• Use the help generator to produce xyz_gen.rtf from xyz.pas.
• Open both xyz.rtf and xyz_gen.rtf in MS Word (just double click them).
• Compare the 3 pme sections that list all the Properties, Methods, and Events. I create a new file that contains only the new items - first I copy all the items from xyz_gen.rtf and then delete those that already occur in xyz.rtf.
• Copy the new items to the pme sections. Be sure to always copy the entire line, including the returns.
  • Click on the line
  • Press the Home key - this moves the cursor to the beginning of the line
  • Hold down the Shift key and press the Down arrow - this selects the entire line
  • Copy the selection to the clipboard - Ctrl-Ins or Ctrl-C
  • Paste the selection into the live file - Shift-Ins or Ctrl-V
• For each item, copy the template pages
  • Search xyz_gen.rtf for the item.
  • Search xyz.rtf for the item above the item in xyz_gen.rtf. This locates where to paste the new data.
  • In xyz_gen.rtf, copy the page (or 2 - there is usually a related Example) to the clipboard. I always start and end the selection one line above a page break. This is the main reason that the *.rtf files are generated with a blank line before every page preak.
  • Paste that data into xyz.rtf.
  • In the temporary file, mark each entry after it has been fully processed.
• Compile the help file and verify that each entry works.

Be sure to save often.

Any overloaded method needs a SeeAlso link to the parent method.

Be sure to add links to these via the components "SeeAlso" option.

This is particularly true if it is associated with actions. Be sure to provide an example of how to use these.

For the parent class, provide a hot link like this.

See also!ALink(TmcCustomFile_IO_Child, 1, tnf_qref) 

In each of the derived classes, add an A-Link that matches the hot link.

TmcFile_IO_object; TmcFile_IO; TmcCustomFile_IO_Child

Basically, there are 2 types of methods

• Those that are called by other methods
• Get and Set methods used with properties (if these are private, then component developers can't override them)

Since these routines are never meant to be published

• In the Methods pme, separate these into subgroups (I label mine Internal methods and Internal Property methods)
• Do not provide examples (delete the Example pages and related links)

There are 2 types of pme (properties, methods, events) pages associated with actions (these are gray and yellow)

• The ones associated with the classes the actions operate on
• The ones associated with the definition of the action class

On the pme pages associated with the classes the actions operate on (a link called Actions displays this page)

• Delete the Legend link (it does not make sense here) - However, be careful deleting the actual Legend text, the last character on the line is a space with a font size of 12 - be sure to leave it there (it affects the spacing)
• Remove the existing headings (such as In Tabc and Derived from Txyz)
• You must manually place the actions on this page
• Do not indent the names of the actions - on the other pme pages, the "indents" provide spaces for the legend icons

• Use this to keep from retyping all the entries - mark the ^^^ sections with the style indicated

  Derived from TAction
      See TAction!Alink(TAction, 1) for details
          ^^^^^^^                                rlcHelp1Link
                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^              rlcHelp3TopicID
  

• List all of the published events (there are only 3 and they are the same for all actions)

For the classes called by actions, on the methods pme page indicate which methods are called by actions.

In TmcCustomFile_IO 
    Create 
    Destroy 
    ReadFile 
    WriteFile

  Action entry points
    NewFile 
    Open 
    Save 
    SaveAs 

  Internal Property methods
    GetProp1
    SetProp1

  Internal methods
    WriteComplete

Derived from TComponent
    InitiateAction 

Help Generator.zip. contains several MS Word template files (*.dot) - you should copy these to the MS Office template directory - the default is

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Templates

Toolbar	Purpose
Documents	3 buttons to help you switch between open documents
DelphiHelp	Several buttons to help you edit Delphi help files

These toolbars are dockable - this means that they can be ripped off the section at the top of the screen and placed near the section you are working on. As delivered, the DelphiHelp toolbar is floating (to make it stand out for first time users) and the Documents toolbar is docked.

• Toolbars
• Styles
• Text

To add the Toolbars and Styles to an existing document, select Tools / Templates and Add-Ins... change the Document template and check Automatically update document styles.

To add just the Toolbars to an existing document, select Tools / Templates and Add-Ins... and check one of the templates listed under Global templates and add-ins. (All the *.dot files in the templates directory should already be listed there.)

Using Tools / Templates and Add-Ins... / Organizer, it is possible to copy Toolbars and Styles from one *.dot file to another. (You might want to use this to copy the Documents toolbar to normal.dot so that it is available every time you use MS Word.)

If you select a template, then the template name (path) is stored with the document. The style definitions that are used in a document are also stored in that document. (The toolbars are NOT stored with the document.)

My Delphi Help Template Generator sets the default template to

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Templates\DelphiHelp-Properties.dot

• Right click any existing toolbar
• Select Customize...
• On the Toolbars tab, select New
• On the Commands tab, drag any available command to your toolbar

• Right click any existing toolbar
• Select Customize...
• Right click the button you want to modify (the Customize window must be open)
• You can select an image from the palette or paste one of your own
• To show only an image, check Default Style
• When only the image is shown, the contents of the Name field is shown as a pop-up hint

The Documents toolbar has 3 buttons - the glyphs are from the MS Word palette.

  Glyph           Category           Command
Left  Arrow     Windows and Help / Previous Window
Right Arrow     Windows and Help / Next Window
Open  Book      All Commands     / Window List        (Displays as "More Windows...)

Actually, this is good, it allows me to debug and fix various problems that are very hard to find in MS Word 97. However, I still do all my editing (and saving) in Word 97.

If you try to indent too far, the help does not align the wrapped lines the same way Word does - which makes it more difficult to edit the files.

I was able to track it down to a bulleted list - the "solution" was to turn off the bullets, save the file, and then reenable the bullets.

Though this took me several days to "fix", I do not know how to reproduce it - it appears to be a bug in MS Word.

This appears to be the bad rtf code

{\*\pn \pnlvlcont\ilvl0\ls0\pnrnot0\pndec }

The following is from the Microsoft RTF Spec.

\pn	Turns on paragraph numbering.
\pnlvlcont	Continue numbering but do not display number ("skip numbering").
\ilvl0	The 0-based level of the list to which the paragraph belongs. For all simple lists, this should always be 0. For multilevel lists, it can be 0-8.
\ls0	Should exactly match the ls for one of the list overrides in the List Override table.
\pnrnot0	Indicates if the paragraph number for the current paragraph is marked as "inserted."
\pndec	Decimal numbering (1, 2, 3).

URL: http:// cpcug.org / user / clemenzi / technical / Languages / Delphi / ComponentHelp_More.html