HELPMAKE Help (helpmake.hlp) (Table of Contents; Topic list)
Important Notice
The pages on this site contain documentation for very old MS-DOS software, purely for historical purposes. If you're looking for up-to-date documentation, particularly for programming, you should not rely on the information found here, as it will be woefully out of date.
Help Context Strings
 Example                                   Up Contents Index Back
─────Context Strings────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
     Context strings label each topic in a help database. Each topic
     must include at least one unique context-string definition before
     the beginning of the topic.
     See: Topics
 
     Context strings provide "handles" for a topic so that the topic is
     displayed when the user requests help on a given subject or moves
     from topic to topic.
 
     Rules for Context Strings
 
        ■ A context string can contain any characters, including space
          characters, but it cannot begin with a single backslash (\)
          or an exclamation point (!). The maximum length of a context
          string is 250 characters. A context string cannot span a line
          break. If the first character of a context is the "at" sign
          (@), the context string is a local context. To have a context
          begin with @, precede it with a \.
 
        ■ Each topic can have up to 32,767 context strings. Labeling a
          topic with several context strings allows a single topic to
          be displayed in response to several different help requests.
 
        ■ Each context string in a help database must be unique.
          HELPMAKE issues a warning message if the same context string
          is defined more than once.
 
     Purposes of Context Strings
 
        ■ A context string can be used to associate a section of text
          with a keyword. Each occurrence of the keyword becomes an
          "implicit link." A request for help on the keyword is linked
          to the section of text where it is defined as a context
          string.
 
        ■ A context string can be used as a destination address,
          allowing you to explicitly define links from one section of
          text to another.
 
     See: Links
          Setting Up Context Strings and Topics
                                    -♦-