Copyright: VB AHA!!! Copyright ® Craig Villalon 1993-1994


Contents

VB AHA!!!

Introduction

Requirements

Getting Started

Overview

Tutorials

Using with Visual Basic

Customer Support

Registering

What do you get for Registering?

Press F1 to get help on using Help.

For context sensitive help select a window and press F1.


Text Setup

All changes will be previewed in the textbox at the bottom of the window. You may enter whatever text you want into that textbox to see what effect your changes will have on it.

Font Name

Choose a font from the list of all available fonts.

Font Size

Choose a font size from the list or enter your own.

Bold

The text will be bold.

Italic

The text will be italic.

Left

Left margin for the text in inches.

Right

Right margin for the text in inches.

Text Alignment

There are 3 text alignment options:

Left - text will be aligned to the left side of the window.

Right - text will be aligned to the right side of the window.

Center - text will be centered in the window.

Color

Click on the button that is the color that you want the text to be.


Topic

Editing

Toolbar

Click on any Toolbar button below for further info on it.

All of the text field buttons in the toolbar may be right clicked with the mouse to edit their default values.

Keyboard control (Registered Only)

  You may use the keyboard for the following:
Up and down arrows move between fields. Page Up and Page Down do just that when there is more that a page in a topic. Otherwise they move between fields like the arrow keys.
Shift + Enter key creates a new field after the current one (of the same type as the current field).

Add text or graphics to your topic

Click on one of the toolbar's buttons in the first group to add a text field or graphic to the end of your topic. To place it above an already existing field drag the toolbar button that you want over the field and release the mouse button. There is currently a limit of 50 fields per topic.

Adding multiple fields

  To add multiple fields (of the same type) in the middle of a topic, drag the toolbar button you want to use with the left mouse button, and while holding it down, click the right mouse button over the field you want the new one to be created above.  You may continue clicking the right mouse button to create more fields.

Delete a text field or graphic from your topic

Drag the trashcan button over the text/graphic that you want to delete and release the button. (text fields may also be deleted if they have the input focus and you either click on the trashcan or you select the Delete menu item).

Changing defaults for any field

When you right click with the mouse on any field in the topic a menu will be displayed which you may choose an option from. See menus below.

Menus


Topics List

New

This creates a new topic and brings up the Topic Setup window.

Delete

Removes a topic from your project.

Edit

This will bring up the Topic Setup window for the topic selected in the list.

View

This will open the selected topic so you may edit it. You may also just double click on the topic you want to view in the list to open it.

Menus


Topic Setup

Name

  This is what you will use to refer to this topic in the rest of your project. The Topic name must not have any spaces in it. Valid names may contain any of the following characters: "A-Z", " a-z", "0-9", "." and "_". You may not have any spaces in the name.

Title

  This is the topics name in the compiled help file, it is what you will see in the History window and the lower pane of the search window. Titles may contain any characters you want. Use CHARMAP.EXE to get special characters. Titles over 50 characters long will be truncated.

Browse Sequence

  This is used to construct the browse order for the browse buttons to use. Generally you can just let VB AHA!!! handle this for you.  It must be in the following format:  SequenceName:Index. There can be no spaces and the Index will be sorted alphabetically. So, use Index's like 001, 002... 010, etc...
If you let it, VB AHA!!! will construct the Browse Sequences for you, see Build Options.

Build Name

You may give each topic a build name that will allow you to selectively compile only those topics that are in your Build Expression see Project Setup (Options|Project...).

Keywords

These are the word(s) that will appear in the top pane of the search window that will allow you to find this topic. Only use one keyword per line. Keywords may be any number of words each examples: "Setup", "Getting Started", etc... (Don't use the quotes though, unless you want them in your keyword). You may use any characters you want in a keyword. Use CHARMAP.EXE to get special characters.


Project Setup

Any time you need to select a file you may click on the "B" button to the left of that textbox to browse your drives for the file you want.

Root Directory

This tells the help compiler where to find the files to make your help file.  The default is to look in the same directory as the .AHA file.

Graphics Directory

This tells the help compiler where to find the graphics in your help file (It already looks in the Root Directory that you selected).

Error Log File

Name of the file that you want the help compiler to write any errors that it finds to.

Icon

Icon that that you want displayed when your help file is minimized. Leave blank to use the defualt icon.

Title

Text that you want displayed in the title bar of your help file.

