Call the Windows Help Search Dialog Box from Application

 Last reviewed: November 2, 1995
Article ID: Q86268
The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) versions 3.1
  • Microsoft Win32 Application Programming Interface (API) included with: 

        - Microsoft Windows NT versions 3.5 and 3.51
    - Microsoft Windows 95 version 4.0

In the Microsoft Windows environment, an application can invoke the Search dialog box of the Windows Help application independent of the main help window. For example, many applications have an item like "Search for Help on" in their Help menus.

An application can invoke the Search dialog box via the WinHelp function by specifying HELP_PARTIALKEY as the value for the fuCommand parameter and by specifying a pointer to an empty string for the dwData parameter. The following code demonstrates how to call the Windows Help Search dialog box from an application:

LPSTR lpszDummy, 

      lpszHelpFile;

// Allocate memory for strings
lpszDummy = malloc(5); lpszHelpFile = malloc(MAX_PATH); 

// Initialize an empty string
lstrcpy(lpszDummy, ""); 

// Initialize the help filename
lstrcpy(lpszHelpFile, "c:\\windows\\myhelp.hlp"); 

// Call WinHelp function
WinHelp(hWnd, lpszHelpFile, HELP_PARTIALKEY, (DWORD)lpszDummy);

Additional reference words: 3.10 3.50 4.00 95
KBCategory: kbui
KBSubcategory: UsrDlgs

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Last reviewed: November 2, 1995
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