How to Invoke Search in Windows Help from Visual Basic Program

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This article was previously published under Q86771

SUMMARY

You can invoke the Search feature of the Windows version 3.0 and 3.1 Help engine from a Visual Basic program. To do this, call the Windows API function WinHelp and pass the constant HELP_PARTIALKEY (&H105) as the wCommand parameter and any string that is a NON-valid topic as the dwData parameter.

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Step-by-Step Example

Start Visual Basic or from the File menu, choose New Project (ALT, F, N) if Visual Basic is already running. Form1 is created by default.

In GLOBAL.BAS (or the .BAS file of your choice in Visual Basic version 2.0), add this code:

   Global Const HELP_PARTIALKEY = &H105
   ' Enter the following Declare statement entirely on one, single line.
   Declare Function WinHelp Lib "User"(ByVal hWnd As Integer,
      ByVal lpHelpFile As String, ByVal wCommand As Integer,
      ByVal dwData As Any) As Integer

In the Form1 Click event procedure, add this code:

   Sub Form_Click ()
      DummyVal$ = ""
      ' Enter the following function call entirely on one, single line:
      Temp% = WinHelp(Form1.hWnd, "c:\Windows\winhelp.hlp",
         HELP_PARTIALKEY, DummyVal$)
   End Sub

Press F5 to run this example. Click the form.

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APPLIES TO

Microsoft Visual Basic 2.0 Standard Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic 3.0 Professional Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic 2.0 Professional Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic 1.0 Standard Edition
Microsoft Windows 3.0 Standard Edition
Microsoft Windows 3.1 Standard Edition

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KB86771

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Retired KB Content Disclaimer

This article was written about products for which Microsoft no longer offers support. Therefore, this article is offered "as is" and will no longer be updated.

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