Common Desktop Environment: Application Builder User's Guide

To Connect a Help Menu to On Item Help

One of the standard items in a Help menu is On Item Help, which is used to display help for a specific object in an interface. The instructions below assume you have included a menu bar in a main window and that you have attached a Help menu to the Help item in the menu bar. See "To Create and Attach a Help Menu" for instructions.

  1. Choose Menus from the Editors menu in the App Builder primary window.

    The Menu Property Editor is displayed.

  2. Select the Help menu in the Objects list.

  3. Select one of the items in the Items list as the On Item Help item.

  4. Type On Item or other appropriate text in the Label text field.

  5. Include an item mnemonic, if appropriate.

    An item mnemonic specifies one of the letters in the selected item as a keyboard shortcut for activating the menu item when the menu is posted. The letter specified will be underlined in the menu item. Case is significant for mnemonics.

  6. Include an item accelerator, if appropriate.

    An item accelerator specifies a keyboard shortcut for choosing the selected item. An accelerator is comprised of a prefix (Ctrl, Alt, Meta, or Shift), <Key>, and a letter (upper- or lowercase). To make Control-x an accelerator, for instance, type Ctrl<Key>x.

  7. Click Apply.

    The changes to the Help menu will be applied.

  8. Click Connections to display the Connections Editor.

    The Connections button is at the bottom of the Menu Property Editor.

  9. Choose Menu Item in the Source menu.

  10. Select the On Item Help item in the Source list.

  11. Choose Activate On Item Help from the Action Type menu.

  12. Click Connect.

When you choose the On Item Help item in the Help menu in test mode or in the compiled application, the cursor will become an arrow with a question mark. Move the cursor over an object and click mouse button 1 to display On Item help for the selected object (or for one of its parent objects if no help is available for the object itself). See "To Test On Item Help" for more information.