the Windows Help application, loads the custom Help file specified by the HelpFile property setting for the form or report, and displays the Help topic specified by the HelpContextID property setting.

If a control’s HelpContextID property setting is 0 (the default), Microsoft Access uses the form’s HelpContextID and HelpFile properties to identify the Help topic to display. If you press F1 in a view other than Form view or if the HelpContextID property setting for both the form and the control is 0, a Microsoft Access Help topic is displayed.

Note To create a custom Help file, you need the Windows Help Compiler and a rich-text format (RTF) text editor, such as Microsoft Word for Windows.

See Also

ControlTipText Property; HelpContext, HelpFile Properties (Microsoft Office 95 Data Access Reference); MsgBox Function.