Presenting Help

Presenting Help

The second way of characterizing Help is to ask, "How does it look?" You can display
Help in several ways:
l Help Topics dialog box. As shown in Figure 11.1, this dialog box enables users to
scroll through an index, look at a table of contents, or find a word within the
Help text. (To open this dialog on Windows, choose Start, Help.)
l Ordinary Help window. As shown in Figure 11.2, this window has buttons such as Help
Topics, Back, and Options. It can be resized, minimized, maximized, or closed and in
many cases is always on top, like the system clock and other popular utilities. (To
see this one, open the calculator, usually by choosing Start, Programs,
Accessories, Calculator; then press F1. Expand a closed book by double-clicking it;
then double-click a topic from the list that appears. Finding Out What a
Calculator Button Does appears under Tips and Tricks.)
l Pop-up windows. As shown in Figure 11.3, pop-up windows are relatively small and
don't have buttons or menus. They disappear when you click outside them, cannot
be resized or moved, and are perfect for a definition or quick explanation. To recreate
Figure 11.3, right-click the MC button and choose What's This?
FIG. 11.1 The Help Topics dialog box enables users to go through the contents or index or search the
Help text with Find.
FIG. 11.2 An ordinary Help window has buttons and sometimes menus. It can be treated like any
other window.
FIG. 11.3 A pop-up Help topic window gives the user far less control and should be used only for
short explanations.