Access help files

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Pictures helped. Didn't match my screen. Incorrect instructions. The text is usually broken down into topics that cover a specific screen, feature or procedure. The index file is a list of the help file's topics. It is used to create a table of contents that users can use to select a topic to view, as well as a searchable index within the help file.

Image files are graphic files of program screens or portions of those screens displayed within the help file to enhance the users' ability to understand what the help file text is referring to. Adjust the size of the help window. Unless you're writing the help file to appear in the user's Web browser, the help file will appear in its own window. Your help authoring tool will let you adjust the window's horizontal and vertical dimensions to a size that will let the end user read the help file without its getting in the way of the application itself.

The main help window is often in a tri-pane format, with the table of contents on the left and the selected topic on the right. Help files can also have, in addition to the main window, secondary windows that describe a particular feature in detail and automatically sizing pop-up windows that give short descriptions of features.

Help files can also include embedded text that appears only when highlighted text or a button is clicked. Write the help topics. To do this, you'll need to review the specs or the program itself to create the topics to document the program's screens and features. As you create each topic, your help authoring tool will add it to the help file's table of contents and index. While you can build the table of contents as you go, it helps to have some plan for how to organize it.

You can organize the table of contents around the program's screens, its features, ways to use it or some combination thereof. As you write the topics, consider other information in the help file that users will want to have quick access to. You can create jumps, or hyperlinks, in the help file text that connect to the topics that have that information.

Include screenshots, if needed. Many program features are best explained with a combination of text and graphics. You can create screenshots with either the application that comes with your help authoring tool or with a separate application, such as Microsoft Paint, Paint Shop Pro or SnagIt.

Text and screenshots should be laid out together in a topic such that users can see the screenshot and its supporting text without undue scrolling. In many cases, you'll want to show a portion of a program screen instead of the entire screen, or show the screenshot in a smaller size than the original.

Your screenshot application should be capable of resizing the screenshot without blurring or loss of detail. If you anticipate changes to the user interface between the test and final versions of the program, you may want to hold off on creating screenshots until you have the final version of the program to work with.

Create a map file, if one is needed. Some programs include "Help" buttons for a user to click and display the topic in the help file that specifically describes how that screen works.

Displaying a topic this way is called context-sensitive help and requires creating a map file for the programmer to link the "Help" button to the specific topic in your help file.

Your help authoring tool can create one for you, or the programmer can code it and give it to you to include in the help file. Compile the help file. Compiling creates the actual help file that will be included with the program. For most help formats, this will incorporate all the component files that were created when you created the help file, although some uncompiled help formats also require the individual help topic files to be included with the program.

Test the help file. Some apps need to access your file system to allow you to take full advantage of the functionality they provide. Allowing an app to have file system access enables it to have access to the same files and folders to which you have access. The app must request this access, and you can choose to allow or deny the request. Allowing access to your file system might give apps access to personal content that you want to manage. If you give an app permission but change your mind later, you can turn off that app's access to your file system.

Here's how:. Choose which apps and services can access your file system by turning individual apps and services settings On or Off. Not all apps will appear in the list where you can choose which apps can access your file system. To allow or deny file system access for one of these programs, check the settings in the program itself. Privacy Windows 11 Windows 10 More