Help Support from AppWizard

Help Support from AppWizard

When you build an MDI application (no database or OLE support) with AppWizard and
choose the Context-Sensitive Help option (in Step 4), here's what you find:
l Message map entries are added to catch the commands ID_HELP_FINDER, ID_HELP,
ID_CONTEXT_HELP, and ID_DEFAULT_HELP. No code is added to handle these;
they are passed to CMDIFrameWnd member functions.
l A What's This? button is added to the toolbar.
l A Help Topics item is added to the Help menu for both menus provided by
AppWizard: the one used when a file is open and the smaller one used when no
files are open.
l Accelerators for F1 (ID_HELP) and Shift+F1 (ID_CONTEXT_HELP) are added.
l The default message in the status bar is changed from Ready to For Help, press F1.
l A status bar prompt is added, to be displayed while in What's This? mode: Select an

object on which to get Help.
l Status bar prompts are added for the Help menu and its items.
l afxcore.rtf, a Help text file for standard menu items such as File, Open, is copied
into the project.
l afxprint.rtf, a Help text file for printing and print previewing, is copied into the
project. (These files are added separately because not all projects include
printing and print previewing. If this project has database- or OLE-related
features, more help is provided.)
l Twenty-two .bmp files, included as illustrations in Help for topics such as File,
Open, are copied into the project.
With this solid foundation, the task of implementing Help for this application breaks
down into three steps:
1. You must plan your Help. Do you intend to provide reference material only,
task-oriented instructions only, or both? To what extent will you supplement
these with context pop-ups?
2. You must provide the programming hooks that will result in the display of the
Help topics you have designed. This is done differently for command and context
Help, as you will see in the sections that follow.
3. You must build the .rtf files with the Help topic IDs and text to explain your
application. If you have designed the Help system well and truly understand your
application, this should be simple, though time-consuming.
NOTE: On large projects, often a technical writer rather than a
programmer writes the Help text. This requires careful coordination: For
example, you have to provide topic IDs to the Help writer, and you might
have to explain some functions so that they can be described in the Help.
You have to work closely together throughout a project like this and
respect each other's area of expertise.