DOCUMENT:Q180733  11-FEB-1998  [vbwin]
TITLE   :HOWTO: Add Context-Sensitive Help to Your ActiveX Control
PRODUCT :Microsoft Visual Basic for Windows
PROD/VER:winnt:5.0;win95:5.0
OPER/SYS:Win95 winnt
KEYWORDS:vb5all vb5howto VBKBObj_VBKBAX kbhw

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The information in this article applies to:

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

This article shows you how to add context-sensitive Help to an ActiveX
Control that you create in Visual Basic. By adding this feature to your
control, you allow the user to quickly access the appropriate Help topics
for your control. This article addresses the use of the ActiveX control on
a Visual Basic form. If you use the control in Internet Explorer, you get
different behavior.

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

You can set a Help topic for your ActiveX control or any of its constituent
controls. The first step is to identify a Help file for the ActiveX
control, after which you can set a topic for the control and for each
constituent control.

To Identify a Help File for an ActiveX Control
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1. Click Project Properties on the Project menu for your ActiveX control
   project. The Project Properties dialog box appears.

2. On the General tab, type the file name of your Help file in the Help
   File Name box. This Help file should contain all the topics pertaining
   to your control.

3. In the Project Help Context ID box of the General tab, type the
   Context ID number of the topic you want to display for the ActiveX
   control.

4. Click OK to close the Project Properties dialog box.

   You have just set a Help file topic for your ActiveX control. This topic
   will appear after you perform one of the following actions:

    - In the Object Browser, right-click your ActiveX control class to
      display the pop-up menu. In the pop-up menu, click Help.

    - Place the control on a form in a Standard EXE project and select the
      control and then press the F1 key.

    - When you run your project with the control, set the focus to the
      control and press the F1 key.

   You can also assign a Help topic to each constituent control in the
   ActiveX control by setting the HelpContextID property of each
   constituent control. However, this topic will appear only if you set the
   WhatsThisButton and WhatsThisHelp properties of the form with the
   control to True. The topic is displayed only when the user clicks the
   WhatsThisButton and drags the question mark to the constituent control.

   If the constituent control has the focus and the user presses the F1
   key, the topic set for the ActiveX control is displayed, rather than the
   topic assigned to the constituent control.

REFERENCES
==========

Visual Basic Books Online: Help; Help Files
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Keywords          : vb5all vb5howto VBKBObj_VBKBAX kbhw
Version           : winnt:5.0;win95:5.0
Platform          : Win95 winnt
Issue type        : kbhowto

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