HTML Help Tips and Tricks

Microsoft Corporation

Updated: June 3, 1999

The examples in this section demonstrate some techniques you can use to add functionality to your help system.

• Creating a Home Page for your Help System explains the benefits of having a home page, and shows how to add a Home button to the HTML Help viewer.
• Linking to a Compiled Help File from a Web page gives detailed instructions for linking to a specific topic within a .chm file.
• Linking to a file outside your help system has instructions for linking to an external file from a .chm file. This can be used to link to a large file such as a video clip, or to last-minute information that didn't make it into the compiled file, such as a read me.
• Creating a new window using JScript shows how to create a new IE window using a simple script.
• Create a pop-up window shows how to create a pop-up window that appears when a user clicks a specific word, phrase, or graphic in a topic.
• Store text for pop-up windows in a text file expands on the previous topic, providing a convenient way to consolidate text for all pop-up windows in a help file.
• Add text pop-ups to an image shows you how to apply text pop-ups to a standard image map.
• Create a global script file shows how to consolidate all of your script code in a single text file that can be accessed by all topics in a help file.
• Create expandable sections with DHTML can help you to save screen real estate by hiding information, and displaying it on demand.
• Create dynamic elements with DHTML covers some easy ways to make links react to user input.

For more information about enhancing help files, see the HTML Help Authoring Guide.