This topic provides more detail about the different levels of application help supported by the framework.
This level of help support enables the user to press the F1 key from an active window, dialog box, or message box, or with a menu item or toolbar button selected, to invoke a Help topic relevant to the selected item.
For menu items, the user can use the arrow keys to highlight a particular menu item, and then press F1. For toolbar buttons, the user can use the mouse to hold down the button and press F1 before letting the button up.
If no user interface object is selected, or if no specific Help topic exists, pressing F1 invokes the main Contents topic for the application Help file.
Note You can define a key other than F1 for help, but it is common among applications for Windows to use F1.
This level of help support enables the user, from within an active application, to press SHIFT+F1 to put the application into “help mode.”
While the application is in help mode, the cursor changes to an arrow beside a question mark. So long as help mode is active, the user can click any window, dialog box, message box, menu item, or toolbar button to summon help specific to the item. This invokes the application’s Help file, and ends help mode. Pressing ESC or switching away from the application and back also ends help mode.
Note When you choose the context-sensitive Help option from AppWizard, the toolbar resource that AppWizard creates includes an additional button that the user can use to invoke help mode. The graphic on the button resembles the mouse cursor as it appears in help mode. The following figure shows the help mode button.
The Help Mode Button
In addition to context-sensitive Help, most applications provide help support through one or more menu items. For instance, most Windows applications include a Help menu item that invokes the application’s Help file when chosen. Additional items on the Help menu might, for example, display a Search dialog box.