Create Context-Sensitive Help

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Microsoft Corporation

Updated June 10, 1999

Context-sensitive help assists users by providing help based on a specific dialog box or control in a program. This enables users to get specific information about whatever part of the program they are using at any given moment.

Help authors work with developers to create context-sensitive help. The help author creates a compiled help (.chm) file that contains the context-sensitive help topics and information that maps the topics to specific dialog boxes or controls. The developer modifies the program code so that the correct topic appears when a user requests help.

Context-sensitive help commonly appears in a pop-up window, which displays a help topic about a specific user interface element. For example, you can design your program to have a question mark button in the title bar of a dialog box. When a user clicks the question mark button, and then clicks anywhere in the dialog box, they will see a pop-up help topic that provides information about the user interface element they clicked.

You can also design context-sensitive help topics to appear in a secondary window, an embedded window, or in a Web browser.