Microsoft Office 2000/Visual Basic Programmer's Guide

Creating Help Files

If you have used the Help system in any Office 2000 application, you have already seen the new Office Help system based on compiled HTML files. Now you can create Help files for your custom applications that have all the power and flexibility that you have seen in Web pages — including scripting, DHTML, and ActiveX controls. HTML Help lets you do the following:

• Author your Help files by using the same tools you use to create Web pages.
  
  
• Integrate Help topics and context-sensitive Help into your solution's custom dialog boxes, error messages, and forms.
  
  
• Use VBA to work directly with the HtmlHelp application programming interface (API).
  
  
• Under certain circumstances, use the Answer Wizard Software Development Kit (SDK) to integrate your Help topics with those supplied by an Office application.
  
  
• Use the HTML Help ActiveX control to display your custom Help files from within any Web page by using the HTML Help Viewer.

For more information about using HTML Help, see Chapter 13, "Adding Help to Your Custom Solution."