Displaying Help from Command Bars

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You can display context-sensitive Help for custom command bar controls and call a standard Help topic when a user clicks a toolbar button or menu item. The same restrictions for displaying context-sensitive Help also apply to displaying standard Help topics: In Excel and PowerPoint, you can use the Help method of the Application object; in Word and Access, you must call the Help engine directly by using an API call.

In This Section

• Displaying Context-Sensitive Help for Command Bar Controls
  To implement context-sensitive Help for a command bar control, you set the control's HelpFile property to the name of the Help file that contains the context-sensitive Help topic, and set the HelpContextID property to the context ID of the topic you want to display.
• Displaying a Standard Help Topic from a Toolbar Button or Menu Item
  Displaying a Help topic when a user clicks a toolbar button or menu item is similar to creating a Help button for a form.

Related Sections

• Adding Help to Your Office Application
  Adding online Help to your Microsoft Office application can reduce the amount of time required to train and support users of your applications.
• Displaying Help Topics
  You can display Help topics to assist users of your Office applications several different ways.
• Maintaining Backward Compatibility with Office 97/2000 Applications
  If your application must maintain backward compatibility with Office 97 and Office 2000 applications, you should supply all Help authored and compiled as WinHelp 4.0 files by using Microsoft Help Workshop or some other WinHelp 4.0 authoring tool.
• The Kinds of Help You Can Use
  You can create context-sensitive Help for dialog boxes created by using UserForms or Access forms. You can also create context-sensitive Help for command bar controls.
• Creating a Help File to Use with an Office Application
  Office XP applications can display standard Help topics authored and compiled by using either HTML Help (.chm) or WinHelp 4.0 (.hlp). Context-sensitive Help for Office XP applications must be authored by using WinHelp 4.0.
• Specifying the Path to Your Application's Help File
  To display Help for your application, you must specify the path to the Help file that contains the topics you want to display.
• Displaying Help in Forms and Documents
  In UserForms and Access forms, you can display context-sensitive Help for interface elements, and you can display standard Help topics from a Help button on the form.
• Using the Office Assistant to Display Help
  You can use the Office Assistant to display a balloon that allows users to access custom Help topics.
• Displaying Help from VBA Code
  There are two ways to display a custom Help topic from code. In Excel and PowerPoint, you can use the Help method of the Application object, but in Word and Access you must use an API call to HTML Help or to WinHelp to display the Help topic.