Adding Help To Applications in C#(Csharp)

With Help class, our applications can display either HTMLHelp or Win32 Help.
Help class has 3 main static methods : ShowHelp(), ShowHelpIndex() and ShowPopup(). In this article, I will show how to use these methods.

1. ShowHelp method : displays the content of a Help file.



public static void ShowHelp(Control parent, string url);
public static void ShowHelp(Control parent, string url, string topic);

Parameters :
- parent : a control that identifies the parent of the Help dialog
- url : the path to the HTMLHelp or Win32 Help file
- topic : the topic to display. This value references the page to display (HTMLHelp file) or the numeric value of the topic's ID (Win32 Help file).



Example :
- Display the content of 'TestHelp.chm' file
Help.ShowHelp(this,"TestHelp.chm");
- Display 'Topic1' of 'TestHelp.chm' file
Help.ShowHelp(this,"TestHelp.chm","topic1.htm");

2. ShowHelpIndex method : displays the index of a Help file.


public static void ShowHelpIndex(Control parent, string url);
Parameters :
- parent : a control that identifies the parent of the Help dialog
- url : the path to the HTMLHelp or Win32 Help file


Example :
Display the index of 'TestHelp.chm' Help file
Help.ShowHelpIndex(this,"TestHelp.chm");


3. ShowPopup method : displays a Help pop-up window.


public static void ShowPopup(Control parent, string caption, Point location);
Parameters :
- parent : a control that identifies the parent of the Help dialog
- caption : the string to display in the pop-up window
- location : the location to display the pop-up window


Example :
Display the pop-up window at index of 'TestHelp.chm' Help file
Help.ShowPopup(this,"This is a Help pop-up",new Point(100,100));


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