Microsoft KB Archive/51524

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{| The information in this article applies to:
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 * Microsoft Word for the Macintosh versions 4.0, 5.0

SUMMARY
In versions 4.0 and 5.0 of Microsoft Word for the Macintosh, you can modify, add, or delete any Word Help file topic. Word Help files are just like other Microsoft Word documents. However, once you edit them, you must use a Resource editor such as ResEdit or MacTools to complete the modification. Because of the delicate nature of the file formatting for these files, you should first make a backup copy of the Help file before you make any modifications to it.

To make a backup copy of the Help file, follow the steps below:


 * 1) Quit Word if it is running.
 * 2) For Word 5.0, open the Word Commands folder and select the Word 5 Help file; for Word 4.0, locate the Word Help file.
 * 3) From the Finder's File menu, choose Duplicate.
 * 4) Rename the original Help file Help_Original.
 * 5) Start Microsoft Word.
 * 6) Open the Help file (this file will not appear in the regular Open dialog box because its file type is WHLP, not WDBN). In Word 5.0, choose Open from the File menu and select All Files from the List Files Of Type box. In Word 4.0, hold down the SHIFT key and choose Open Any File from the File menu.

With Show Hidden Text selected, you will be able to see each topic along with the page numbers that show where that topic occurs in the document. To view hidden text:

In Word 5.0, choose Preferences from the Tools menu, choose View, and select the Hidden Text option under Show.

In Word 4.0, choose Preferences from the Edit menu and select the Show Hidden Text option. After the first section (the section that lists all the Help topics), each Help topic has its own section that contains a description of that topic.

Example: Creating A Help Topic Called &quot;My Notes&quot;
To create a Help topic called &quot;My Notes,&quot; follow the steps below:

 Place the insertion point at the beginning of the Microsoft Product Support line and press the RETURN key to start a new line of text.  On the new line, type &quot;My Notes;;&quot; (without the quotation marks) and format the semicolons as hidden text. If you want to include a reference to pages in the manual for your notes, you can insert that reference between the two semicolons. If you want to refer to more than one page, you must also delimit each page number with semicolons. For example My Notes;120;140;143; refers &quot;My Notes&quot; to pages 120, 140, and 143 in the manual. In this example, ;120;140;143; would be formatted as hidden text.  Press the RETURN key. Scroll through Word Help to the descriptions of the help topics. Position the insertion point immediately AFTER the section mark that separates the Using Help and Product Support sections. Press the RETURN key and insert a section break (in Word 5.0, from the Insert menu, choose Section break; in Word 4.0, press COMMAND+ENTER on the numeric keypad). Insert your notes between the two section marks. You can use your own styles or those that belong to the Help file. Save the revised version of Word Help and quit Word. Use a resource editing program, such as MacTools or ResEdit, to change the file type from WDBN to WHLP. Start Word. Choose Help from the Window menu or choose About Microsoft Word from the Apple menu. The option for My Notes will appear as the second available item. Product Support is now the third item. Double-clicking My Notes will open the description you wrote in the My Notes section of the Help file.</li></ol>
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Last reviewed: July 30, 1997

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