Windows Form Help Button - demo help system

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Windows Form Help Button

You can add a help button, icon or hyperlink to a form within your Windows application that opens a specific page of your help system. Follow the steps below to add a help button to your Visual Studio 2003/2005 Windows application.

1. Open a form (such as a login form) within your Visual Studio Windows application.

2. Double click the 'Button' control to add a button to the form. Change the 'text' property to 'Help'. Drag the button to the desired position.

3. Double click the button control to open the code window.

4. Add the following code to the "Sub Button1_Click" event:

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

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Help.ShowHelp(Button1, "http://www.extremeease.com/help/helpconsole 2010/page.aspx?pageid=Project_Login")
End Sub

Open a Dynamic Help Page (within help system)

Open a Static Help Page

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Help.ShowHelp(Button1, "help\project login.htm")
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.

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Help.ShowHelp(Button1, "help\project login.htm")
End Sub

ShowHelp Syntax: Help.ShowHelp(Parent, URL)
Parent - Name of the button control
URL - The url of the help system

5. Press F5 to run the application. Click the 'Help' button.