Non intrusive 'live' help system

Question

I'm searching a C# component or code snipped that does something like that:

I want to inform new users about the most important program functions if he opens a new window for example. It should be a box showing text (formated if possible) that is of course not modal and has some mechanism to 'go out of the way' if the user enters the textbox area. So that he can access what's underneath it. Alternativly the window could also stick to the border of the window, but there needs to be a way that this also works if the window is maximized.

So I want to present him with a short introduction of what he can do in every corner of my app most painlessly.

Thank you!

Answer 1

Use tooltips. They can be programmatically controlled, and you can have them appear at will. You'll need to add the functionality to your app to keep track of what tooltips have been shown to the user already.

You can add a "balloon" style by setting the IsBalloon property to true.

You can also replace them with smaller descriptions for when the user wants to hover over the control and have them displayed again.

Answer 2

Hi Dave,

I'm already using tooltips heavily. However, they aren't very practical when displaying bigger amounts of data and they are bound to specific user actions.

Answer 3

I use a "bar" at the top of every window to display some information about the current window/dialog.

Answer 4

Have you considered having a contextual menu for each form / page which contains links to Adobe Captivate style presentations for each available task? That way the user can investigate an example of how to achieve a task relating to what they are trying to achieve from within the application / site.

This approach would require a good deal of maintenance and management if your code changes regularly but coordinating it with a training department can provide rich help features in your application.

See http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/ for more information.