Help Topics

Any help system consists of a set of help topics which describe the appropriate subject. So writing help topics is probably the biggest part of working on help documentation.

If you do not see the topics pane, choose View|Topics from the menu to show it. The topics pane displays all the topics of the currently opened help project.

Writing Topic Text

HelpSmith provides you with the full-featured word processor allowing you to write help topics using different styles and formatting attributes for the text as well as inserting graphical images, and so on.

Simply select the required topic on the topics pane and its contents will be available for editing.

Adding a Help Topic

To add a new help topic, choose Topics|New Topic from the menu.

Deleting a Help Topic

1.Select the required topic on the topics pane.

2.Then choose Topics|Delete from the menu.

Modifying Topic Properties

1.Select the required topic on the topics pane.

2.Choose Topics|Properties from the menu.

3.Modify topic properties at the dialog box, then click OK.

Using Topic Groups

You can create groups to organize help topics of your help project the most convenient way. Use the Topics|New Group menu command to add a new group.

To add a new help topic into an existing group, select that group, and then choose Topics|New Topic from the menu.

To add an existing topic(s) into a topic group, select the topics that you want to move, and use the appropriate moving commands on the Topics menu. Or, you can also move the selected topics by pressing the keys: Ctrl+Shift+Up, Ctrl+Shift+Down, Ctrl+Shift+Left, Ctrl+Shift+Right.

Topic groups are used only for your convenience while working on the help project.