Creating Alpha Anywhere Help Text

Description

This topic refers to the AlphaSports sample database provided with Alpha Anywhere. The following procedure assumes that the developer has opened the form in the Form Editor and has created all the reference scripts. Follow these instructions to create an Alpha Anywhere Help file.

  1. Right click the form and select Properties... .

  2. Check Use Custom Help.

  3. To associate a new topic with this form:

  4. Enter the title of the topic's window in the Help Window Title field.

  5. Enter the name of the group of topics in the Chapter Name field.

  6. Enter the name of the topic in the Topic Name field. Parentheses "()" are not allowed in the topic name.

  7. To edit an existing topic or input a new topic, click Edit Help Topic.

    images/help_2.gif
    You may enter a new topic under any form, even though the topic is not associated with that form. However, you may only enter the help editor from a form that contains a topic.
  8. The following window shows the Alpha Anywhere Help Editor with a group of help topics.

    images/help_1.gif
  9. Click the New button to create a new help topic.

  10. Click the Delete button to delete a help topic.

  11. Click Edit Title to display the Rename Topic dialog box and change the topic or chapter names.

    images/help_3.gif
  12. Click Edit Text to display the topic editor.

  13. Input and format your topic text. Click Save and Close to return to the Help Editor.

    images/help_4.gif
  14. To create a hyperlink, place the cursor in the body of the topic and click the hyperlink button.

  15. Select an existing topic and click OK.

    images/help_6.gif
The default name for the Alpha Anywhere help text file is a_yourdatabasename_help.dbf. Also, Alpha Anywhere custom help files are not automatically copied by Network Optimization. You must specify them as additional files.