ACC: How to Create Pop-up Context-Sensitive Help (95/97)

MORE INFORMATION

• Create a working Help system by setting the HelpContextID and HelpFile properties for your forms to a valid Windows Help file.
• Redirect the F1 key to call a user-defined function that opens the Help file using the HELP_CONTEXTPOPUP option.

1. Create a module and type the following lines in the Declarations section:
   
   NOTE: You may have some Microsoft Windows API functions defined in an existing Microsoft Access library; therefore, your declarations may be duplicates. If you receive a duplicate procedure name error message, remove or comment out the declarations statement in your code.
   

   Declare Function WinHelp Lib "user32" Alias "WinHelpA" _
      (ByVal hwnd As Long, _
      ByVal lpHelpFile As String, _
      ByVal wCommand As Long, _
      ByVal dwData As Long) As Long
      Public Const HELP_CONTEXTPOPUP = &H8&
   
      
   						

2. Type the following procedure:

   Function Help32() As Boolean
      On Local Error GoTo Help32_Err
      Dim Cid As Long, Result As Long
      On Error Resume Next
      ' Get the HelpContextID of the active control.
      ' The error is 2474 if no control is active.
      Cid = Screen.ActiveControl.HelpContextId
   
      If Cid = 0 Then
         ' There is no control context ID, so check the form and get
         ' the HelpContextID of the active form.
         ' The error is 2475 if no form is active.
         Cid = Screen.ActiveForm.HelpContextId
      End If
   
      ' If there is a context ID, open the Help file with context.
      ' Specify your custom Help file for the second argument.
      If Cid > 0 And Cid < 32767 Then
         Result = WinHelp(Application.hWndAccessApp, "C:\Myhelp.Hlp", _
         HELP_CONTEXTPOPUP, Cid)
         Help32 = True
      End If
   
   Help32_End:
      Exit Function
   
   Help32_Err:
      MsgBox Err.Description
      Resume Help32_End
   End Function
   						

3. Create the following new macro named AutoKeys to redirect the F1 key:

      Macro Name   Condition   Action
      --------------------------------
      {F1}                     RunCode
   
      AutoKeys Action
      -------------------------
      RunCode
      Function Name: Help32()<BR/>