DOCUMENT:Q174213  24-SEP-1997  [vbwin]
TITLE   :BUG: Blank Window Appears Instead of Help File Contents
PRODUCT :Microsoft Visual Basic for Windows
PROD/VER:WINDOWS:5.0
OPER/SYS:WINDOWS
KEYWORDS:vb5all

======================================================================
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The information in this article applies to:

 - Microsoft Visual Basic Learning, Professional, and Enterprise Editions
   for Windows, version 5.0
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SYMPTOMS
========

When you set the HelpCommand property of a Common Dialog control to
cdlHelpContents and then use the ShowHelp method to display the contents of
a Help file, Windows Help appears with a blank window. The contents of the
Help file is not displayed. The same behavior is exhibited if you set the
HelpCommand property to cdlHelpIndex to display the index of a Help file.

RESOLUTION
==========

Workaround #1
-------------

To display the contents or index of your Help file with the ShowHelp
method, first set the HelpCommand property of the Common Dialog control to
the value &HB. This value corresponds to the HELP_FINDER constant 0x000b in
WINUSER.H. When you use this constant, the Help window appears with the
last active tab. For example, if the Index tab was selected when this
window was last shown, then it will be the active tab when help is shown
again:

      CommonDialog1.HelpFile = _
         "C:\Program Files\DevStudio\VB\Samples\Samples.hlp"
      CommonDialog1.HelpCommand = &HB
      CommonDialog1.ShowHelp

Workaround #2
-------------

To display the Index tab of your Help file, regardless of which tab was
active when the Help file was last shown, set the HelpCommand property of
the Common Dialog control to cdlHelpPartialKey:

      CommonDialog1.HelpFile = _
         "C:\Program Files\DevStudio\VB\Samples\Samples.hlp"
      CommonDialog1.HelpCommand = cdlHelpPartialKey
      CommonDialog1.ShowHelp

STATUS
======

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the Microsoft products
listed at the beginning of this article. We are researching this
bug and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge
Base as it becomes available.

MORE INFORMATION
================

Steps to Reproduce Behavior
---------------------------

1. Start a new project in Visual Basic.

2. Click Components on the Project menu. Check "Microsoft Common Dialog
   5.0" and click OK.

3. Add a Common Dialog control to Form1.

4. Add the following code to the Form_Click event of Form1:

      CommonDialog1.HelpFile = _
         "C:\Program Files\DevStudio\VB\Samples\Samples.hlp"
      CommonDialog1.HelpCommand = cdlHelpContents
      CommonDialog1.ShowHelp

5. Press the F5 key to run the application.

6. Click the form and note that Windows Help appears but the Help file
   contents are not displayed.

Additional query words: cmdlg
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Keywords          : vb5all
Version           : WINDOWS:5.0
Platform          : WINDOWS
Issue type        : kbbug

=============================================================================

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Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1997.