Help File form Access [Archive] - Access World Forums

The_Doc_Man

07-08-2004, 11:59 AM

Well, first, the RIGHT way to do this is to find a way to develop your own Help files, which the Help Workshop will let you do. You need either word or wordpad. Notepad won't cut it. The trick is to organize the help references ahead of time and lay out your numbering scheme, because Access is only going to offer a numeric index as your "help" selector. The Help Workshop will help you organize the lookup table that converts your help numbers to pointers into your help file.

But if you can't do that 'cause you don't have the Help Workshop, there are other packages available from the web that will do more or less the same thing. I've never used these alternatives, so I cannot provide you with any comparisons, but other forum members HAVE used them. This forum (if it has not been archived yet) used to have some articles on alternative help packages. Search for Help Files as a topic if you can.

Other methods of providing help...

1. Look up Tool Tips. You can put text in the Tool Tip property of a form's control to show something about it when you move the mouse over the control. Works good but limits what you can say.

2. If you are AMBITIOUS and don't mind a little coding, you can put a couple of lines in a "GotFocus" routine to load a help box on your form.

I.e. if you tab into the "Frunischleckten" field, a fixed location on your form can be loaded with Help on Frunischlecktens. If you tab from there to Grubbleworfers, the GotFocus loads the same box with help on Grubbleworfers. And so on.

It might seem tedious, but in fact it isn't that bad once you get used to it.