Chapter 10. Apple Guide and Help Viewer
With Mac OS 8.5 and beyond, Macintosh users have two pieces of system software to rely on for getting help on the Mac OS and programs: the Apple Guide extension and the new browser-based Help Viewer. Apple Guide (see Figure 10-1) is the tool that can be launched from the Help menu command of several programs. It usually provides the most basic software help, allowing the user to search a small help database and spawning little animations that circle and choose menu items for you. Mainly in response to the Web, Apple’s system has since moved to a browser-based help system with the Help Viewer system application. Compared with Apple Guide, Help Viewer more closely integrates the operating-system help documents with web protocols and Sherlock 2. (Sherlock 2 is covered in Chapter 17.) You can find the Help Viewer in the following directory if you’re running Mac OS 8.5 or later: startup disk:System Folder:Help:Apple Help Viewer:Help Viewer. This chapter describes the Apple Guide’s and Help Viewer’s dictionaries and gives some examples of how to script your own help systems.
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The scriptable Apple Guide extension is located in startup disk:System Folder:Extensions. You normally cannot open an application’s Apple Guide file from outside the app, unless you are using trusty AppleScript. Example 10-1 opens up the BBEdit ...
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