.NET Windows Forms in a Nutshell

Name

HelpProvider

Synopsis

This System.ComponentModel.Component can be dropped onto a Form design surface to provide help support.

Unfortunately, the naming conventions are not remotely consistent between the HelpProvider and the Help classes, despite the fact that they carry out exactly the same task with different levels of automation. HelpProvider offers extender properties for the HelpKeyword (the Topic ID) and HelpNavigator, and handles help requests (through the Control.HelpRequested event) to show the selected page of the HelpNamespace (the curiously named property that allows you to specify the URI of the help file). See Help for more information on these parameters. Help can be individually switched on and off for a particular Control through another extender property: ShowHelp.

Finally, there is a HelpString extender property, which lets you set a string for What’s This? help (the little pop-up ToolTip-like help boxes). Again, the class automatically deals with this for you.

Programmatically, you can access all extender properties through the Get and Set member functions of the same name.

public class HelpProvider : System.ComponentModel.Component : System.ComponentModel.IExtenderProvider {

// Public Constructors

   public HelpProvider();

// Public Instance Properties

   public virtual string HelpNamespace{set; get; }

// Public Instance Methods

   public virtual bool CanExtend(object target);  // implements System.ComponentModel.IExtenderProvider

   public virtual string GetHelpKeyword ...