Any good solutions for an integrated help system in WPF applications?

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help
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+1 Q:

Any good solutions for an integrated help system in WPF applications?

Hi,

I'm just starting up a new, big project that will be using WPF for the front end. I'm looking for some kind of solution for an integrated help system. The basic use case for this is that the user needs to be able to reach context sensitive help at any time when using the system. The help content should be localized and displayed within the application (not popup an external .chm file).

I'm looking for real world experience in creating and/or using a third party system that can handle the complete flow for this, including a work flow for localizing the help content. Any input is appreciated! Thank you.

Is there a particular reason that you can't popup an external .chm file, or is it for aesthetic purposes? If you must wrap your own implementation, you might want to look at this article on Code Project. It's not WPF specific, but it should serve as a real starting point for you.

Pete OHanlon 2009-10-13 11:48:26

Hi Pete and thanks for the input. The reason for not poping up a chm file is the user experience. The application is a touch screen application and .chm-files is a no go when using your fingers for scrolling etc. We need some kind of integrated system that blends in with the rest of the app and that we can style with wpf.

tmatuschek 2009-10-13 12:16:56

Hmmm. Sounds like it could be a fun blog entry for me to tackle. Thanks for the idea.

Pete OHanlon 2009-10-13 12:59:49

IF you do get around to doing this I would really appreciate if you could post a link to the blog post here! Thanks Pete!

tmatuschek 2009-10-15 06:02:52

One suggestion is to compose help as FlowDocuments. They're simple to compose (and you can whip up an editor using RichTextBox. They can be stored as resources in your assembly and you just use a FlowDocumentReader to view them. That basically lets you fully integrate help into your app the way you want it without needing any external tools or controls.

AndyM 2009-10-13 12:27:56

This is a good suggestion, but I think the lack of editors and general support for FlowDocument is going to be a problem. Our app needs to be translated by external sources (at least 10 languages) and I have yet to see tools that support FlowDocument.

tmatuschek 2009-10-15 06:07:38

+1 A:

How about using tooltips ? Wpf tooltips can have any kind of content... can't think of a more integrated help system ;o)

Cédric Rup 2009-10-13 12:34:00

Here is an article by Pete O'Hanlon Easy help with WPF

I suppose you can customize this solution to fit your needs.

Dmytro Laptin 2009-10-13 22:03:51

Thanks for the link, Dmitry. This is however not what I was asking for. Pete's solution is great if you need to open a .chm-file from your WPF application, but I need a more integrated solution.

tmatuschek 2009-10-15 06:05:31

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Any good solutions for an integrated help system in WPF applications?

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