Providing in-form help in MS Access

Question

I'm a non-developer building a simple Access 2003 database for an NGO that works in developing countries. I would like to provide in-app help (what certain fields mean, for example) in a number of forms and on the switchboard. I'm not sure about the best way to do this - not just on a technical standpoint but to increase user-friendliness. The users are usually using MS Access for the very fist time, and have only basic computer use knowledge.

I don't want to cram the forms with help text, so I'm thinking of adding little question mark buttons that pop up a separate form with just help text. Is that wise?

I've also noticed a Help Context ID property, but it looks complicated (I'm looking for something as simple as possible to implement, so that the help text can be edited as easily as possible by others in the future). I think this is where I'd start if this were the way to go: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=209843

This may need to be translated, etc, so again, the simpler the better.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Great question. I think the real solution to reducing the amount of work that you need to do is to work really hard on having a simple, clean UI. In the real world there are very few people who have the patience or inclination to read the manual or search the contextual help even in the face of being stuck.

I know this is slightly off topic from the question but if you look at this website for example it keeps the number of things you can do on anyone 'screen' down to the minimum and everything has a tool tip (ControlTip Text in msaccess). Even if site this was in Japanese, I thin i could navigate around it fairly easily and that is because of its simplicity. (I couldn't answer any questions though :P)

Jakob Neilsen has a great site on usability

Answer 2

I've built such a system using tables and forms in the FE. You can get an idea by reviewing some of the screen shots at http://www.granitefleet.com/ScreenShots/index.htm I only created general help describing processes where something on a setup form can affect this form. So the user will know where to ge to change something around.

Answer 3

If you haven't built your forms yet, put that information in the table design, using each field's Description. That will propagate through your forms, and will be displayed on the Status Bar whenever a user click in that field.

If your forms are already done, use the [Status Bar Text] and/or the [ControlTip Text] property of your controls.

Just train your users or write once that they should read the Status bar if they need more explanation.

KISS (keep it simple and simple)