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Motif and CDE 2.1 Style Guide Reference

Context-Sensitive Help

Reference

Description

Context-sensitive help is help information that is adapted to the current context of an element or group of elements.

Figure 10. Context-Sensitive Help.




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View figure.

When to Use

Recommended
Provide context-sensitive help for each window, control, and, where useful, for each element with which the user can interact.

Guidelines

Required
When the user presses F1 or Help, display context-sensitive help related to the element that has focus.

Required
When the user is in help mode (as a result of pressing Shift F1, Shift Help, or selecting the On Item entry in the Help menu), display context-sensitive help on the element on which the user clicks the SELECT button, if it is in the same window in which help mode was initiated.

Required
If help is not available for the element for which it was requested, provide help for the control that contains the element, or for some higher-level grouping of controls, or for the window as a whole.

Recommended
Display context-sensitive help in a secondary window. However, if all the help information provided within a window is brief, it may be displayed in the information or message area.

Recommended
Allow a user to enter and exit from instant help mode. This has no effect on user interaction except that it always displays instant help for the element under the pointer.

Recommended
Display instant help in the information area of the window that contains the pointer or in a separate window popped up at the pointer location.

Recommended
Provide context-sensitive help for choices that are unavailable when using help mode.

Recommended
Provide context-sensitive help for choices that are unavailable.

Recommended
If a choice is displayed with unavailable emphasis and context-sensitive help is provided, describe in a Help dialog why the choice is unavailable and how the user might make the choice available. For example, if the user requests help on the Paste choice currently displayed with unavailable emphasis, explain in the Help dialog that Paste is not available because the clipboard is empty.

Supplemental Related Topics

For more information, see the Help (Menu/Action Choice) and Keyboard (Device) reference pages.

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