Help file

[pekajo]

Hi,
Can anyone give me a idea of adding a help to fields. (by pressing function key?) I know there is a roll over but was thinking of having a table with help for each field and then use a dlookup, but am open to any suggestions

Thanks
Peter

 

[theDBguy]

Hi Peter. Sure. You can also use small buttons with a question mark icon users can click to get a popup window show up.

 

[vba_php]

what kind of content are you planning to put in the table regarding your 'help' Peter? I wouldn't think anyone would need help with an actual 'field' if they are entering data. Maybe as an 'additional info about field' option.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

There used to be a "Help File" editor but that was so insanely good as an idea that in their infinite wisdom, Microsoft doesn't push that much. The last time I did this, I might have done a SMALL amount of overkill, but...

I built a Word file and assured that it had short-text bookmark names. Then I built a subroutine (in a general module) that would open a specified WORD file in Read-Only mode, execute a JumpTo Bookmark operation, and would seek the bookmark associated with data specific to the control I had just clicked to get that help.

Then I put "hot spots" with question marks in them next to some controls. Each such hot spot responded to an OnClick operation and would call that module. The subroutine would know whether it had ever been called before in the current session and would pop up a message box if not. The first time you asked for help in a session, it would say, "If you open a help article, remember to click on the CLOSE button in the upper right of the help window." After that, it just popped up the help article that was found at the given bookmark.

 

[isladogs]

I believe the old MS Help Authoring app used to create chm files no longer works in the latest versions of Windows. I tried it a few years ago and found it very hard to use.

However, there are a variety of other methods you could use for help info, each with advantages and disadvantages.
1. Control tips which pop up if you hover over a control for a few seconds. However these are fairly slow to load and don't appear at all if you have a hidden control 'above' the one with the control tip
2. Status bar messages. However the text is small & out of the way. Its easy to miss messages displayed in the status bar
3. Use control formatting to show a message when the field is null. For example formatting a date field as dd/mm/yyyy;;;"Enter Date of birth" would display the text when the field is null and display the entered date in that format
For more details see http://www.mendipdatasystems.co.uk/add-query-colour/4594424152
4. Use a mouse move event to display a message fairly prominently on a form. The message appears immediately when you move over the control and disappears as soon as you move away. By using a large font & brightly coloured text not used for other purposes (I often use magenta for this), the message is very hard to miss. Of course, the disadvantage is that it can take up more screen space ….
5. Use a click or mouse move event to display a custom popup form used for hints/tips etc based on e.g. a rich text memo field stored in a help table. This takes a bit more planning but has the advantage that the same help info could be used in multiple forms having the same type of data e.g. wherever there is a date field

Hope that helps