Reference Help topics can include text, graphics, animations, video, and audio effects. Follow the guidelines included throughout this guide for recommendations on using these elements in the presentation of information. In addition, the system provides some special support for Help topics.
You can author additional menus and buttons to appear in the reference Help window. However, you cannot remove existing menus.
Because reference Help files typically include related topics, include Previous Topic and Next Topic browse buttons in your Help window toolbar. Another common button you may want to include is a See Also button that either displays a pop-up window or the Topics Found dialog box (as shown in Figure 12.14) with the related topics. Other common buttons include Up for moving to the parent or overview topic and History to display a list of the topics the user has viewed so they can return directly to a particular topic.
Make toolbar buttons contextual to the topic the user is viewing. For example, if the current topic is the last in the browse chain, disable the Next Topic button. When deciding whether to disable or remove a button, follow the guidelines defined in this guide for menus.
Always provide a title for the current topic. The title identifies the topic and provides the user with a landmark within the Help system. The title should correspond to the entries you include in the Help Topics browser window. Use the title bar text of the window to identify the context and supplier of the topic. The Help filename should also match.
If your topics are very long, you may want to include a nonscrollable region in your Help file. A nonscrolling region allows you to keep the topic title and other information visible when the user scrolls. A nonscrolling region appears with a line at its bottom edge to delineate it from the scrollable area. Display the scroll bar for the scrollable area of the topic so that its top appears below the nonscrolling region, not overlapped within that region.
A jump is a button or interactive area that triggers an event when the user clicks on it. You can use a jump as a one-way navigation link from one topic to another, either within the same topic window, to another topic window, or a topic in another Help file.
You can also use jumps to display a pop-up window. As with pop-up windows for context-sensitive Help, use this form of interaction to support a definition or explanatory information about the word or object that the user clicks.
Jumps can also carry out particular commands. Shortcut buttons used in Help task topics are this form of a jump.
You need to provide visual indications to distinguish a jump from noninteractive areas of the window. You can do this by displaying a jump as a button, changing the pointer image to indicate an interactive element, formatting the item with some other visual distinction such as color or font, or a combination of these methods. The default system presentation for text jumps is green underlined text.