Creating Your Own Help Topics

How to Add Custom Help Content to the Answer Wizard

If you want your custom Help topics to work like Office 2000 Help, make sure your Help is accessible through the Answer Wizard. By using the Answer Wizard Builder, you can create an Answer Wizard Builder (AWB) project file to which you add your HTML Help topics. The Answer Wizard Builder project produces a new Answer Wizard (AW) file that is used like an index by the Office Help system to locate applicable information for users’ queries.

If you significantly change your HTML Help files, by adding new topics or by renaming or deleting existing topics, then you must create a new AW file to replace the old one. To create a new AW file, you can use the original Answer Wizard project, or you can create a new project.

Toolbox   You can use the Answer Wizard Builder to help you create custom AW files for use with custom HTML Help topics and the Office Help system. For information about installing the Answer Wizard Builder, see Answer Wizard Builder.

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Create an Answer Wizard Builder project

When you create an Answer Wizard Builder project, the Answer Wizard Builder indexes the HTML Help topics you specify. You can then optionally assign user questions to each topic.

To create an Answer Wizard Builder project

1. If you installed the Answer Wizard Builder to the default directory specified during setup, click Start, point to Programs, and then click Microsoft Answer Wizard Builder.
2. In the Create a New Answer Wizard Project Using box, click CHM File or Web Site.
3. Enter the path to the CHM file, or enter the URL of the Web site and the share name of the Web server (plus the path to a particular folder, if necessary) in the appropriate text box, and then click OK.

The Answer Wizard Builder parses the CHM or HTML files and indexes the Help topics contained in them. When it is finished indexing the Help topics, the Answer Wizard Builder lists the file names of all the Help topics found at the location you specified in step 3.

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Add user questions

Although the Answer Wizard Builder indexes your Help topics, you can improve the searching power of the Answer Wizard by assigning user questions to each topic. Questions that most closely reflect the questions that real users will probably ask are more likely to help you improve the usefulness of your topics. For example, you might select a topic about setting up a network printer and assign a question such as “What is the path to our department printer?”

Adding user questions is optional. They are an additional search mechanism designed to enhance the Answer Wizard, but are not required for the Answer Wizard to function normally.

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Create a custom Answer Wizard file

When you are finished entering user questions (if you choose to add them), you must compile an AW file from the Answer Wizard Builder project.

To build a new custom Answer Wizard file

• In the Answer Wizard Builder, click the Build button.

Tip   Store the new AW file in the same folder where you saved the AWB project file.

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See also

Not all language versions are supported by the Answer Wizard. For information about international considerations for the Answer Wizard, see Recommended Operating Systems for International Use.