What to watch for
When specifying the File name help setting of a part, do not specify a drive or path. Instead place the file in a directory specified in the environment variable for your specific platform. For Windows, it's the PATH environment variable of the config.sys file. And, for UNIX systems, it's the DTHELPUSERSEARCHPATH environment variable. Otherwise, the user of your application will have to install the help file in exactly the same drive and directory you specify in the help settings.
You also should not specify a file extension. VA Smalltalk automatically uses the default help file extension for the platform the application is running on.
You can map help file names and help IDs if you need to do one of the following:
o Use a different help file for each release of your application.
o Use a different help file for each national language your application supports.
o Make your topic ids conform to particular platform requirements.
To use mapping files, specify a generic name for the File name help setting, and then map the generic name to the string by making an entry for it in the VA Smalltalk mapping file for your platform(s). The English language mapping files are abtvae40.win for Windows, and abtvae40.x for UNIX systems.
Each line in a mapping file specifies a mapping of the left string into the right string. For example, to map the generic filename myhelp## into the myhelp55.hlp file, add the following line to your mapping file(s):
myhelp##' 'myhelp55'
You can also map a Topic Id help setting to the actual topic id in the help file. For example:
'myHumanReadableTopicId' 'slo43v'
'mySynonymousTopicId' 'slo43v'
'myAlphabeticTopicIdWhichDoesntWorkOnWindows' '23411'
Last modified date: 05/14/2020