Keywords Limited to 9 Characters When Adding to QB 4.50 Help (67312)

SYMPTOMS

This article describes a specific problem encountered when adding to the online help file (QB45QCK.HLP) for QuickBasic version 4.50 using HELPMAKE.EXE. The problem occurs only if you add a keyword that is larger than 9 characters.

When the cursor is on a keyword larger than 9 characters and you press the F1 key (context-sensitive help), the QuickBasic environment mistakenly displays QuickBasic's "Symbol Help" screen for that keyword, instead of the context-sensitive help that you added to the help file. (The "Symbol Help" screen describes one of the symbols in your program, such as a variable, SUB, or FUNCTION description.) This behavior only occurs when you add keywords larger than 9 characters and attempt to make them "context sensitive." However, you can still access the help for the keyword you have added by choosing QuickBasic's Help menu, selecting Index, and then selecting the correct topic in the index help screen.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in Microsoft QuickBasic version 4.50. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

This problem does not apply to the QuickBasic extended environment (QBX.EXE), which comes with the Basic Professional Development System (PDS) 7.00 and 7.10 for MS-DOS.

MORE INFORMATION

You can easily work around this problem. To select a customized keyword from the QuickBasic 4.50 environment, you should only add the first 9 characters of the intended keyword to QuickBasic's online help file. For example, if you want to add AddMenuItem (an 11-character keyword) to the help file, truncate AddMenuItem to AddMenuIt (9 characters). This lets you use the F1 key for context-sensitive help in the environment. The side effect of this strategy is that pressing F1 for a variable, such as AddMenuItemIndex% (or any other variable where the first 9 characters are "AddMenuIt"), always gives the context-sensitive help (Topic Help) that you added for AddMenuItem, instead of QuickBasic's Symbol Help.

For more information on how to modify QuickBasic's online help file, please refer to the HELPMAKE.DOC file distributed on disk with the "HELPMAKE Utility Version 1.00 for QB 4.50" application note available from Microsoft Technical Support. The HELPMAKE utility is also documented in Chapter 8, "HELPMAKE," in the "Microsoft QuickC Version 2.0: Toolkit" manual.