How To Implement "What's This?" Help in Visual Basic

MORE INFORMATION

This sample uses the help file "Msdev.hlp." You will probably want to create your own help file. This sample also uses a full path listing to where the help file is located. As you cannot know where the user will install the program, you might want to use some dynamic means for determining the path, such as using App.Path.

Step-by-Step Example

1. Create a new project in Visual Basic. Form1 is created by default.
2. Set the WhatsThisHelp and WhatsThisButton properties for Form1 to True.
3. Add the following code to reference the Hotspot Editor help file to the Form_Load procedure:

         Private Sub Form_Load()
         '  your machine
         '  Change this path to where ever Msdev.hlp is located on
            App.HelpFile = "C:\Program
            Files\DevStudio\Common\MSDev98\Help\Msdev.hlp"
   
   					

4. Add two menu items to Form1 using the following as a guide:

         Menu                   Property            Value
         ----------------------------------------------------
         WhatsThis              Caption            WhatsThis
         WhatsThis              Name               mnuWhatsThis
         WhatsThis              Visible            False
   
         What's This?           Caption            What's This?
         What's This?           Name           mnuWhatsThisHelp
   
   					

5. Indent "What's This?" to make it a sub-menu of WhatsThis by pressing the right-arrow button on the Menu Editor.
6. Add the following code to the General Declarations section of Form1:

         Public ThisControl as control
   
   					

7. Add the following code to the mnuWhatsThisHelp_Click procedure:

         Private Sub mnuWhatsThisHelp_Click()
            ThisControl.ShowWhatsThis
         End Sub
   
   					

8. Add a Command Button control to the form and set the following Properties:
   
   WhatsThisHelpID = 1
   HelpContextID = 5
9. Add following code to the Command1_MouseUp event:

         Private Sub Command1_MouseUp(Button As Integer, Shift As Integer, _
                                      X As Single, Y As Single)
            If Button = vbRightButton Then
               Set ThisControl = Command1
               PopupMenu mnuWhatsThis
            End If
            Set ThisControl = Nothing
         End Sub
   
   					

10. Run the application. Right-click on the Command button and then left- click on the "What's This?" popup to bring up the Help file.