How to get Popup Text help to work

[TWR]

I'm developing a small application in Excel where the users are running Excel
97 to Excel XP. I have spent 3 weeks trying to get Text Popups to work, but
have failed. I have assigned the help file in the project properties and
have assigned ContextID's for each control. I have created a help file with
a [TEXT POPUP] section that includes the topic text file as well as the map.h
header file. All of the documentation I have read says that this will work,
except (1) book, that stated "it simply doesn't work".

Currently, I'm using the MouseUp events for the controls and if the right
button is clicked (button=2) then I'm using API calls to get Popup Help Text
from my .chm file. I would like to know if the WhatsThis button in the title
bar is functional and if so, how to make it work.

Thanks

 

[Smallweed]

Sorry to hear you've been through this - I followed a similar route to you
(wasting about the same amount of time!) a year ago until I found out the bad
news that M/soft - who knows why - decided to remove this functionality from
Excel VBA. Different form controls no longer have distinguishable "window
handlers" so context sensitive help can no longer be programmed into VBA
userforms.

It can still be done in other applications - such as VB6 (see
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/192118) - but in VBA it needs clumsy
workarounds like separate buttons to call each different topic. You can
still provide context sensitive help for UDFs in the Function Wizard though
(using Application.MacroOptions) and, if you download the Answer Wizard
builder, users can search for your help topics alongside standard Excel ones.

One thing I haven't managed to do is to incorporate my custom chm's index
with the Excel Help index - if you've had any luck with this I'd be grateful
for some pointers...

 

[TWR]

Thanks Smallweed. I thought it might be something like that. I spent a fair
amount of time trying to get the hWnd for the controls themselves and then
use a different API call. I pretty happy with the Right Click solution I
came up with so I guess thet will have to suffice for now.

As far as your porblem, I not sure I completly understand it, but can't you
decompile excel help and then get the index file and then recompile it with
yours, linking their context id's to their help file and your id's to yours?

Sorry to hear you've been through this - I followed a similar route to you
(wasting about the same amount of time!) a year ago until I found out the bad
news that M/soft - who knows why - decided to remove this functionality from
Excel VBA. Different form controls no longer have distinguishable "window
handlers" so context sensitive help can no longer be programmed into VBA
userforms.

It can still be done in other applications - such as VB6 (see
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/192118) - but in VBA it needs clumsy
workarounds like separate buttons to call each different topic. You can
still provide context sensitive help for UDFs in the Function Wizard though
(using Application.MacroOptions) and, if you download the Answer Wizard
builder, users can search for your help topics alongside standard Excel ones.

One thing I haven't managed to do is to incorporate my custom chm's index
with the Excel Help index - if you've had any luck with this I'd be grateful
for some pointers...

I'm developing a small application in Excel where the users are running Excel
97 to Excel XP. I have spent 3 weeks trying to get Text Popups to work, but
have failed. I have assigned the help file in the project properties and
have assigned ContextID's for each control. I have created a help file with
a [TEXT POPUP] section that includes the topic text file as well as the map.h
header file. All of the documentation I have read says that this will work,
except (1) book, that stated "it simply doesn't work".

Currently, I'm using the MouseUp events for the controls and if the right
button is clicked (button=2) then I'm using API calls to get Popup Help Text
from my .chm file. I would like to know if the WhatsThis button in the title
bar is functional and if so, how to make it work.

Thanks

 

[Chip Pearson]

amount of time trying to get the HWnd for the controls themselves

If you are referring to VBA MSForms controls, don't waste your time. Most
controls are windowless and have no HWnd.


--
Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft MVP - Excel, 10 Years
Pearson Software Consulting
www.cpearson.com
(email on the web site)

Thanks Smallweed. I thought it might be something like that. I spent a
fair
amount of time trying to get the hWnd for the controls themselves and then
use a different API call. I pretty happy with the Right Click solution I
came up with so I guess thet will have to suffice for now.

As far as your porblem, I not sure I completly understand it, but can't
you
decompile excel help and then get the index file and then recompile it
with
yours, linking their context id's to their help file and your id's to
yours?

Sorry to hear you've been through this - I followed a similar route to
you
(wasting about the same amount of time!) a year ago until I found out the
bad
news that M/soft - who knows why - decided to remove this functionality
from
Excel VBA. Different form controls no longer have distinguishable
"window
handlers" so context sensitive help can no longer be programmed into VBA
userforms.

It can still be done in other applications - such as VB6 (see
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/192118) - but in VBA it needs clumsy
workarounds like separate buttons to call each different topic. You can
still provide context sensitive help for UDFs in the Function Wizard
though
(using Application.MacroOptions) and, if you download the Answer Wizard
builder, users can search for your help topics alongside standard Excel
ones.

One thing I haven't managed to do is to incorporate my custom chm's index
with the Excel Help index - if you've had any luck with this I'd be
grateful
for some pointers...

I'm developing a small application in Excel where the users are running
Excel
97 to Excel XP. I have spent 3 weeks trying to get Text Popups to
work, but
have failed. I have assigned the help file in the project properties
and
have assigned ContextID's for each control. I have created a help file
with
a [TEXT POPUP] section that includes the topic text file as well as the
map.h
header file. All of the documentation I have read says that this will
work,
except (1) book, that stated "it simply doesn't work".

Currently, I'm using the MouseUp events for the controls and if the
right
button is clicked (button=2) then I'm using API calls to get Popup Help
Text
from my .chm file. I would like to know if the WhatsThis button in the
title
bar is functional and if so, how to make it work.

Thanks