context-sensitive help in Macromedia RoboHelpX

[analyst]

Hello everybody.

I am writing a help for a project that is written in Delphi and C#. I am using Macromedia RoboHelpX. Does anybody have any idea how to organise context-sensitive help system? I've learned that so called map files are used, but i have no idea how they are going to be used in the project.

Thanks in advance.

[Hrach_Techie]

Hi, analyst! I do not have that much experience with RoboHelp products, so the information here is a cut on the notes/comments I had from my mates in India.

Map IDs (files) are used to create F1 help for specific topics in an online help. You should embed the IDs in the app on your own and then ask the tech writer to just give you the ID file (.h text file). You use the ids to lay the topics to the intended targets in the UI of the app. To create the map IDs, you go to the Project tab of RoboHelp, and create the same in the Context-Sensitive Help folder.

There should also be a quick start guide for Macromedia RoboHelp X5 somewhere in the doc repository on Macromedia web ...

Hope it helps you some.

[Hrach_Techie]

here's a couple of more points:

1) Various types of Map files can be generated so that linking them with the
applications developed using different tools is easy. You will see these
options on the Map ID Tab of Project Settings. Map ID files have the list of
topics and Map IDs (numbers assigned to each topic).

2) Detailed information is available on this subject in the RoboHELP's help
file itself. It mentions the responsibilities of writers and programmers and
also the functions used to call help.

[analyst]

ok. I have genarated the map file, and i have my Help file ready. But still i dont get how to call the specified topic from the programm( even though it is not my problem at all, but still). Anyway, thanks a lot.

[Hrach_Techie]

I don't have the Robo installed on my system, so I can just assume that the syntax of the command to enable you the context sensitivity must have a similar path like the one below:

Helpfile.xxx::/Topic.yyy[>Window name]

Helpfile.xxx is the name of the generated help file, Topic.yyy is the name of the yyy file that you want to open and Window name is the name of the help window in which you want the topic to appear.

Is that what you were asking for?

The yyy files - are those originally HTML files?