How to use the "What is this?" feature in custom help?

[nigelb]

I´m building a professional looking Access 2003 application to distribute,
and I´m using my own custom-built help file (built by HelpNDoc - which is
free and excellent!!). I trap the F1 key and instead make an API call using
the following code.

Declare Function HtmlHelp Lib "hhctrl.ocx" Alias "HtmlHelpA" _
(ByVal hwndCaller As Long, ByVal pszFile As String, _
ByVal uCommand As Long, ByVal dwData As Long) As Long

Sub ShowHelp
hwndHelp = HtmlHelp(Application.hWndAccessApp, sHelpFile, _
HH_DISPLAY_TOPIC, lHelpID)
End Sub

Everything works... no problem! The thing is, I have a custom "Quick Help"
menu item that calls a macro to call my ShowHelp procedure, and this is great
for showing general help for a form or report. But I would like to add the
"What is this?" help feature to my custom menu as well. But how do I use it?
Where do I write the code that executes when the user clicks on command
buttons (or other objects) for the "What is this?" context help?

Your ideas and thoughts would be very appreciated!!

 

[Stuart McCall]

I´m building a professional looking Access 2003 application to distribute,
and I´m using my own custom-built help file (built by HelpNDoc - which is
free and excellent!!). I trap the F1 key and instead make an API call
using
the following code.

Declare Function HtmlHelp Lib "hhctrl.ocx" Alias "HtmlHelpA" _
(ByVal hwndCaller As Long, ByVal pszFile As String, _
ByVal uCommand As Long, ByVal dwData As Long) As Long

Sub ShowHelp
hwndHelp = HtmlHelp(Application.hWndAccessApp, sHelpFile, _
HH_DISPLAY_TOPIC, lHelpID)
End Sub

Everything works... no problem! The thing is, I have a custom "Quick Help"
menu item that calls a macro to call my ShowHelp procedure, and this is
great
for showing general help for a form or report. But I would like to add the
"What is this?" help feature to my custom menu as well. But how do I use
it?
Where do I write the code that executes when the user clicks on command
buttons (or other objects) for the "What is this?" context help?

Your ideas and thoughts would be very appreciated!!

From memory (which is a bit vague), you need to give a "what's this" help
item a negative ID number. There's probably more to it than that but it's
all I remember (I got it working in A97 but no longer have the app).

Hope that gets you started.

 

[nigelb via AccessMonster.com]

Thanks Stuart, I´ll have a look and see what I come up with. I get the
impression (after reading after related posts on the subjecct that the
"what´s this" feature is no longer supported or used in A03 and A07, is that
right?

I´m building a professional looking Access 2003 application to distribute,
and I´m using my own custom-built help file (built by HelpNDoc - which is

[quoted text clipped - 21 lines]

Your ideas and thoughts would be very appreciated!!

From memory (which is a bit vague), you need to give a "what's this" help
item a negative ID number. There's probably more to it than that but it's
all I remember (I got it working in A97 but no longer have the app).

Hope that gets you started.

 

[Stuart McCall]

Thanks Stuart, I´ll have a look and see what I come up with. I get the
impression (after reading after related posts on the subjecct that the
"what´s this" feature is no longer supported or used in A03 and A07, is
that
right?

<snip>

Well I can confirm that it's been pulled from A2003, so I think we can
presume the same holds true for A2007. I missed that you mentioned A2003,
sorry. Otherwise I'd have mentioned it.

 

[nigelb via AccessMonster.com]

Such a shame because it's a very handy feature to have too...