Progress
Help Development
Guide


Inserting Control Codes

Control codes are footnotes that the WinHelp compiler uses to build the help file. Table 3–1 summarizes the control codes. See the sections following for additional information on the individual control codes.

Table 3–1: Summary of Control Codes
Control Code
Purpose
Comments
Build tag
*(asterisk)
Tells the help compiler whether to include a help topic in a project build. If a topic is not assigned a build tag, it is automatically included in each build. Build tags are optional.
Can contain any character except a space. If you want to assign multiple build tags to a help topic, you must separate them with a semicolon (;).
Example: * WINDOWS;WIN16
Topic ID
# (pound sign)
Uniquely identifies a help topic.
Can contain any alphanumeric characters, a period, and/or an underscore, without spaces. Although topic IDs can contain up to 255 characters, keep them as short as possible.
A recommended practice is to start topic IDs for context-sensitive help topics with “IDH_”. If using numbers, start with a positive number greater than 0.
Example: # IDH_File_Menu
Topic title
$ (dollar sign)
Assigns a title to a help topic. Topic titles appear on the Bookmark menu, the History dialog box, and in the list of topics displayed on the Index tab of the Help Topics dialog box. Topic titles are optional.
Can contain any character. Do not use any special formatting for the topic title text.
Example: $ File Menu
Keyword
K (capital K)
Assigns a keyword to a help topic so it can be found quickly using the Index tab of the Help Topics dialog box. Keywords are optional.
NOTE: The help engine is case insensitive when performing a keyword search.
Can contain any ANSI character, including spaces and accented characters, and can contain up to 255 characters. A keyword can be a single word or a phrase. Do not use any special formatting for the keyword text. If you want to assign multiple keywords to a help topic, you must separate them with a semicolon (;).
Example: K File Menu; menus;
A-keyword
A (capital A)
Assigns a keyword to a help topic so it can be found quickly by an ALink search (which is usually associated with a Related Topics button).
Same rules as for (K-) keywords.
A-Keywords are optional and do not appear in the Procedure Editor help file.
Example: A interface-elements;
Browse sequence
+ (plus sign)
Assigns the help topic a position in a browse sequence. Browse sequences are optional.
Can contain the name of a browse sequence followed by a colon and the assigned sequence number. The sequence name is an optional name so that the help compiler can distinguish different browse sequences. (If you don’t assign a sequence name, the topic is automatically assigned to a default (unnamed) sequence.)
As you assign topics to a browse sequence, its a good idea to skip numbers so you can add more help topics to the sequence later.
Example: + EDITMENU:00005
Window type
> (greater than sign)
Specifies the window type a topic will appear in when the topic is opened from the Index or Find tab of the Help Topics dialog box, or from an ALink or KLink macro.
The window type must be defined in the [WINDOWS] section of the help project file.
Example: >(w95sec)

Follow these steps to assign a build tag, context string, topic title, keyword, and browse sequence to a help topic using MS-Word. Figure 3–3 shows the relationship between the footnote markers and the content of their corresponding footnotes for the most common control codes.

  1. Place the cursor immediately to the left of the first character in the help topic text with no space between the cursor and the first character in the heading.
  2. Choose Insert Footnote.
  3. The Footnote dialog box appears.

  4. Select the Custom Footnote Mark radio button.
  5. Enter the appropriate control code (* for build tag, # for context string, $ for topic title, K or A for keywords, or + for browse sequence) in the Custom Footnote Mark field.
  6. Choose OK.
  7. MS-Word automatically performs the following actions:

    • Inserts a superscript copy of the footnote symbol and one space to the left of the first character in the help topic
    • Opens a footnote pane at the bottom of the screen, moves the cursor into this window, and inserts the footnote symbol
  8. Enter the appropriate footnote text in the footnote pane following the footnote symbol.
  9. For example, in Figure 3–3, “Menu_Commands” is a context string that is entered after the # symbol in the footnote window to uniquely identify the Procedure Editor Menu Commands help topic. There should be one space only between the footnote symbol and the footnote text.

  10. When you finish entering the footnote text, choose the Close button in the Footnote pane.
NOTE: You can also insert help macros as a control code in a similar manner. For more information, see the "Using Help Macros" section.

Figure 3–3 shows the appearance of the control codes and their corresponding footnotes for a typical help topic.

Figure 3–3: Example of Control Codes for a Help Topic


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