Help for Microsoft QuickHelp (qh.hlp) (
Topic list)
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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out of date.
QuickHelp Options
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QuickHelp Options
Options may be specified either in the QH environment variable or on the
command line. When QuickHelp starts, it first processes all options in the
QH environment, and then processes any additional options on the command
line. The following list describes the possible options:
Option Description
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-d filename Specifies either a specific database name or a path where
the data bases can be found. If you specify a filename, then
the database in that file is loaded. If you specify a path,
then all files with the extension .hlp are loaded. You may
also use the wildcard characters * and ?; all files matching
the wildcard pattern will be loaded.
Instead of specifying a path, you can specify an environment
variable by preceding it with a dollar sign and following it
with a colon. For example, if you want to include all the
databases in a QUICKC environment variable, you would type
the following:
-d $QUICKC:*.hlp
This command would load all databases (with the extension
.hlp) in every directory specified by the QUICKC environment
variable.
Note: If you specify this option in the QH environment
variable, the specified databases are loaded every time
QuickHelp is run. You can include additional databases on
the command line by using this option, but these databases
will not prevent any databases specified in the QH
environment variable from being loaded.
-l7-50 Specifies the number of lines the QuickHelp window should
occupy. If you specify more lines than the current screen
mode allows, QuickHelp uses the maximum number of lines
allowed by the current screen mode. QuickHelp retains this
value for as long as it is running, so if you later change
the screen mode, the QuickHelp window may change. For
example, if you specify -l30, the QuickHelp window will not
change unless the screen mode is in 43-line or 50-line
mode.
-m25-50 Indicates that you want to change the screen mode to display
the specified number of lines. For example, if you want to
display the QuickHelp window on an EGA screen in 43-line
mode, you would type the following:
qh -m43
You may use the -l and -m options together. For example, if
you want QuickHelp to use a 43-line screen mode and a
20-line window within that screen, you would type the
following:
qh -l20 -m43
If you request a screen mode that the current display does
not support, the option will be ignored. If you are running
QuickHelp as a keyboard monitor, the only screen modes
QuickHelp can use are 25-line mode and the mode of the
screen QuickHelp was activated in. The default mode is
whatever was in effect when you activated QuickHelp;
however, you could force the mode to always be 25-line mode
by specifying -m25 in the QH environment variable or on the
command line.
-p filename Sets the name of the paste file. You must follow this option
by a fully qualified filename. This option acts in the same
way as the Rename Paste File command in the File menu. The
default paste file paste.qh is placed in the directory
specified by the TMP environment variable.
-pa [filename] Specifies that pasting operations are to be appended to the
current paste file (rather than overwriting the file). You
may follow this option with the name of a file if you do not
want paste operations to go to the default paste file
(paste.qh in the directory specified by the TMP environment
variable).
-q Prevents the version message box from being displayed when
QuickHelp is installed as a keyboard monitor.
-rcommand Specifies the command that QuickHelp should execute when the
right mouse button is pressed. The default action is to
simulate double-clicking the left mouse button. In other
words, single-clicking the right mouse button is identical
to double-clicking the left mouse button. The following
commands are available to change this behavior:
Command Meaning
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l Pressing the right mouse button will display the
last topic viewed. This is identical to the View
Last command in the View menu.
i Pressing the right mouse button will display a
history of the last topics viewed. This is
identical to the View History command in the View
menu.
w Pressing the right mouse button will temporarily
hide the QuickHelp window, allowing you to select a
topic from the screen that was displayed prior to
activating QuickHelp. This is identical to the Hide
Window command in the View menu.
b Pressing the right mouse button will display the
historically previous topic. This is identical to
pressing the Alt+F1 key.
e Pressing the right mouse button will continue the
search for a topic ── displaying the next topic
found, if there are any additional topics with the
same name. This is identical to the Continue Search
command in the View menu.
t Pressing the right mouse button will display the
table of contents for the current topic. This is
identical to the Table of Contents command in the
View menu.
-s Specifies that clicking above or below the slider causes
QuickHelp to scroll by lines rather than by pages.
-sg1-12 Specifies the number of full-screen sessions that QuickHelp
should monitor. This option is valid only when you run
QuickHelp as a keyboard monitor. The default is to monitor
the first six sessions created.
-t name Directs QuickHelp to copy the specified section of the given
topic to the current paste file. You must follow this option
by a section name. If the paste-file mode is Append,
QuickHelp displays the specified topic in the window. If the
paste-file mode is Overwrite, QuickHelp ends immediately
after copying the section to the paste file. The following
lists the possible topic sections:
Topic Description
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all Specifies the entire topic.
syntax Specifies the syntax section of the topic.
example Specifies the example of the topic.
Note: When you specify this option, QuickHelp does not
display its window. Instead, it searches for the topic
specified on the command line, pastes the topic to the paste
file, and exits. This command is normally used only by DOS
editors that will be spawning a shell to QuickHelp and only
want to retrieve the paste file. This option is ignored if
QuickHelp is installed as a keyboard monitor.
-u Specifies that QuickHelp is being run by a utility. If the
topic specified on the command line is not found, QuickHelp
will immediately exit with an exit code of 3.
See Also
◄Building a database►, ◄QuickHelp as a monitor►, ◄Navigating in QuickHelp►
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