Chapter 24. Adding Online Help
If thereâs one thing Iâve learned in nearly 25 years of programming, itâs that users often need some help to run software on their systems. Programmers need help, too, but getting back to computers: itâs rare that you find a technically conversant user. If you write applications that target businesses and departments within organizations (thatâs what I do), you find that the users are very skilled at their jobs, but not necessarily skilled at using a computer. Thatâs why it is imperative that you make your programs as straightforward to use as possible.
You should also add online help to your applications. These ready documents act as the first wave of support for your usersâ software needs. Of course, they seldom read it, and so you (or your technical support staff) will actually become the first wave of support. But itâs somewhat refreshing to be able to say, âDid you check the online help, which covers this issue in detail?â
In this chapter, weâll discuss the online help options available to you in Visual Basic and focus in on HTML Help 1.x, Microsoftâs standard Windows XP help system.
Windows Online Help Options
Online help has been a part of Windows since its initial release, back in the days when applications and operating systems still shipped with printed manuals and never required more than two floppy disks. I really miss those days. That sense of touch; the cold, smooth pages in my hands. I remember the first Windows ...
Get Programming Visual Basic 2008 now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.