how to write a simple help document for the COM Addin

[lostwings]

hi,

I have almost finished the first stage of my outlook COM Addin project. Now
I need to put a simple help document to let the user know how to play with
the little toy.

I have no experience on how to write the help document. I just would like to
have a simple one. Suppose the user click on a custom menu item created in
the COM AddIn, a help document pops out. How to do that? Thanks in advance!

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

You can go with a complete Help file compiled as a CHM file, that can be
created using a commercial tool such as RoboHelp or with the MS help
compiler that can be downloaded from the MSDN Web site.

For something simpler you could just design one or more HTML pages. Then you
can create a form that has a Web browser control embedded in it and use the
Navigate method of the control to open the help page you wrote.

For that method add the WebBrowser control to your controls toolbox. You do
that by adding a reference to Shdocvw.dll (Microsoft Internet Controls).
Then in the Form.Load event for that form use code similar to this:

Dim WB As SHDocVw.WebBrowser

' ensure the control takes up the entire surface of the form
WebBrowser1.Move 0, 0, ScaleWidth, ScaleHeight

Set WB = WebBrowser1.WBCtrl

WB.Navigate2 "File://" & App.Path & "\Help.htm"

' wait for html obj model to load
Do While WB.ReadyState <> READYSTATE_COMPLETE '4
DoEvents
Loop

If you make the control the size of the form you'd need a button in HTML
code for closing the form. Otherwise you can size the control as desired and
use a standard command button for that.

 

[lostwings]

Thanks very much.

I will dig into that.