Making Topic or Web Page Connections

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Microsoft Corporation

Updated June 10, 1999

As a help author, one of your most important design considerations is setting up a clear and simple pattern to quickly get users to the help content they need.

An HTML help topic or Web page is part of a collection of similar help topics or Web pages that make up a help system or Web site. When a user browses the topics in your help file or Web site, they jump from page to page by clicking hyperlinks. A link is a word, phrase, or image that is highlighted and jumps to a specified location when the user clicks it.

If you add the HTML Help ActiveX control to your help topics or Web pages, you can connect users to information by creating a table of contents or index for your topics. You can add buttons to the button bar in the Help Viewer or to the windows you design in order to help users navigate to information.

Help topics also can be designed as context-sensitive topics that appear in a pop-up window when a user right-clicks a dialog box.