System Help Editor

The System Help Editor is a tool designed to help DesignGuide developers easily coordinate and link help files and other documentation into a custom DesignGuide.

Using the System Help Editor

The System Help Editor creates a help index file, which allows direct reference to HTML files through the DesignGuide Developer Studio. This allows custom menu items to bring up a specified section of an HTML document as help for those who use a custom design guide.
A help index file requires the following three items:

Reference Name . User-defined name used within the Developer Studio
Help File Name . HTML (.html) file referenced
Help File Reference. Reference used within the above HTML file to refer to the desired section of documentation.

Creating a Help Index File

To create a help index file, do the following:

Copy all the documentation ( .html ) files into the /doc/ subdirectory of the studio project directory. Make note of all the HTML references within each file that need to be indexed.
Choose Add to create a new Help System index.
Input an HTML reference into the Help File Reference text box.
Select the file in which the reference is found with the Help File Name drop down list.
Change the Reference Name to the desired name. This is the name that will appear in the Menu and Palette Editor when help files are used.
Repeat Steps 2 through 5 for each HTML reference to be linked.
Choose OK . This will copy the .html files to the proper place in ADS and create an index file.
Note
A browser is available to navigate to subdirectories under /doc .

Using Help References

After the help index file is created, help docs can be tied into a custom menu by the following process:

Open the custom menu using the Menu Editor.
Select the menu item to which the help file will be attached.
Choose Open Help File from the Action list.
Choose Help System from the Group list.
Open the Object list. The list of reference names created in the System Help Editor will appear.
Choose the reference name to be assigned to the menu item.
When the menu is built, selecting that menu item will automatically start your Web browser and bring the referenced file to the screen.

Removing Help References

To remove a help reference from the list, simply select the reference and choose the Remove button. Once the OK button is chosen, the help index file will be recreated without the deleted reference.

Note
The System Help Editor does not have an Undo function, so deleted help references will need to be recreated if deleted by mistake.

System Help Editor Control Buttons

The Control Buttons on the bottom of the System Help Editor help you in saving and loading system help files, as well as creating a new system file.

Opening and Editing an Existing file

To open and edit an existing system help file:

Choose Open File from the System Help Editor Control Buttons.
Select an index file from the file dialog box.
Note
Index files are found in the /doc/addons_indexes/hpeesofsim subdirectory of the main ADS directory. They are simply text files without a file extension.

Opening a New Help File

By default, the System Help Editor opens to the associated help file for the studio project currently opened in the DesignGuide Developer Studio. Choosing the New button will clear the current help file, allowing you to create a new one.

If a separate help file has been opened using the Open File button, however, the New button will return the help editor to the current studio system help file, allowing users to retain changes that were made to the current studio help file while still able to open and edit outside help files as well.

The Current System Help File box displays whether the current help file is an outside file, or the current studio project help file.