<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.1.2//EN"
                  "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.1.2/docbookx.dtd" []>

<!-- ################# Writing Context Sensitive Help ###############
-->

  <sect1 id="writingcontextsensitivehelp">
    <title>Writing Context Sensitive Help (coming in GNOME-3.0)</title>
    <para>
      Context sensitive help, also known as "pop-up" help, will allow
      a user to obtain help information about specific buttons or
      parts of an application.
    </para>
    <para>
      Context sensitive help is still under development and not all
      the details are available at this time. However, the basics can
      be shown here so that you can understand how the system will
      work.
    </para>
    <para>
      The Context Sensitive Help system is designed to allow the
      developer to give an id to a particular portion of the User
      Interface, for example, a button. Once the interface is complete
      a Perl script can then be run against the interface code to
      create a "map" file. This map file allows the developer or
      writer to associate particular paragraph sections from an XML
      document to the interface items.
    </para>
    <para>
      The XML used for the document is a small XML DTD that is being
      developed to use the same tags (albeit, much fewer) as DocBook
      so that writers do not have to re-learn a new DTD.
    </para>
    <para>
      Once the document is written and map file is complete, when the
      user launches context sensitive help on the interface (either by
      pressing a button and then clicking on the interface item they
      want information on, or by right mouse clicking on the interface
      item and selecting a pop-up menu item like "What's This") a
      small transient window will appear with brief but detailed
      information on the interface item.
    </para>
  </sect1>