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Authoring Source Documents » Microsoft Word » Creating What’s This (Field-Level) Help in Word
Creating What’s This (Field-Level) Help in Word
If you generate Microsoft HTML Help output, you can implement What’s This help for product dialog boxes and windows. What’s This Help is also known as field-level help. Only Microsoft HTML Help supports field-level help. In addition, not all products are designed to support field-level help for product dialog boxes and windows. Before you begin implementing field-level help, consult your product team to determine if field-level help part of the product design. If field-level help is part of the product design, you will also need to obtain the appropriate ID from your product team for each field-level help topic you need.
Users can view the field-level help you create using one of following methods:
*Users click on the question mark icon in the upper right corner of the dialog box or window.
When users click on the question mark icon, their cursor changes to a question mark. Users can then move the question mark cursor over the fields on the dialog box or window, and Windows displays the field-level help you created in a popup window when they hover over a specific field.
*Users right-click a field on a dialog box or window and then select the What’s This? option from the single option menu Windows displays.
After users select this option, Windows displays the field-level help you specify in in a popup window.
Users close the popup window that provides the field-level help by pressing the Esc key on the keyboard. When users press the Esc key, their cursor returns to the regular cursor shape for the user.
To create What’s This help, your Stationery and template must have the following items configured:
*What Is This help paragraph style
WhatIsThisHelpIDThe following procedure provides an example of how to create What’s This help in Microsoft Word source documents using Microsoft Word 2003. Steps for creating What’s This help in Microsoft Word may be different in other versions of Microsoft Word.
To create What’s This help in a Microsoft Word source documents
1. Identify a topic that contains field-level help.
2. Apply the What Is This paragraph style to the text that contains the field-level help.
3. Insert your cursor into the field-level help text.
4. On the WebWorks menu, click Markers.
5. In the Marker field, select WhatIsThisID from the list of markers.
6. In the Value field, type the appropriate ID for the field-level description. Obtain appropriate IDs for each field-level description from your product team.
7. Click OK.
8. Save your Microsoft Word source document.
9. Generate output for your project. For more information, see Generating Output.
10. In Output Explorer, verify ePublisher created the What’s This help you specified by completing the following steps:
a. On the View menu, click Output Directory.
b. Open the ProjectName folder, where ProjectName is the name of your project.
c. Open the whatisthis.txt file and verify that the field-level help you created is associated with the correct ID you received from your product development team.
d. Open the whatisthis.h file and verify that each new string you added is listed in the file.
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Last modified date: 06/11/2024