Does anyone know how to add help system support to an
application designed for .Net compact framework? Seems
like help-related classes like Help, HelpProvider and
HelpNavigator are not supported by compact framework. Does
it mean I have to design a customized help system from
groud up?

Any suggetions will be appreciated!

You can use the existing Windows CE help system. The "missing-link" is that
there is no direct support to open your help file from your application.
However you can P/Invoke (Platform Invoke) the CreateProcess API call and
launch the help engine (peghelp.exe) with your filename as an argument. I
would suggest using the OpenNETCF WinAPI library which contains a ready-made
P/Invoke for CreateProcess which you would use like so:-

Core.CreateProcess("peghelp.exe", "myhelp.htm#gettingstarted");

Note that you can define topics which are addressed as anchor points within
the file. The help file format is essentially HTML but with some additional
tags to support breaking the topics into separate pages. There is a very
useful article here which describes the Windows CE HTML Help format:-
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de.../wincehelp.asp

You can also look at the source to one of the system help files e.g.
soltr.htm for the solitaire help file.

Peter

--
Peter Foot
Windows Embedded MVP

www.inthehand.com | www.opennetcf.org

"jerry way" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:00a601c37ff6$007f7020$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Does anyone know how to add help system support to an
> application designed for .Net compact framework? Seems
> like help-related classes like Help, HelpProvider and
> HelpNavigator are not supported by compact framework. Does
> it mean I have to design a customized help system from
> groud up?
>
> Any suggetions will be appreciated!

I quote from Microsoft's "Designed for Windows Mobile handbook".

... Applications that provide help files on the device are required to
register their help system with the Pocket PC's Help System Table of
Contents, so that users have one entry point for help on all installed
applications. This requires that all help content is authored in HTML
format...

This may give you a lead.

*** Sent via Developersdex http://www.developersdex.com ***
Don't just participate in USENET...get rewarded for it!