WinHelp tips and tricks

WinHelp for user

Do you know...

• To copy the text from popup topic to clipboard click the right mouse button and choose Copy.
• You may browse all topics in the help file in a sequence by pressing Shift+Ctrl+Rigth/Left, if you add the following lines to your WIN.INI:
  [Windows Help]
  SEQTOPICKEYS=1
• You may use TAB and SHIFT+TAB to move between the hotspots in the topic.
  Or press and hold CTRL+TAB to see all hotspots (most useful with segmented hypergraphics).

WinHelp for author

• You can call context-sensetive help using context strings, even without mapping them to numbers, like this:
  WinHelp( hWnd, "MyFile.HLP", HELP_COMMAND, "JumpID(`MyFile.HLP',`MyContext'")
  Source code in Basic and C of the function MyWinHelp( hWnd, sFile, sContext ) that makes use of this trick is found in astro.zip\astro.hlp, search keyword Context-sensitive help.
• You can use HCW.EXE to edit help project options and to trace macro execution in any help file.

WinWord

• If you want WinWord to open at startup most-recently-opened document, create AutoExec macro in Normal.DOT and put there a command:
  FileList 1

AstroHelp

• To start help automatically after a successful compile..
  • for HC31.EXE: add the following line to AHC.BAT
    if not errorlevel 1 start %1.hlp
  • for HCW.EXE: open macro AhCompile and add the /R option to HCW.EXE command line.
• You can change any hotkey assignment from Tools=>Customize... dialog (choose Categories=Macros, Save Changes In=Astro.dot)