Deciding How to Present a HelpSet
The way you present a HelpSet to users can be as important as the help content itself. If users have a hard time accessing the help system, they might become reluctant to use it. The main presentation options for a HelpSet are standalone help, context-sensitive help (screen-level or field-level), and embedded help.
Using Standalone Help
A standalone HelpSet is one that the user views independently of an application. When the user calls for help (either while running the application or at another time), the HelpSet Viewer appears with an overview topic in the content pane. From this initial point, users must navigate through the help system to find the topics in which they are interested. Navigation controls are very important to a standalone HelpSet, because they are the only means the user has to access detailed information.
The Aviation HelpSet used in this book is an example of a standalone HelpSet. You launch it manually and then navigate through the HelpSet’s topics. A straightforward alternative is to have an application launch a standalone HelpSet when the user invokes the application’s help command.
Using Context-Sensitive Help
Standalone HelpSets are sufficient for supporting an application, but what if you want to provide a friendlier help system to your users? You might want to provide help through context-sensitivity. Context-sensitivity simply means that the help system displays a help topic specific to the given situation at the time the ...