Using Help

Using Help

A third way of characterizing Help is according to the user's reasons for invoking it. In
the book The Windows Interface Guidelines for Software Design, Microsoft categorizes Help in
this way and lists these kinds of Help:

l Contextual user assistance answers questions such as What does this button do? or
What does this setting mean?
l Task-oriented Help explains how to accomplish a certain task, such as printing a
document. (It often contains numbered steps.)
l Reference Help looks up function parameters, font names, or other material that
expert users need to refer to from time to time.
l Wizards walk a user through a complicated task, just as AppWizard walks you
through creating an application.
These describe the content of the material presented to the user. Although these
content descriptions are important to a Help designer and writer, they're not very
useful from a programming point of view.
TIP: The book mentioned previously is provided with the MSDN CDs included
with Visual Studio. In Visual Studio, press F1 to bring up MSDN. On the
Contents tab of MSDN, expand the Books item, then expand the interface
guidelines book. Chapter 12, "User Assistance," gives Help guidelines.