Contents Topic

Topic that will be shown when your help file is first displayed and that can be returned to by pressing the contents button at the top of the help window.  This entry must be filled in with a valid topic name or the help compiler will just use the first topic that it finds as the contents topic.

Copyright Notice

Text that you want displayed in the about box for the help window.

Global Font

Font that you want your entire help file to use (in case you used a font while designing your help file that cannot be distributed or that you decide you don't want to use).

Map Font Size To...

Allows you to map a certain font size or range of font sizes to a different font size. You must put only one per line and in order from smallest to largest like this:
6-10:10
11-15:12
18:16
with these mappings and fonts in your project that are of size 6 to 10 will now be changed to size 10, sizes 11 to 15 will be changed to size 12 and size 18 will be changed to size 16.

Build Expression

Tells the help compiler which topics to include in the final help file. Just leave blank unless you only want to compile topics with a certain Build Tag.

Compression

None - no compression. (fastest during compile)

Medium - average compression.

High - all out attempt at compressing the help file (slower during compile but will generate smaller help files than the other options).

Report

None - no status report during compile.

Status - reports the status of the help compiler's progress.

Warnings

Severe - reports only severe errors.

Moderate - reports moderate and severe errors.

All - reports all errors and warnings.


Picture Setup

Picture

This is the filename of the picture that you want to use. You may use .BMP or .SHG pictures in a help file (If you use a .SHG you must have the .BMP for that picture in the same directory and with the same name as the .SHG if you want to be able to see it while designing your help file. Example: you want to use the file named OPTIONS.SHG so you need to have the file OPTIONS.BMP in the same directory.) You may click on the "B" button to browse for a picture. Whatever picture that you select will be shown in the bottom portion of the window.

Left

This is the left margin in inches for the picture.

Right

This is the right margin in inches for the picture.

Alignment

This is how the picture will be aligned.
1. Left - aligned to the left side of the help window.
2. Right - aligned to the right side.
3. Center - centered in the help window.


Build Options

General

Include Pictures

  Includes all .BMP and .SHG files that are in your project into the compiled help file. Leave this option unchecked while you are working on your project, (the Help Compiler will work much faster that way), and only select this option for the final build.

Min. During Build

  Minimizes VB AHA!!! while it is building the help file. This option can be useful if you are working on a very large help file that will take awhile to build.

Use Default Color (Registered Only)

  The default color for Popups and Jumps as defined by Windows will be used for your Jump To/Popup fields and Globally Linked Text. Deselect this option if you want these to use the color of the text field that they are in (the way it appears while editing it in VB AHA!!!).

Global Links

Case Sensitive

  Global Text Links will only be created if the text in your project matches exactly ("Register" will only match with "Register" and not with "register"). Leave this option off if you want "register" to match "Register".

Use Default Color

  The default color for Popups and Jumps as defined by Windows will be used for globally linked text. Deselect this option if you want your Global Text Links to use the color of the text field that they are in.

Whole Word Only

  Global text links will only be made to whole words. (ex: "Build Option" will only link to "Build Option" and not to "Build Options". Deselect this option if you want it to link to both.)

Browsing

Browse Buttons

  Include the browse buttons in your help file. (« and »)

Default Layout

  VB AHA!!! will construct a standard layout for the browse buttons to use. Deselect this option if you want to use your own layout (Browse sequences).

Window Attributes

"" to "Main"

  This will force your Jump To's that don't specify a window to use the Main windows only.  Without this if you select a Jump To in a secondary window the topic that it is linked with will be shown in the secondary window.


VB Options

Forms

  This is a list of all Form types that are in Visual Basic. If you have any new types of forms that are not included in the Standard or Pro versions of Visual Basic then you must add their form type name to this list. (the name will be given in the Properties window of Visual Basic)

No HelpContextID

  This is a list of all the controls that do not have a HelpContextID. You need to add to this list if you have any new controls not included in the Standard of Pro versions of Visual Basic that don't have this property. You must use the name of the control type as given in the Properties window of Visual Basic.

Import

  These are what VB AHA!!! will create its topics from. Generally you will want to only Import the Forms Only, one exception is stated below under Export.

Export

  These are the topics that VB AHA!!! will export back into your Visual Basic program. Select Forms Only if you want the context sensitive help to open the help file to a topic that will give help on the whole form. TIP: Import "Forms and Controls" and Export "Forms Only" if you want to use .SHG files on your forms.

