Stand-Alone Online Documentation

Panels containing text produced using IPF need not be called from an application; IPF can be used to produce "stand-alone" online documentation, which is viewed using the VIEW.EXE utility provided with OS/2 Version 2.0. Online documents have similar capabilities to help libraries; both text and graphics may be included, and hypertext and hypergraphic links are supported.

Online documents also have a number of differences from help libraries:

  • In an online document, a panel may be identified by using the name= or id= attributes in the heading, rather than the res= attribute. These attributes allow the use of alphanumeric characters, where the res= attribute must specify an integer identifier. Links are then defined using the refid= attribute in the :link tag.

    Note that the name= or id= attributes may not be used if files will be concatenated and hypertext or hypergraphic links are required between files.

  • Online documents may not use hypertext or hypergraphic links with reftype=inform, since there is no associated application for the help instance, and IPF cannot determine the window to which the message should be directed.

  • An online document has a main window created by IPF, which contains the table of contents for the document. The title of this main window is determined by a :title tag.

    Note that the :title tag may only be used for online documents, and not for help libraries. The title of an application's main help window is specified in the WinCreateHelpInstance() function call.

    The ability to include hypertext and hypergraphics in online documents allows the creation of online procedure manuals that automatically invoke the appropriate application or applications for each step of the procedure. This is achieved by defining the hypertext or hypergraphic items with reftype=launch, specifying the name of the executable file for the required application. See Self-Teaching Applications for further discussion of such applications.

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