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Q286404: HOWTO: Add HTML Help to a Visual Basic 6.0 Application Wizard Ap

Article: Q286404
Product(s): Microsoft Visual Basic for Windows
Version(s): 1.2,1.21,1.22,1.3,1.31,1.32,6.0
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbAPI kbCompiler kbHTMLHelp
Last Modified: 16-MAY-2001

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Visual Basic Professional Edition for Windows, version 6.0 
- Microsoft HTML Help, versions 1.2, 1.21, 1.22, 1.3, 1.31, 1.32 
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SUMMARY
=======

This article describes how to add HTML Help to an application that was created
using the Visual Basic 6.0 Application Wizard. When you choose to add Help to
your menu or to your toolbar, the application wizard adds the necessary code for
Winhelp. You need to change the code so that HTML Help is used instead of
Winhelp.

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

After you build your application by using the application wizard, make the
following changes:

1. Set the Project Properties Help filename. Select Project Properties on the
  Project menu to open the Project Properties dialog box. In the Help File Name
  field of the General tab, enter the path and file name for your application's
  HtmlHelp file. (You can also programmatically set the Help file. For more
  information see the MSDN topic "Adding Help To Your Application" in the
  "References" section.)

2. Replace the Winhelp declaration with an HTML Help declaration. To do this,
  replace the line that the wizard put at the top of frmMain.

Replace this code

  Private Declare Function OSWinHelp% Lib "user32" Alias "WinHelpA" (ByVal hwnd&, ByVal HelpFile$, ByVal wCommand%, _
                                                                     dwData As Any)

with this code:

  Private Declare Function HtmlHelp Lib "hhctrl.ocx" Alias "HtmlHelpA" (ByVal hwndCaller As Long, ByVal pszFile As String, _
                                                                        ByVal uCommand As Long, ByVal dwData As Long) As Long

3. On the next line, add the HTML Help commands you are using. For example:

  Private Const HH_DISPLAY_TOPIC = &H0
  Private Const HH_HELP_CONTEXT = &HF

NOTE: For a complete list of all the commands, see the htmlhelp.h file in the
"include" folder where the HTML Help Workshop is installed. For information
about the command syntax, see the HTML Help online Help, API Reference.

4. If you chose to add Help to your menu during the application wizard, the
  wizard adds two methods, mnuHelpSearchForHelpOn_Click and
  mnuHelpContents_Click.

  You need to replace the calls to Winhelp with calls to the HTML Help API in
  these methods. (The exact syntax of the commands varies depending on which
  commands you are using. See the HTML Help online Help for additional
  information regarding the API commands.)

For example, you could replace this code

  nRet = OSWinHelp(Me.hwnd, App.HelpFile, 261, 0)

with this code:

  dim nRet As Long

  nRet = HtmlHelp(Me.hwnd, App.HelpFile, HH_DISPLAY_TOPIC, 0)

5. If you chose to add Help as a toolbar button during the Application Wizard,
  the Wizard adds this to the tbToolBar_ButtonClick method:

  Case "Help"
  'ToDo: Add 'Help' button code.
  MsgBox "Add 'Help' button code."

Remove the MsgBox call and add a call to the HTML Help API, such as:

  dim nRet As Long
  nRet = HtmlHelp(Me.hwnd, App.HelpFile, HH_DISPLAY_TOPIC, 0)

6. If you choose to add "Help What's This" as a toolbar button, then the wizard
  adds this to your code:

  Case "Help What's This"
  'ToDo: Add 'Help What's This' button code.
  MsgBox "Add 'Help What's This' button code."  

Remove the MsgBox call and add a call to the HTML Help API using the
'HH_HELP_CONTEXT' command, such as:

   
  hwndHelp = HtmlHelp(Me.hWnd, App.HelpFile, HH_HELP_CONTEXT, myContextID)

NOTE: Adding "What's This" help requires additional steps that are not covered in
this article. For more information see the MSDN topic: "Adding Support for
What's This Help".

REFERENCES
==========

MSDN topic: "Adding Help To Your Application"

  http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/devprods/vs6/vbasic/vbcon98/vbconAddingHelpToYourApplication.htm

HTML Help Workshop Online Help

Additional query words:

======================================================================
Keywords          : kbAPI kbCompiler kbHTMLHelp 
Technology        : kbVBSearch kbHTMLHelpSearch kbAudDeveloper kbZNotKeyword6 kbZNotKeyword2 kbVB600Search kbVB600 kbHTMLHelp120 kbHTMLHelp121 kbHTMLHelp122 kbHTMLHelp130 kbHTMLHelp131 kbHTMLHelp132
Version           : :1.2,1.21,1.22,1.3,1.31,1.32,6.0
Issue type        : kbhowto

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