Changing Hypertext Jump Color in Windows Help

ID: Q75111

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) versions 3.1, 3.0
Microsoft Win32 Software Development Kit (SDK), versions 3.5, 3.51, 4.0

SUMMARY

The author of a file to be used with Windows Help can alter the default color of hypertext jump strings. This specification overrides both the default behavior of showing these strings as underlined green text and any color preference listed in the WIN.INI file. This article explains the steps required to make this type of modification.

MORE INFORMATION

This feature must be used with care. There are situations when the user may require a jump color other than the default. The profile strings in the WIN.INI file provide an opportunity to specify a color value appropriate for the particular situation. For more information on these settings, query on the following words:

prod(winsdk) and jumpcolor

To specify the color of a context jump when the RTF Help text is created using Microsoft Word for Windows, follow the six steps listed below. This procedure is a modification of the steps listed on page 17-11 of the "Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit Tools" manual.

Place the cursor at the point in the text where the jump term will be entered.

Choose Character from the Format menu and specify the double- underline attribute and the desired text color. Word for Windows provides 6 colors, along with auto, black, and white.

Type the jump word or words.

Choose Character from the Format menu. Turn off the double- underline attribute and choose the default text color and hidden text.

Type a percent sign (%), followed by the context string assigned to the topic. For example, JumpText%ContextString, where JumpText is given the desired color and %ContextString is hidden text.

Choose Character from the Format menu. Turn off hidden text.

After all topics have been created, save the file as RTF (rich text format) and build the .HLP file. For more information on this process, refer to Chapters 15 through 19 of the "Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) Tools" manual.

It is also possible to modify the six color values that Word for Windows provides as defaults. This can be done by modifying the color table in the RTF header. To do this, load the RTF file into Word for Windows, however, do not convert the file from RTF. For more information on the RTF color table, refer to page 389 of the "Microsoft Word for Windows Technical Reference" (Microsoft Press).

Additional query words: 3.00 3.10 3.50 4.00 95 win16sdk


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Last Reviewed: March 4, 1999