Copyright: Copyright (C) 1995 bytes & letters


SmartHelP One
Welcome to SmartHelP One, Version 1.00.000.

Overview

 Getting Started and, ... why SmartHelP?

 What´s really going on here?

 Shareware Version, Information & Registration

Toolbar Buttons

 Insert a new context page

 Insert a new Jump or PopUp

 Compile current project

 Launch your created help file

 Watch Error Log created by the compiler

Menu

Project Settings

Setup Help Compiler


Getting Started

Why SmartHelP?

This product was designed for all those, who want to have a simple but useful help in their applications.

If you are planning to built an interactive-multimedia-macro-power-user-confusion help, SmartHelP is really not the right thing for you. But if you say, »I´ve got an pretty good application and I want to provide help to my users when they press the <F1> key ... «; if you do not want spend weeks on it and if you want to write your manual and your help at the same time, maybe SmartHelP is the best what can happen to you.

Well, let´s give it a try.

At first, make sure that SMTHELP.DOT is in the same directory where all your templates (*.DOT) are, for example in »C:\WINWORD\TEMPLATE«. This file - SMTHELP.HLP - must be copied into your WINDOWS directory.

Creating a new standalone helpfile

1.	Start Microsoft Word 6.0

2.	Choose New from the File-Menu.

3.	Choose »smthelp.dot« as template-file and press <Ok>.

4.	The SmartHelP Aboutbox is displayed. Click <Ok>.

5.	The New Project Dialog is opened now. Enter the filename and the path for the new project. After you´ve pressed <Ok>, the new document will be saved in the specified (new) directory.

6.	The Project Setup Dialog is displayed now. Type all the information which is necessary or choose <Ok> immediately and do it later.

7.	Now you are in the edit window. The contents page is already there. If you want to add other context pages, you can choose Create New Context from the SmartHelP help or you can click onto the appropriate button menu.

8.	If you are in the New Context Dialog, type a name for the new topic and press <Ok>.

9.	Type in some text.

10.	If the path of your help compiler is different from »C:\VB\HC\HCP.EXE«, choose Setup Help Compiler from the SmartHelP menu and specify the name and path of your compiler.

11.	Choose Compile Project from the SmartHelP menu.

12.	Choose Launch Help.

That´s all.

Creating a new Visual-Basic help project

The steps are the same as above with one execption: At the Project Setup Dialog you must specify the name of your Visual Basic project file. SmartHelP will then update all forms automatically. Further, you´ll have one more button at the New Context Dialog, the Use VB form >> button.

To enable the help engine within your application, you must set the App.HelpFile property. This could look like this:

Sub Main ()

App.HelpFile = DEMO.HLP

End Sub

The helpfile will then be found if it is located in the WINDOWS-directory or if it is located in the same directory as your application. You need not do anything else to have online help support in your program.

Visual Basic example

A Visual Basic example is shipped with SmartHelP.

The files are:

DEMO.MAK - The VB project file

DEMO.DOC - The Word 6.0 document

DEMO.INF

DEMO.HPJ

To play around with it, you can either

- run Visual Basic, load DEMO.MAK and press the <F5> key. Then press <F1>.

- or if you want to make modifications to the example document, start Microsoft Word 6.0 and load the DEMO.DOC file.


Shareware Version

SmartHelP is Copyright (C)1995 by bytes & letters, software technology hilger.

At first: If you have problems with SmartHelP or if you found a bug - please, please inform us about!!!

That´s the only way to make a bug-free product, and it´s your advantage; because, if you found a bug that makes it impossible to generate your helpfile, you´ll be registered free. In other words: You save the registration fee. Our e-mail adress is:

CompuServe-ID: 100275, 3554

The shareware version is limited to 10 topics. Enough to evaluate SmartHelP and to decide if it´s good or bad for you. If you are going to ship helpfiles which have been created with SmartHelP, you must register it first.

There are two possibilities to do this:

Via CompuServe

GO SWREG

The program number is 4490. You can also find it with the keywords »SMARTHELP,WINHELP«. The registration fee is US $14. After we received your registration, you´ll get a User-ID and a Serial Number. Both must be typed in at the After Product Registration dialog. After that, there will be no topic-count-limit anymore.

By Mail

Our adress is:

bytes & letters
software technology hilger
Postfach 16 27
66716 Saarlouis
Germany

If you are from anywhere in the world ....

please enclose a cheque over US$ 20 (it´s more than $14, we know, but that´s because of the bank fees, about $8). A few days later, you´ll get the registration number and ID by fax or mail. However you want it.

