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- HELP
- Command
-
- Michael J. Mefford 1988/No. 1 (PC Lab Notes)
-
-
- Purpose: Pops up help or reference screens of the user's choice and
- design either in the middle of an application or at the DOS prompt. Screens
- suitable for use with HELP.COM are saved in the required file format by
- CAPTURE.COM (Utilities, 1988/No. 1)
-
- Format: HELP filespec [...filespec][/Nn][/Hn][/P] | [/U]
-
- Remarks: Filespec is the filename, preceded if necessary by a drive
- name and path, of a user-customized help/reference file that has been saved
- using CAPTURE. Multiple help screens may be loaded for successive display by
- entering more than one filespec on the command line, separating each with a
- space, tab, comma, or semicolon. By default, HELP will accept four screen
- pages, each of which is 4,000 bytes in length. The optional /Nn parameter
- may be entered to change this default n (4) to values from 1 through 14
- pages. The PgUp, PgDn, Home, and End keys are used to display the various
- help screens. HELP remembers the last help screen accessed and will return
- to it immediately the next time the program is called up.
-
- HELP is a memory-resident program and is normally loaded by being
- listed as a line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Its default pop-up key
- ("hotkey") is Alt-H. Other Alt-key combinations may be substituted for the
- default hotkey by entering the optional /Hn parameter. Any alphanumeric key,
- the minus, or the equals keys may be used for n, and the substitution may be
- made either when the program is loaded or by entering HELP /Hn at a
- subsequent DOS prompt. Pressing Esc or pressing the hotkey a second time
- returns you to your application or to DOS.
-
- The optional /P parameter causes the program to pop-up immediately,
- and the /U parameter unloads it from memory if no other resident program has
- been loaded after HELP.
-
- Note:To change the number of screen pages reserved for pop-up it is necessary
- to uninstall HELP or to reboot. Up to the limit of the reserved pages,
- however, you can change the help screen(s) to be accessed simply by entering
- the command, together with a new filespec, at the DOS prompt.