.Mak File

  This is the location and name of your Visual Basic programs .Mak file.  Once VB AHA!!! has saved the HelpContextID's to your .FRM files then it is a good idea to delete this entry until you need it again(you add some forms or controls to your VB project).

Visual Basic

  This tells VB AHA!!! where to find Visual Basic so that it may recompile your .Mak file using the new HelpContextID's that it setup.

Keep all old HelpContextID's that aren't remapped

  Select this to keep any old HelpContextID's that aren't remapped by your projects topics. If you don't select this then VB AHA!!! automatically removes all your old HelpContextID's that aren't remapped by your projects topics.

Make backups of the .FRM files

  Your .FRM files will be copied to .BAK files before VB AHA!!! saves the HelpContextID's to them.  You should always leave this option on as a safety mesasure in case something goes wrong while VB AHA!!! is accessing your .FRM files.


Global Text Link Setup

Global Text to Link

This is the text that will be linked to the Topic that you choose throughout your help file.

Set Topic Link


Global Text Links

  Use these to make links to a word or words that appear anywhere in your help file without having to set a link to each instance.  This is also the only way to make a link to a part of a field instead of the whole field.

Set Link

  Set Topic Link

  Double clicking an entry in the list will also open the Set Topic Link window for that global text link.

New

  Creates a new Global Text Link.  It will ask you for the text that you want to make a link to then it will show the Set Topic Link window so you can define the link.

Delete

  Removes the selected Global Text Link from your project.


Layout
Layout of Help file

This window displays the layout of your help file by first showing your contents topic at the top. Below that it has each topic that is linked to the contents topic (these are indented once to the right). This continues with each of these topics until the entire layout of your help file is displayed (like a tree, the contents topic is the root and all of it's linked topics are the branches etc....).

Example Layout

Contents
 Introduction
 Starting
 Overview
Menus
File
Edit
Options
Toolbar
 Glossary


Introduction

    VB AHA!!! is an inexpensive and easy to use utility for writing Windows help files. You won't need any expensive wordprocessors or have to use any cryptic commands. With simple mouse clicks and Drag n Drop ease you will be able to construct your help files quickly.

  If you use Visual Basic then VB AHA!!! will handle all of the HelpContextID values for you and even recompile your programs with the new values. No more hassles of having to insert the values by hand! If you program in C/C++ or Pascal then VB AHA!!! will create a header file containing all of the definitions that you will need for context sensitive help in your programs.

    For information on using VB AHA!!! read Getting Started and Overview.


Getting Started

Creating New Topics

    Click on the New button in the Topics List window or the main toolbar button of a window. Doing this will bring up the Topic Setup window, fill in whatever info you decide to use (at the minimum, fill in the "Name") for your topic and select Ok. You now have a new empty topic.

Adding Text/Graphics to a Topic

    Click on one of the toolbar buttons in the first group of the topic window to add a field (click on one below to see what kind of field it is) to the bottom of the topic. If you want to add a new field somewhere other than the bottom then you can drag the toolbar button to the field that you want the new field to be placed above.

Deleting Fields

To delete a field you can:

1. Drag the trashcan toolbar button onto the field that you want to delete and drop it.
2. Select the field and click on the trashcan.
3. Select the field (without selecting any text) and press Ctrl-D.
4. Right click the mouse over the field and select Delete from the field menu.

Keeping Your Changes

    To keep the changes that you have made to the topic you may either select the Topic|Store menu item or the Close item from the control menu (button in the upper left of the topic window).

Discarding Your Changes

    To discard your changes to the topic you can select the Topic|Discard menu item.

Setting Options

    You will need to select Options|Build... and Options|Project... and fill in the Build Options and the Project Setup windows.  If you are working on a Visual Basic projects help file see Using with Visual Basic.
    Note: You must fill in the "Contents" entry in Options|Project with the topic name (from the Topics List window) that you want displayed when your help file is first opened.

Saving Your Work

    To save the work that you have done you may either click on the toolbar button of a disk(in the main window) or select the File|Save menu item (also in the main window). If this is a new project then you will be presented with the standard windows dialog to select a filename for your project.

Creating a Help File

    You must use PIFEDIT.EXE on HC.PIF to tell it where your HC.EXE file is located. Fill in the Project Setup window and the Build Options window first. Then select "All" from the Build menu.
    After your help file has successfully been compiled you may select its name from the Build menu to open it.


Registering

  You may register by credit card, Compuserve or check. See the appropriate section below for more information.