Thanx a lot.

Wenn Sie aus Deutschland sind, ...

dann senden Sie bitte Bargeld oder einen Scheck in Höhe von DM 23,-- an unsere Postadresse. In diesem Fall erhalten Sie eine Registrierungsbestätigung, bzw. eine Quittung mit ausgewiesener MwSt. per Post oder per Fax. Ganz wie Sie wünschen.

Herzlichen Dank.

Dirk Hilger


Registration

To
bytes & letters
software technology hilger
Postfach 1627

66716 Saarlouis
Germany

 Registering SmartHelP One, Version 1.00.000

Please send a registration ID and a serial number to:

Title 	_____________________________________

Name	_____________________________________

Street	_____________________________________

City/Zip	_____________________________________

State, Country	_____________________________________

Phone	___________________________

Fax	___________________________

E-Mail	___________________________

I´ve enclosed:

(  )  Cheque, No.	___________________________

(  )  Cash

Sincerely	________________________________


What´s going on

As written before, SmartHelP was designed for all those, who want to have a simple but useful help in their applications and those who do not want to spend weeks to their help project.

Because of that, SmartHelP does a lot of things that you don´t see. Many files are created. The help compiler itself doesn´t need a lot of files, only one project file with the extension ».HPJ«, this file is created automatically too.

All files which are a part of your help project are stored into one single subdirectory. That´s the best way to keep order. This directory may be created by the Windows File Manager or by SmartHelP when you open a new project with the SMTHELP.DOT template.

One project consists of the following files: (Files which have an asterisk must not be modified by you or are temporary files which are deleted on each compiler start.)

<project>.DOC

The main document file, a Word 6.0 file.

<project>.HLP

Your help file.

<project>.RTF *

Your document in Ritch Text Format which is readed by the compiler.

<project>.INF *

Information file, used by SmartHelP.

<project>.HPJ *

The compiler project file.

<project>.HPH *

The compiler header file with MAP-constants for all topics.

<project>.ERR *

The error log file which is created during each compile process.

<project>.H

Header file that can be read by each C/C++ compiler. It contains all context ID´s as enumerated constants.

<project>.VBH

Visual Basic include file. You can integrate this file with your Visual Basic project to provide manual help. For example, if you have a Help menu, where you want to start the help engine from.


Insert a new Context
 Insert a new Context (Dialog)

Clicking this button will open a dialog box, where you type in informations about the new context page. You may change these settings later by editing the Footnote Window.

Title

The title of the new context which will be displayed at the top of the page.

Template Name

The title will be formatted with the template you choose here. This option is very useful, if you want to create a helpfile and a book at the same time. If you select one of the built in heading templates*, you can create a structured book with chapters, sub-chapters and a clear contents page with page numbers and so on very easy. For detailed informations, please refer to your Microsoft Word Manual.

(* heading templates - This tool was created with the german version of the word processor, so we do not know what the names of these templates are in other countries. In germany they are »Überschrift 1-9«. The english names could be »Heading 1-9« or »Title 1-9« or similar. )

Main Contents Page

If the new page becomes the Main Contents Page, which will be opened when the user clicks the Contents-Button at the help window, the box should be checked.

You can also specify the Contents Page at the Project Settings Dialog.

# Context ID (optional)

The shortname for this page. You will need it to create jumps to this page. Jumps and PopUps do not use the entire title as their destination, they use this ID. Futher, SmartHelP will create various files  (a Visual Basic file with constants, a C file with enumeration constants and the header file for the help compiler) where this name will be used.

Note that only letters and underbars are allowed. Spaces, points and commas will be converted to underbars.

If you´re help project is connected to a Visual Basic project, you may specify the name of a form. The HelpContextID-property of this form will then be updated automatically each time you start the compile process. So you needn´t worry about the rightness of the HelpContextID´s in your Visual Basic project. SmartHelP does this for you.

If you leave this textbox empty, SmartHelP will create an ID automatically.

The Context ID will be displayed in the Footnote Window. The footnote character is »#«.

Use VB form >>

This button is only visible if you´ve specified a Visual Basic Project file at the Project Settings Dialog. Clicking this button will open a second dialog box with all the forms that could be found in your Visual Basic project. This way you needn´t know all the form names, just choose one of the list which will be displayed.

$  Sequence (optional)

This is the title wich will be displayed at the Search for help on dialog.

If you leave this textbox empty, SmartHelP will create one sequence automatically.

The title sequence will be displayed in the Footnote Window. The footnote character is »$«.

