OFFXPDEV: How to Display Context-Sensitive Help for the What'sThis Button

You can use the WhatsThisButton property to provide context-sensitive Help for a What's This button on the title bar of your Access form. When you set this property to Yes, the mouse pointer changes to the What's This state (arrow with a question mark). The Help topic that is displayed is identified by the HelpContextID property of the control that the user clicks. This article shows you how to use the WhatsThisButton property to display context-sensitive Help.

To display context-sensitive Help that appears when a user clicks the What's This button on the title bar and then clicks an object on the form or the report, follow these steps:

1. After you use the Microsoft HTML Help Workshop to create and compile your custom Help file, open the Access form for which you want to provide What's This Help functionality in Design view.
2. If the property sheet is not displayed, click Properties on the View menu.
3. Change the MinMaxButtons property for the form to None and the WhatsThisButton property to Yes.
4. In the HelpFile property, enter a string expression that contains the path and the file name of the custom Help file that you created.NOTE: You do not have to include the path to the Help file. However, if you do not include the path, you must store the Help file in the same folder as the database.
   
   
5. In the HelpContextID property, type the ID number associated with a particular Help topic in your Help file.
6. Repeat step 5 for each control on the form that you want to link to a specific Help topic.
7. Open the form in Form view, click the What's This button, and then click one of the controls. Note that the Help topic information appears.