CREDIT CARD ORDERS ONLY

 You can order with MC, Visa, Amex, or Discover from Public (software) Library by calling:
800-2424-PsL or 713-524-6394
or by FAX to:
713-524-6398
or by CIS Email to:
71355,470
You can also mail credit card orders to:
PsL
P.O.Box 35705
Houston, TX 77235-5705.

You will need the following information to register:
product: VB AHA!!!
product #11196
$50 US and $54 Canada/overseas will be billed to your credit card.

 THE ABOVE NUMBERS ARE FOR ORDERS ONLY.

  PsL operators are available from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. CST Monday-Friday and normally from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on weekends.

  Any questions about the status of the shipment of the order, refunds, registration options, product details, technical support, volume discounts, dealer pricing, site licenses, etc, must be directed to me at one of the following:

Internet:     villalon@crl.com
CompuServe:    73261,2665 (Compuserve members only)
or regular mail to:
Craig Villalon
2074 Pleasant Hill Rd.
Sebastopol, CA 95472-4948

  To insure that you get the latest version, PsL will notify me the day of your order and I will ship the product directly to you.

Compuserve Members

  VB AHA!!! may now be registered in Compuserves Shareware Registration forum, GO SWREG and use one of the following in your search:

 Registration ID:    2021
 Program Title:      VB AHA!!! V1.31
 Author:                     Craig Villalon
 CompuServe ID:  [73261,2665]

Checks

Read the file REGISTER.TXT  and README.TXT for information on registering VB AHA!!! through the mail.


Overview

Build Options

Combo Setup

Global Text Links

Global Text Link Setup

Layout

Macros (Registered Only)

Menus

Picture Setup

Project Setup

Set Topic Link

Text Setup

Topics

Topic Setup

Topics List

VB Options

Window Attributes


Deletes the selected text field. Drag over any field and release to delete that field.


Creates a Title text field at the end of your topic. Drag and drop it on any field to create the new field above that one.

Example: Title


Creates a Subtitle text field at the end of your topic. Drag and drop it on any field to create the new field above that one.

Example: SubTitle


Creates a Heading text field at the end of your topic. Drag and drop it on any field to create the new field above that one.

Example: Heading


Creates a Normal text field at the end of your topic. Drag and drop it on any field to create the new field above that one.

Example: Normal Text


Creates a Small indented text field at the end of your topic. Drag and drop it on any field to create the new field above that one.

Example: Indented Text


Creates a Jump To text field at the end of your topic. Drag and drop it on any field to create the new field above that one.

Example: Jump To


Creates a Popup text field at the end of your topic. Drag and drop it on any field to create the new field above that one.

Example: Popup


Creates a Picture field at the end of your topic. Drag and drop it on any field to create the new field above that one.


Menus

File

Topic

VB

Build

Options

Window

Help


Topic Menus
Menus

Topic

Store

  Closes this topics window and stores its data in memory.

Discard

  Closes this topics window and ignores any changes that you made to the topic.

Edit

Cut

  Removes the selected text from the text field and stores it in the clipboard.

Copy

  Copies the selected text to the clipboard.

Paste

  Copies the text in the clipboard to the current location in the text field with the focus.

Delete

  If there is selected text in the text field with the input focus then it is deleted otherwise the text field is deleted.

Select All

  Selects all of the text in the text field with the focus.

Macro (Registered Only)

Edit...

NOTE: These macros will be run whenever the topic is displayed.

Field Menu (Right Click on a Field)

Setup

(Registered Version)
  You may also use Shift + Right mouse click on a field to bring up its Setup window.

View Linked Topic

  Opens the topic that this field is linked to.

Set Topic Link

  Links this field to another topic.

Clear Topic Link

  Clears any link that this field may have to another topic.

Load Text (Registered Version)

  Reads a file into a combo or text field so you don't have to cut and paste from a text editor such as Notepad. Check General Options "Preprocess Text" to have the files contents automatically reformated for you (no returns in the middle of a paragraph, etc...).

Cut

  Copies the selected field to VB AHA's internal clipboard and then deletes it from this topic.

Copy

  Copies the selected field to VB AHA's internal clipboard.

Paste

  Place a field stored in VB AHA's internal clipboard above the selected field.

Delete

  Deletes the selected field.


Requirements

You must have the following files:

HC.EXE - the Microsoft Help Compiler. Only needed to actually compile the Help file, you can still design it without this program.

VBRUN300.DLL - the Visual Basic runtime library.

