helpKeyword

Type: String

Availability: Read or write at any time

If a help keyword is provided for a menu, the helpKeyword property of the MenuItem class contains text that is used to access the help file when the user presses F1 for help while the menu item is selected.

The current keyword is the value of the helpKeyword property for the object that has the focus or a selected menu item. If the helpKeyword property is empty and its helpContextId property is set to zero (0), JADE looks in the helpKeyword property (and the helpContextId property) of the form of the object. If no help keyword or context number can be found, the Contents section of the help file is requested. If the helpFile property of the Application class is not set, no help file is opened. If the helpContextId property is also set, the keyword is used in preference to the context number.

This property can be translated when the value of the Schema class formsManagement property is FormsMngmt_Single_Multi (2).

When help is requested, if the help file specifies a:

• Portable Document Format (PDF) file (detected by the .pdf file suffix), JADE attempts to execute Adobe Acrobat to handle the file. JADE checks the Windows registry for the Acrobat Reader (AcroRd32) or for the acrobat executable program. If Adobe Reader is not found, the help request is ignored and entries explaining the cause of the failure are output to the jommsg.log file. If Adobe Reader is located, it is initiated for the PDF help file defined in JADE.

  For a helpKeyword help request, the helpKeyword property is passed to Acrobat as a named destination, which Acrobat uses to position the help file display. As there are no equivalent concepts in a PDF file to any other type of help request (for example, helpContextId, index request, and so on), only the first page of the PDF file is displayed for help requested using anything other than the helpKeyword property.

• Windows help file (detected by the .hlp file suffix), JADE automatically calls help and requests the topic identified by the current helpKeyword property or the helpContextId property.

• Compiled help file (detected by the .chm file suffix), JADE calls the HtmlHelp entry point of the htmlhelp.dll file and requests the topic identified by the current helpKeyword property or the helpContextId property. You can use the compiled help file (.chm) format files when producing online help for HTML thin client applications, for example.

For more details, see "Creating Context Links to Your Own Application Help File", in Chapter 2 of the JADE Development Environment User’s Guide.