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Overview
DEFINITION: WinHelp database publishing - to build, through use of scripted procedures, a Windows help (WinHelp) file that contains the information stored in a database.Example Project: Build a Company Phone BookThe two products I use to accomplish WinHelp database publishing are a shareware Windows help file development software, Paul Arnote's "MiniHelp Plus", version 3.50, and a mainstream database management software, Microsoft "Access", version 2 or later (although I first learned how to do this with the database software "Paradox", version 3, formerly made by Borland).
Two things make it possible for WinHelp database publishing with MiniHelp Plus: (1) MiniHelp Plus uses ASCII text files, or source files, for building a Windows help file, and (2) most database software products have scripting language commands that enable you to write, in a precise manner, stored data into ASCII text files.
Microsoft Access 2 uses Access Basic as its scripting language, and in this tutorial I provide several Access Basic (v2) script excerpts taken from the most important procedures. When I wrote this tutorial, Access was (is) at version 8 (aka, Access 97), which uses Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) as its scripting language. Fortunately, there are few differences between Access 2's Access Basic and Access 8's VBA. The main differences I have found, as applicable to these example scripts, I show on a separate page in this tutorial.
See also:
- Differences Between Access Basic and VBA for Access 97
- Paul Arnote's WinHelp Page, http://www.sky.net/~parnote/
- Microsoft Access web site, http://www.microsoft.com/access/
For this tutorial, we will build a Windows help file that is a company phone book. The steps we take will be many, but they fit into these main tasks:
is a registered trademark for Daniel Industries, Inc.