SHED.EXE -  Microsofts .SHG file editor. To make graphics that have hotspots (buttons) on them. Not really necessary.

to use VB AHA!!!.


   If you don't already have VBRUN300.DLL then you can get it from almost any BBS that carries windows programs or from Microsofts BBS.

Microsoft BBS phone # 1-206-936-6735


   If you don't already have the Microsoft Help Compiler you may get it from ftp.cica.indiana.edu on the Internet as what.zip.  Or when you register I will send it and SHED.EXE (for making segmented hypergraphics) to you free of charge.  Please note that these are Microsoft programs and that I am not selling them. I am sending these purely as a convenience to my customers that may not have access to the Internet. I believe that these programs are also available on Microsoft's Developers Network CD's.


Menus

File

Open a .TPC file...

Allows you to add a topic to this project that you previously saved as a .TPC file using the next menu option. If this creates a topic with the same name as a topic that was already in the .AHA project then you must rename one of the topics.

Save Selected Topic as .TPC...

Allows you to save a single topic to a file for use in another project. This is very useful for generic topics that you will use in more than one help file.

Edit

Copy

Copies the selected topics name to the clipboard. You can use this any time that you need to enter a topics name (ie. defining text links).


Using with Visual Basic

To use VB AHA!!! with Visual Basic projects there are several things that you must do.

All of your .FRM files must be saved as text, not in binary format.

Select Options|Visual Basic... and fill in the VB Options.

Use the VB|Open... menu and select the .MAK file for your VB project. Topics will be created using the names of your forms as the topic names. If you chose to import Forms and Controls then a topic will also be created for each control on your forms. Each control will have a name like this: Formname.Controlname.

Edit the topics and Delete any that you don't want context sensitive help on.

Select Options|Project... and fill in Project Setup.

Select Options|Build... and fill in Build Options.

Select File|Save or File|Save As... to save your .AHA project.

Select VB|Save to save the HelpContextID's to your .FRM files (This will be done automatically during the Build but it is a good idea to do this anyway in case you don't do your build yet).

Select Build|All or (Build|Support Files, Build|Help File and Build|VB .Mak).

Visual Basic Code

Here's what my Help menu code looks like.

Sub mnuHelp_Click (Index As Integer)
    On Error Resume Next
    Dim ret% ' return value for WinHelp API calls

    Select Case Index
        Case H_CONTENTS ' Show the Contents topic
            ret = WinHelp(hWnd, app.HelpFile, HELP_CONTENTS, 0&)
        Case H_SEARCH ' Show the Contents topic and the Search dialog
            ret = WinHelp(hWnd, app.HelpFile, HELP_PARTIALKEY, "")
        Case H_ABOUT
            frmAbout.Show 1
    End Select
End Sub

Also, put this command into your form's Load event:

    App.HelpFile = App.Path & "\yourfile.hlp"

With the following definitions in a .BAS file:
Global Const HELP_CONTENTS = &H3
Global Const HELP_PARTIALKEY = &H105

Declare Function WinHelp Lib "User" (ByVal hWnd As Integer, ByVal lpHelpFile As String, ByVal wCommand As Integer, ByVal dwData As Any) As Integer

  The Declare must all be on one line of course.


Copyright ©
Visual Basic Automatic Help Author

                   Version 1.31 Registered

                   Version 1.24 Shareware

   Copyright © Craig Villalon 1993-1994

                      All Rights Reserved


File Menu (Main)
File Menu

New

  Clears any project currently in memory and lets you start a new one.

Open

  Opens a project that is on disk.

Save

  Saves the current project to its current file. If it is a new project then VB AHA!!! will bring up the Save As... dialog.

Save As...

  Brings up a dialog box so you can choose a name to save this project as.

Text

  C

  Writes a .H file for C programmers that contains #defines for context sensitive help.

  Pascal

  Writes an .INC file for Pascal programmers that contains constants for context sensitive help.

  Visual Basic

  Writes a .BAS file for VB programmers that contains constants for context sensitive help (This isn't really necessary since VB AHA!!! handles all of that for you).

Exit

  Quit VB AHA!!!  If the current project has changed since the last save you will be prompted to save it.


Topic Menu (Main)
Topic Menu

Set Global Link...

Rename...


Rename Topic
Rename...

This will rename a topic in your Topics List and replace any occurrences of the old topic name with the new name (in Global Text Links, Popup's and JumpTo's). However, if you have any links to this topic in a .SHG file then you must use SHED.EXE to manually change those links.

