Dialog box help can be on a page or form. Since Help is part of the database, it stays with the design when you copy the database. If you had your help in documents, you would have to remember to copy them after copying the design.

Unfortunately, you can't create a full text index of the help pages or forms. If your application requires full text searching of help, you're better off creating a separate help database. The help must then be distributed as documents. If you have several databases that use your template, you only need to have one help database (not that disk space matters that much these days). Even though your help is in another database, you can still display it using dialog boxes.

Usability design
The whole reason for adding context sensitive field help is to make your application easier to use, so we'll begin by considering the help dialog usability. On the main form you can use a convention that places a Help hotspot to the right of the field, as shown in Figure A.

FIGURE A


This example of field help shows the Help hotspot in edit mode. Roll over picture for a larger image.

You could also use other approaches, like a question mark icon, etc., or you could use the form's HelpRequest event and the uidoc.currentfield property. A table controls the form layout, so you can hide the Help hotspot in edit mode. This reduces clutter in read mode and makes the help "jump out" when the user switches to edit mode.

Although the field description is a generous two or three words, it still doesn't tell the new user enough. On the dialog help, there's enough room for a full description--even a sentence or two. This puts the field into the correct context, as callout 2 in Figure B demonstrates.

FIGURE B


The components of a help dialog are labeled here. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Callout 3 above shows where you put the field in question on the help dialog. If you're using a combo box or dialog list, you can use a shared field to ensure the data sources are identical. We do want to keep these lists identical, don't we? Or you can use a formula in both fields, which references a computed field on the source form that contains the data.

Underneath the field are all the combo box options, along with their full explanations. Finally, OK and Cancel buttons showing are left showing, as pointed out by callout 4 above, since there's a field on the help dialog form. If there's no field on the form, you can turn them off, although it's easier to click on them than the tiny "x" on the right of the help dialog title bar.

Constructing your help dialog form
To make your help forms or pages more manageable, consider prefixing them with "_Help Form" or "_Help View". This groups them together in the Designer client and keeps the out of the way of "real" forms and pages.

If you created a help form for every field in your database, you would have too many forms in your database. A better idea is to put all the field help on one help form. Here's how to construct that form.

First, create a table on the help form, one cell wide. Add as many rows as you have field help dialogs. At this point, you can add a few words to some of the cells. It helps you with the "look and feel" part of the design.