Help file generator (was TonyE) (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter TonyE
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It is simple enough to do yourself with a table recording the help notes, and a form you pop-up via a command button. There are several ways you could tie the command button to the help pop-up form, you could pass the command button name and the name of the form the command button is on, (this might not work correctly for subforms - however I have a solution) storing these two bits of information into separate Fields in the help file table would link that button to any help comment you made.
Alternatively you could assign a number in the Form opening code (OpenArgs) of the command button that takes you directly to a particular record in the popup help form.
Windows also provides its own help file system for free, see this video:- How to Create a CHM or Compiled HTML Help (.CHM) File
Download HERE:-
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=21138
The main problem with help systems is going through and adding all the help information!
Alternatively you could assign a number in the Form opening code (OpenArgs) of the command button that takes you directly to a particular record in the popup help form.
Windows also provides its own help file system for free, see this video:- How to Create a CHM or Compiled HTML Help (.CHM) File
Download HERE:-
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=21138
The main problem with help systems is going through and adding all the help information!
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The last time I did this, I had a Word document with named bookmarks. Each form had a HELP button that supplied a form code. I had a table of help topics that were valid for various form codes. Net result was that I popped up a drop-down (Listbox) that was single-select. Each title in the help list had 3 parts but only the topic name was visible The other parts were the code from the button and the name of the bookmark in the word document.
If you clicked for Help and selected a topic, I would take the bookmark text, open a Word Application, from there open the Word help document Read-Only, bring it to top, and cause it to go to the specific bookmark. The user would also get an instruction to close Word when done.
If you have a reasonably literate user base that knows left from right then you have a good chance that what I described would work.
If you clicked for Help and selected a topic, I would take the bookmark text, open a Word Application, from there open the Word help document Read-Only, bring it to top, and cause it to go to the specific bookmark. The user would also get an instruction to close Word when done.
If you have a reasonably literate user base that knows left from right then you have a good chance that what I described would work.
For me, the most important question would be "How do you want to provide help"?
Will you be doing it on a field by field bases? Control by control? Or one help pager per form? Or some combination of the above? And as importantly do you want to allow end users to change text to reflect regional setting?
Will you be doing it on a field by field bases? Control by control? Or one help pager per form? Or some combination of the above? And as importantly do you want to allow end users to change text to reflect regional setting?
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Valid point. For clarification, my "topics" including things only found on the given form AND things found on all forms. But there was no field-level help other than tool tips.
HTLM HELP GENERATOR .... seems to be the best tool I can see on the market, it scans your DB and generates all form screens. However with complex FORMS that require parameters it falls down on these, also will not work on 64bit version of MS Access.
shadow9449
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The original question was what is "the best", so any answer will have to take into account all possibilities. I have not evaluated all possibilities but I will share the fact that I've been using Dr. Explain since 2012 and I'm very satisfied with it:
https://www.drexplain.com/
I did evaluate a number of packages and the reason I chose this one was because it's easy to use and has a lot of great tools, and what was most important to me was that I needed to convert a help file that was made for the old Windows format (i.e. .hlp) into a .chm and dr. explain did it almost flawlessly.
They provide prompt and excellent support and I find the price to be reasonable.
https://www.drexplain.com/
I did evaluate a number of packages and the reason I chose this one was because it's easy to use and has a lot of great tools, and what was most important to me was that I needed to convert a help file that was made for the old Windows format (i.e. .hlp) into a .chm and dr. explain did it almost flawlessly.
They provide prompt and excellent support and I find the price to be reasonable.
I haven't used Help Scribble for a long time but continued to get updates for several years. The original cost was $99 but considering that support was always there and all updates were free, I figure I got my money's worth. It is/was feature filled and I'm pretty sure it's still available from JGSoft. Note: I have no affiliation with the company, whatsoever.
shadow9449
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Cool! Glad we could help!
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