Rename Topic:

Name of the topic that you want to rename.

To:

New name for the topic.


VB Menu (Main)
VB Menu

Open...

  Creates topics for VB AHA!!! based on a Visual Basic .Mak (one topic for each form and one for each control if you select that option in the Options|Visual Basic... menu). This will erase any topics that already exist in this .AHA project. Your .FRM files must be saved in text format, this won't work if they were saved in binary format. If they are in binary format, use Save File As... on each form and select the Save As Text checkbox.

Append...

  As Open except that your old topics will not be erased.

Save

  Saves the HelpContextID's to your Visual Basic program. Again the .FRM files must be in text format.


Build Menu (Main)
Build Menu

All

  Builds the support files, the Visual Basic .Mak file (if you selected a .Mak file to use) and compiles the help file.

Support Files

  Build the .RTF and the .HPJ files for the Help Compiler.

Help File

  Compiles the help file with the Help Compiler. Be sure to use Pifedit.exe to tell HC.PIF where to find your Help Compiler.

VB .Mak

  Compiles your Visual Basic .Mak file.


Options Menu (Main)
Options Menu

Build...

General...

Project...

Visual Basic...


Window Menu (Main)
Window Menu

Global Links

Layout

Macros (Registered Only)

NOTE: These macros will be run when the help file is loaded.

Topics

Window Attributes


Help Menu (Main)
Help Menu

Contents

  Shows the contents of this help file.

Search...

  Brings up the Search window for this help file.

About VB AHA!!!

  Brings up the About window for VB AHA!!!. It displays various useful statistics: # of topics, memory left and % of resources.


General Options

Open New Topics

  When you create a new topic this causes it to be opened automatically so you can edit it.  If you like to create several topics at a time without editing them right away then you should turn this option off.

Preprocess Text (Registered Only)

  Select this to have text that is loaded from a file into a field (with "Load Text" in the field menu) automatically reformatted for a help file (no returns in the middle of paragraphs etc...).

No 3D Effects

  This turns off all of the 3D effects used throughout VB AHA's windows.


Creates a Combo field at the end of your topic. Drag and drop it on any field  to create the new field above that one.

Example: Combo


Creates a Noscroll field at the end of your topic. Drag and drop it on any field to create the new field above that one. All fields above this one in your help file will not scroll while the fields below this one will. There's one thing to beware of (or take advantage of), all fields below the no-scroll line will not be displayed in a popup window.


Combo Setup

All text changes will be previewed in the textbox at the bottom of the window. You may enter whatever text you want into that textbox to see what effect your changes will have on it. A preview of the picture you have selected will be shown on the right side of the window.

Font Name

Choose a font from the list of all available fonts.

Font Size

Choose a font size from the list or enter your own.

Picture

This is the filename of the picture that you want to use. You may use .BMP or .SHG pictures in a help file (If you use a .SHG you must have the .BMP for that picture in the same directory and with the same name as the .SHG if you want to be able to see it while designing your help file. Example: you want to use the file named OPTIONS.SHG so you need to have the file OPTIONS.BMP in the same directory.) You may click on the "B" button to browse for a picture. Whatever picture that you select will be shown in the bottom portion of the window.

Bold

The text will be bold.

Italic

The text will be italic.

Left

Left margin for the combo field in inches.

Right

Right margin for the combo field in inches.

Pic Alignment

There are 2 combo alignment options:

Left - picture will be on the left side of the window with the text after it.

Right - picture will be on the right side of the window with the text before it.

Color

Click on the button that is the color that you want the text to be.


Field Setup

Combo field

Picture field

Text field


Set Topic Link

Topic

  This is the name of the topic that this link will be made with.

Type

  These are the types of links that you may make:

Jump To

When you click on the link in your help file the topic in the will change to the topic you selected.

Macro (Registered Only)

This is a winhelp macro that will be run when the user clicks on this hotspot.

Popup

When you click on the link a second window will be shown containing the topic you selected until you click the mouse button again.

Sound - Play .WAV file

When you click on the link the selected .WAV file will play.

File

  This is the file that you want to make the link with.  The file must either be in the users path or in the same directory as your help file.  When you make links to other help files be sure to set the Topic appropriately for that file.

Window

  The name of a window (defined in Window Attributes) that you want this link to be linked with. The drop-down combo box contains a list of all the windows you have defined as well as "Main" (topic will be displayed in the main help window no matter where it was called from) and "" (the topic will be displayed in whatever window it is called from).