K  Keywords (optional)

The expression(s) on which the user can find this topic, when he types in search-sequences at the Search for help on dialog. You can specify multiple keywords which are delimited by semicolons (;).

If you leave this textbox empty, SmartHelP will create one keyword automatically.

The keywords will be displayed in the Footnote Window. The footnote character is »K«.

See also:

Project Settings Dialog


Insert a new Jump or PopUp
 Insert a new Jump or PopUp (Dialog)

Clicking this button will open a dialog box, where you specify the new Jump or PopUp.

Text

The (green) text where the user will click on to get more information about this theme. Within your document this text will be formatted double-underlined.

Destination ID Button

If you click onto the button, a list will all topics and their ID´s will be displayed. This way you may choose one of the list without typing it´s name. But note: The larger your document is, the longer time it will take to display this list.

Within your document the destination ID will be hidden. To make it visible, activate the Extra-Characters-Button.

Create Jump

Activating this option will cause SmartHelP to create a simple jump reference.

Create Jump to second window

Activation this option will cause SmartHelP to create a jump reference to a second window. In other words, when the user clicks onto this text, a second window will be opened.

Create PopUp

Instead of a jump, you can also create a PopUp. If the user clicks onto the text, WinHelp will show a modal PopUp window.

Use Button Bitmap

If you activate this checkbox, SmartHelP will insert one of the following bitmaps at the left of the text:

 for a simple jump

 for a jump to a second window

 for a popup


 Compile current project

After you´ve clicked this button, SmartHelP will start various proecesses:

your document will be saved

a <project>.RTF file will be created

the <project>.HPJ file will be actualized

the <project>.HPH file will be recreated

the C-header file <project>.H will be created

if you have specified a Visual Basic project file, all the forms will be updated and the <project>.VBH will be created.

the help compiler that you´ve specified at the Compiler Setup Dialog will be started.

If the settings are not correct or not complete, you´ll get an error message.

After your project has been compiled successfully, you can launch the created help file. If not so, you can refer to the Error Log file.

See also:

Project Setup


 Launch created help file

After you´ve clicked this button at the toolbar, you can take a look at your result.

If the help file doesn´t exist (because the compiler or SmartHelP found an error) you´ll get an error message.


 Watch Error Log

The help compilers HCP.EXE or HC31.EXE produce a Log File which contains all informations about some occured errors during the compilation of your project.

Clicking this button will load the Log File into the Windows NotePad.


Project Setup Dialog

Project Title

The title of your help file. This text will be displayed at the title bar of the help window.

Copyright (optional)

Your copyright text.

Contents page

The context-ID of the main Contents Page.

VB 3.0 Project File (optional)

If you want to connect your help project to a Visual Basic project, you can specify the path and the name of the .MAK file. This has several advantages, because SmartHelP will update all the HelpContextID-properties of all forms in your project automatically. The only thing you´ll have to do is to set the App.HelpFile property at the entry point of your application. The rest will be done automatically.

Additional files (optional)

If you want to integrate some other files (definition files etc.) with your project, you can specify the filenames here. Note that all the addional files must be located in the same directory as your project. So do not enter a path name.

Main Window

Choose the position of the main help window.

Second Window

One second window will be defined automatically. Here you can choose it´s position. The size of the window is the half of the main window.

Fixed Titles

Your helpfile may contain non-scrolling titles. The background color of this non-scrolling area can be different from the backcolor of the rest of the text.

Sans Serif font global

If you activate this checkbox, all the fontnames in your document will be ignored. The advantage is, that you can write a book and helpfile with the same format-templates at the same time. Normally, books are formatted with a Roman font, such as »Times New Roman«, Windows help is formatted with a Sans Serif font, for example »Helv« or »Arial«, because it´s much easier to read a Sans Serif font on the screen.

This checkbox should always be activated.

Use compression

Checking this option will cause the compiler to produce a compressed file. This is only useful if your project is completed, because it takes much more time to create a compressed help file than creating a »normal« file.

BrowseButtons()

If you want to specify browse sequences in footnotes, you may turn this option on. WinHelp will then display the << and >> buttons at the top of the help window.


Helpcompiler Setup
Helpcompiler Setup Dialog

This specification is neccessary to find and start the compiler.

If you don´t know where your compiler resides, start the Windows File Manager and search for »HCP.EXE«. If you can´t find it, look for the older version named »HC31.EXE«.

The compiler is shipped with Visual Basic Pro edition and some other Microsoft Products. You can also find it in some public libraries, such as »MSBASIC« or »MSL« on CompuServe.