Context sensitive help for Windows Forms – part 2

by Geert 19. June 2010 15:14

This is an update to the old version of the CatenaLogic.Help namespace.

How to use

Recompile the library from the provided source
Put the HelpComponent on the main form of your application
Run the application with helpprovider commandline parameter
Use Ctrl+F1 to map help topics to controls. Remember about the hierarchy - you do not have to provide topics for all controls, it is sufficient to provide the topic for a container control and all its child controls inherit the mapping.
Remember to provide a help file name (must be a *.chm file located beside the application main executable)
When the mapping is complete, include the help.mapping file stored beside the application main executable as an embedded resource in one of assemblies
Remove the help.mapping file located beside the application main executable
Rebuild the application

Screenshot

Use of the Help Editor in a real-world application

History

(*) Help file now correctly handles empty keywords (so it is actually possible to remove topics)
(*) Refactored code

Download

CatenaLogic.Help.zip (30.03 kb) [Downloads: 256]

56fec931-027f-41ae-adeb-02378ace426f|0|.0

Tags:

C# | Windows Forms

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Interesting to see that it is all #WPF instead of #silverlight that microsoft is breathing at the time. #alwaysknewit #wpfrocks

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Why isn't there an Initialized event in #Silverlight. Was it really that hard to implement this important event? It's appr. 5 minutes work!

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About the Author

Geert van Horrik is a independent freelance software developer since January 1st, 2007. Since then he was been working on several projects from C++ to C# (WPF, ASP.NET, etc). Currently he loves to write his software using WPF (or Silverlight if WPF isn't an option).

Lately, Geert is spending a lot of time on Catel, a free open-source MVVM Framework for WPF and Silverlight. Actually, it's more than "just" an MVVM Framework, it's a complete application library!