Window Attributes

  Use this window to define your help's main and secondary window attributes.

List of Windows

  Clicking on a window name in this list will fill in the fields to the right for editing.

New

  Sets the fields to the right with default values.

Delete

  Deletes the currently selected window from the list.

Accept

  Click this when you have filled the fields to the right in to keep the changes you made.

Window Name

  The name that you will use to refer to this window when setting links.

Caption

  Text that will appear in the window's caption area (top)

X, Y, Width and Height

  Position and sizes to use for this window.  These coordinates must range from 0 to 1023 no matter what your screen resolution is.  Winhelp.exe maps these coordinates onto your display so that a window with coordinates of 511,511,512,512 will always be displayed in the lower right hand corner and fill 1/4 of the screens space.

Notice that X + Width cannot be greater than 1023 and the same goes for Y + Height.

Background

  Sets the background color used in your help file.  Click on the box to the right of the one you want to set and then select a color from the 16 shown.

No-scroll

Sets the background color for the non-scrolling regions.

Regular

Sets the background color for the area of the topics that are below any non-scrolling region.

Options

  Other general window formatting options.

Maximized

The window will be maximized when opened regardless of the size settings.

Topmost

The window will remain ("float") above all other windows.


Customer Support

  If you have any problems/questions/suggestions please send me E-mail to one of the following addresses (if you are a Compuserve member use that address, otherwise use the Internet address. Email sent to the Compuserve address that is not from a Compuserve member will not be answered.) :

Internet:     villalon@crl.com
CompuServe:    73261,2665

or regular mail to:

Craig Villalon
2074 Pleasant Hill Rd.
Sebastopol, CA 95472-4948


Winhelp Macros
Winhelp Macros (Registered Only)

  Just enter one macro per line. You'll need another reference for the macros until after I finish the RTF importing. If your compiler (if you have one that is) didn't come with a reference that covers the winhelp macros and you have internet ftp access (if you need to ask, you don't have it) you may get:

  ftp.cica.indiana.edu
      /pub/pc/win3/programr/hag.zip

  It's a .hlp file that tells you everything you ever wanted to know about the macros (as well as help files in general).


Why Should You Register?
What Do You Get For Registering?

A clear conscience, knowing that you supported the shareware concept and compensated me, the author for the months of work that have gone into the creation of VB AHA!!! (and the time I'm spending improving on it).

You will help insure future improvements by encouraging me to do more.

Unlimited support through email.

The Latest version of VB AHA!!!. Which will include at least the following features, if not more:

Full macro support.

Each .AHA project has it's own "Build Options".

More predrawn bullets.

Import a file into a text/combo field with automatic reformatting.

Improved keyboard support during topic editing.

Option to use the default Windows Popup/Jump colors for all links (Popup/JumpTo fields and Global Text Links).


Tutorials

Creating Help Files

Manually Setting Browse Sequences (not finished)


Creating Help Files

  Listed below are the steps needed to create a simple help file. For further information/detail read the appropriate topic elsewhere in this online help.

If you haven't started VB AHA!!!, do so now. Select File|New if you already were running VB AHA!!! and had a .AHA project open.

    Select "New" from the "Topics List" window. This brings up the "Topic Setup" window where you will enter the information describing your new topic.
    "Name" is the name for this topic, it will be used internally by VB AHA!!! and the Help Compiler to refer to this topic. All topics must have a name, if you don't give it one then one will automatically be generated. The name is limited to 50 characters and may contain the following characters: "A-Z", "a-z", "0-9", "_" and ".". For this topic, enter the name "contents".
    "Title" will be used in the History and Search dialogs of your finished help file to identify this topic. All topics, except those that will only be displayed in a popup window, should have a title. The title may be up to 127 characters long and contain any text you want, including spaces and special characters (ASCII value > 127). For this topic enter "Table of Contents".
    "Browse Sequence". Leave this entry blank, it will be generated for you. If you want to create your own later then read the tutorial on browse sequences.
    "Build Name". Leave this entry blank, you wont need it.
    "Keywords" are used in the Search dialog for your help file.  These are the words/phrases that the user looks through to find a topic. You may enter more than one keyword for a topic, just put each one on a new line. The keywords for a topic must not exceed 1023 characters and they may contain any text except the semicolon ";". Every topic with a keyword(s) should also have a title (the titles are what is displayed in the "Go To" list of the Search dialog for the help file). For this topic enter "Contents".
    Now click "Ok".  If the topic was opened automatically then continue to the next step. Otherwise, either double click the topics name from the "Topics List" window or select it and then click "View".

