Providing User Assistance for ActiveX Components

See Also

Creating a Help file for your component is highly recommended. One of the most important benefits of components is enabling code reuse, a goal you will be much more likely to achieve if developers and end users can easily get Help for the objects you’ve authored. ActiveX components support both Windows Help and HTML Help files.

You can also provide browser strings that briefly describe your objects and their properties, methods, and events. Users of your component can view these description strings using the Object Browsers in their programming tools, and jump to the Help topics you’ve provided.

The following topics explain how to use these user assistance features.

• How to Specify a Help File for Your Component   Set the name of a Help file containing topics you can link to your classes and their members (properties, methods, and events).
  
  
• Providing Help and Browser Strings for Objects   Use the Object Browser to enter browser strings and links to Help topics for your classes and their properties, methods, and events.
  
  
• Providing Help and Browser Strings for Properties, Methods, and Events   Use the Procedure Attributes dialog box to enter browser strings and links to Help topics for properties, methods, and events.

For More Information   See "Adding Help to Your Application" in the Programmer's Guide.

When it comes to user assistance, don’t underestimate the importance of choosing good names for your objects and their interfaces. See "What’s in a Name?" in "General Principles of Component Design," and "Object Naming Guidelines" in "ActiveX Component Standards and Guidelines."