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Q177107: ODE97: Displaying Context-Sensitive Help for What’sThis Button

Article: Q177107
Product(s): Microsoft Access Distribution Kit
Version(s): WINDOWS:97
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbdta
Last Modified: 23-NOV-2000

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Access 97 
- Microsoft Office 97 Developer Edition 
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Advanced: Requires expert coding, interoperability, and multiuser skills.

SUMMARY
=======

You can provide context-sensitive help for a What's This button on the Title bar
of your form by using the WhatsThisButton property. When this property is set to
True, the mouse pointer changes to the What's This state (arrow with a question
mark) and the topic displayed is identified by the WhatsThisHelpID property of
the control that the user clicks.

This article demonstrates how to display context-sensitive help for the
WhatsThisHelp property by using Help to open a pop-up window provided by Windows
95 Help.

MORE INFORMATION
================

To display context-sensitive help that appears when a user clicks the What's
This button and drops it on an object on your form or report, follow these
steps:

1. Create your Help topics in Microsoft Word or another word processor. For more
  information about creating your topic files in Microsoft Word, please see the
  following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  Q177116 ODE97: How to Create Context-Sensitive Help for a Microsoft Access
  Database

  Q175491 ODE97: Step-by-Step Example of Creating/Compiling a Help File

  Q163939 ODE97: Help Workshop Help Topics Contents

  Q171958 ODE97: Tips for Creating and Compiling Your Windows Help File

2. Use Microsoft Help Workshop to compile your Help topics.

3. Open the form that contains the objects for which you want to provide What's
  This help information.

4. On the View menu, click Properties to display the form's properties box.

5. In the Form Properties box, change the MinMaxButtons property to None and the
  WhatsThisButton property to Yes.

6. In the HelpFile property, type the name for the Help file that contains your
  Help topics.

  NOTE: Copy this file to your Windows Help folder so that Microsoft Access will
  be able to find it.

7. In the HelpContextID property, type the number that you linked the Help topic
  to in Microsoft Help Workshop.

  NOTE: To display the Help topic in a pop-up window, put a minus sign (-)
  before the number.

8. Repeat step 7 for each control on the form that you want to link to a Help
  topic.

9. Open the form in Form view, click the What's This button, and drag it to one
  of your controls.

  Note that the Help topic information appears.

REFERENCES
==========

For more information about creating What's This help information, search the
Help Index for "WhatsThisHelp property," or ask the Microsoft Access 97 Office
Assistant.

Additional query words: ODE whatsthis whats what s this button

======================================================================
Keywords          : kbdta 
Technology        : kbOfficeSearch kbAudDeveloper kbAccessSearch kbAccess97 kbOffice97Search kbAccess97Search kbOffice97 kbOffice97DevSearch
Version           : WINDOWS:97
Hardware          : x86
Issue type        : kbhowto

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