Click on the buttons above (the ones in the non-scrolling region of this topic, just below the text "Creating Help Files") to see what each one is used for. You will need to know the names of each to follow the rest of the tutorial, so if you forget just check again.

Click the Heading toolbar button to create a Heading field. Now enter "Contents" into this new field.

Click the JumpTo toolbar button to create a JumpTo field. Now enter "Topic One" into this field. JumpTo fields are used to make links from this topic to another. After you select a topic for this field to link to (we'll do that later) the user will be able to click on this text in the help file and the linked topic will be displayed (it will be displayed in the same window that the "contents" topic was, that's why it's called a JumpTo field).

Click the JumpTo toolbar button again to create another JumpTo field. Enter "Topic Two" into this field.

Create 3 new topics (the same way that you did above) using  the following information:

1. Name - "topic_1"
    Title - "Topic Number One"
    Keywords - "Topic #1"
2. Name - "topic_2"
    Title - "Topic Number Two"
    Keywords - "Topic #2"
3. Name - "topic_pop"

View "topic_1", click the Normal Text toolbar button and enter "This is topic 1." into it.

Close "topic_1" by selecting "Topic|Store", double clicking the control box (upper left corner of the topic window) or click once on the control box and select "Close" from the menu. If you didn't want to keep the changes you made to the topic you would select "Topic|Discard".

View "topic_2", create a Normal Text field and enter "This is second topic." into it. Now close this topic.

View "topic_pop" and click the Picture toolbar button.

Now since you don't want to use the default picture in this field you need to change it. Click and hold down the right mouse button over the picture field. A menu appears with several menu items (this is called the "Field menu"), select "Setup" by moving your mouse over that menu item and releasing the right button. This brings up the "Picture Setup" window.

Click the "B" button under "Picture", this brings up a dialog box for you to select a new picture. Select the file "demo.bmp". The new picture will be displayed in the lower portion of the window for you to preview. Select "Ok", the new picture will now be displayed in the topic window.

Close "topic_pop".

View "contents" again, now you're going to make the links to other topics and add a new field in the middle of the topic.

Click and hold down the left mouse button on the Popup toolbar button and drag the cursor (as you move it off of the toolbar button it changes to a crosshair) over the field that has the text "Topic One" in it. Release the mouse button and a Popup field is created above this field (if you've followed the tutorial so far then the new Popup field is between a heading field with the text "Contents" and a JumpTo field with the text "Topic One"). Enter the text "Show me a picture." into this Popup field.

Click and hold down the right mouse button over this new Popup field and select "Set Topic Link" from the field menu. This brings up the "Set Topic Link" window. For this example all you need to do is fill in the "Topic" entry. Enter "topic_pop" into the "Topic" entry (this is the name of the topic that will be displayed in a popup window when the user clicks on this text). Click "Ok".

Tip: you can copy and paste the topic names from the "Topics List" window. Just select the topic name you want and type Ctrl+C then select the "Topic" entry in the "Set Topic Link" window and type Ctrl+V.

Set the link for the JumpTo field with the text "Topic One" to "topic_1".

Set the link for the JumpTo field with the text "Topic Two" to "topic_2".

Close all the open topics.

Select "Options|Build..." from the main window. Make sure that these three options are checked: "Include Pictures", "Browse Buttons" and "Default Layout". For more information see Build Options.

Select "Options|Project..." from the main window. You need to fill in the "Contents Topic" entry with the name of the topic you want displayed when the help file is first opened and when the user clicks the "Contents" button. Enter "contents" as the contents topic. Now fill in the "Title" entry with "Example Help File". This is the text that will appear in the title bar of your finished help file.

Now you need to run PIFEDIT.EXE on HC.PIF to tell it where your Help Compiler is. If you don't do this then VB AHA!!! won't be able to compile your help file. Be sure to leave "Optional Parameters" and "Start-up Directory" blank otherwise VB AHA!!! will not operate correctly.

If you haven't already, go ahead and save this project now (select "File|Save" or "File|Save As..." and enter a name such as "tutorial.aha").

Select "Build|All" from the main window. When it is finished the name of the help file that was just compiled will be in the "Build" menu, select that menu item to run the help file and try it out.


Browse Sequences
Manually Setting Browse Sequences