Windows F1 Field Help - demo help system

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Windows F1 Field Help

You can add context sensitive help to any field within your Windows application so that when a user presses the F1 key while a field has the focus, a help topic specific to that field is displayed. Follow the steps below to add F1 context sensitivity to fields within your Visual Studio 2003/2005 Windows application.

1. Open your Visual Studio Windows application.

2. Double click a field (such as a textbox) to open the code window.

3. Select 'KeyDown' from the 'Events' list

4. Add the following code to the "Sub Textbox1_Keydown" event:

Open a Dynamic Help Page (page only, no contents)

Private Sub TextBox1_KeyDown(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.KeyEventArgs) Handles TextBox1.KeyDown
    If e.KeyCode = 112 Then
        Help.ShowHelp(Me, http://www.domain.com/help/page.aspx?pageid=username)
    End If
End Sub

Open a Dynamic Help Page (within help system)

Open a Static Help Page

Private Sub TextBox1_KeyDown(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.KeyEventArgs) Handles TextBox1.KeyDown
    If e.KeyCode = 112 Then
        Help.ShowHelp(Me, "help\username.htm")
    End If
End Sub

* the url above assumes that the help system is in a sub folder named 'help'

Open a Static Help Page (within help system)

* Note: a page parameter cannot be passed when a static help system is opened from Visual Studio, so in order to display a specific page within the help system, the static help system must be created without frames. See Publishing a Static Help System for more information.

ShowHelp Syntax: Help.ShowHelp(Parent, URL)
Parent - Reference to the current form
URL - The url of the help system

6. Press F5 to run the application. Click a textbox and then press F1 to open the help topic for that field.