Help!

 

My gripe with WinForms continues – this time with providing Help in a WinForm application. As before I was again sure (I’ve got to start having less faith) that when the .Net Framework HelpProvider Class is launched (by pressing F1) from within a WinForm app that uses it, there would be a way to set the modal / top most window nature of the Help window that comes up. Maybe something simple like the TopMost property on the Form class itself. But after going through the documentation as well as a bit of googling, it seems like I was wrong. And yet, I am certain that no one will use the HelpProvider as is, in any well-behaving app, since you cannot use the Help system productively if you cannot switch back to the app itself and try out what is being suggested. It seems just too basic a thing to me for it not to be there. Ahhhh! Maybe it’s just my luck this month!

So any suggestions/nuggets/hacks on what people actually use to get around this limitation? I thought I could probably check out the behavior on one of my favorite .Net apps, Lutz Roeder’s .Net Reflector, but alas that doesn’t have a Help system implemented (plus the site also seems to be down currently!). My favorite feature in this app though is pressing the spacebar after selecting a .Net app or dll – it decompiles the bits immediately into pretty C#. Scary (since I am sure a lot of .Net apps are not obfuscated) but very impressive all the same. It even decompiles itself very nicely…J

Comments

• Anonymous
  April 16, 2004
  Ugh, I too detest software with topmost help windows. It's shockingly common.
• Anonymous
  April 26, 2004
  "...since you cannot use the Help system productively if you cannot switch back to the app itself and try out what is being suggested."
  -absolutely right! Imagine being a techwriter and realizing all this any time you launch your help system :(
  Also looking for a solution...
  also googled and MSDNed a lot...
  It's not only your luck this month, it's the luck of whole industry ;)