IOleWindow::ContextSensitiveHelp method (oleidl.h)

Article
10/13/2021

Determines whether context-sensitive help mode should be entered during an in-place activation session.

Syntax

HRESULT ContextSensitiveHelp(
  [in] BOOL fEnterMode
);

Parameters

[in] fEnterMode

TRUE if help mode should be entered; FALSE if it should be exited.

Return value

This method returns S_OK if the help mode was entered or exited successfully, depending on the value passed in fEnterMode. Other possible return values include the following.

Return code	Description
E_INVALIDARG	The specified fEnterMode value is not valid.
E_OUTOFMEMORY	There is insufficient memory available for this operation.
E_UNEXPECTED	An unexpected error has occurred.

Remarks

Applications can invoke context-sensitive help when the user:

presses SHIFT+F1, then clicks a topic
presses F1 when a menu item is selected

When SHIFT+F1 is pressed, either the frame or active object can receive the keystrokes. If the container's frame receives the keystrokes, it calls its containing document's IOleWindow::ContextSensitiveHelp method with fEnterMode set to TRUE. This propagates the help state to all of its in-place objects so they can correctly handle the mouse click or WM_COMMAND.

If an active object receives the SHIFT+F1 keystrokes, it calls the container's IOleWindow::ContextSensitiveHelp method with fEnterModeTRUE, which then recursively calls each of its in-place sites until there are no more to be notified. The container then calls its document's or frame's IOleWindow::ContextSensitiveHelp method with fEnterModeTRUE.

When in context-sensitive help mode, an object that receives the mouse click can either:

Ignore the click if it does not support context-sensitive help.
Tell all the other objects to exit context-sensitive help mode with ContextSensitiveHelp set to FALSE and then provide help for that context.

An object in context-sensitive help mode that receives a WM_COMMAND should tell all the other in-place objects to exit context-sensitive help mode and then provide help for the command.

If a container application is to support context-sensitive help on menu items, it must either provide its own message filter so that it can intercept the F1 key or ask the OLE library to add a message filter by calling OleSetMenuDescriptor, passing valid, non-NULL values for the lpFrame and lpActiveObj parameters.

Requirements

Requirement	Value
Minimum supported client	Windows 2000 Professional [desktop apps only]
Minimum supported server	Windows 2000 Server [desktop apps only]
Target Platform	Windows
Header	oleidl.h