Starting with Windows 95 and Windows NT 3.51, it is possible to right-
click on items and get the "What's This?" window to appear. To set this
up in Visual Basic, you need to use a pop-up menu.
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This sample uses the help file "Msdev.hlp." You will probably want to
create your own help file. This sample also uses a full path listing to
where the help file is located. As you cannot know where the user will
install the program, you might want to use some dynamic means for
determining the path, such as using App.Path.
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Step-by-Step Example
| 1. | Create a new project in Visual Basic. Form1 is created by default.
|
| 2. | Set the WhatsThisHelp and WhatsThisButton properties for Form1 to True.
|
| 3. | Add the following code to reference the Hotspot Editor help file to the Form_Load procedure:
Private Sub Form_Load()
' your machine
' Change this path to where ever Msdev.hlp is located on
App.HelpFile = "C:\Program
Files\DevStudio\Common\MSDev98\Help\Msdev.hlp"
|
| 4. | Add two menu items to Form1 using the following as a guide:
Menu Property Value
----------------------------------------------------
WhatsThis Caption WhatsThis
WhatsThis Name mnuWhatsThis
WhatsThis Visible False
What's This? Caption What's This?
What's This? Name mnuWhatsThisHelp
|
| 5. | Indent "What's This?" to make it a sub-menu of WhatsThis by pressing the
right-arrow button on the Menu Editor.
|
| 6. | Add the following code to the General Declarations section of Form1:
Public ThisControl as control
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| 7. | Add the following code to the mnuWhatsThisHelp_Click procedure:
Private Sub mnuWhatsThisHelp_Click()
ThisControl.ShowWhatsThis
End Sub
|
| 8. | Add a Command Button control to the form and set the following
Properties:
WhatsThisHelpID = 1
HelpContextID = 5
|
| 9. | Add following code to the Command1_MouseUp event:
Private Sub Command1_MouseUp(Button As Integer, Shift As Integer, _
X As Single, Y As Single)
If Button = vbRightButton Then
Set ThisControl = Command1
PopupMenu mnuWhatsThis
End If
Set ThisControl = Nothing
End Sub
|
| 10. | Run the application. Right-click on the Command button and then left-
click on the "What's This?" popup to bring up the Help file.
|
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See WhatThisHelp, WhatsThisHelpID, HelpFile, HelpContextID
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