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Naming Your Help File
You can give your help display data file any name and ex-
tension you want—except
HELP.DAT which is already in use
in the
UTILS directory. For example, you could name your
Help display data file
MYFILE.HLP. Then when you want to
load your Help display, at the
MS-DOS C:\> prompt type
HELP MYFILE.HLP
and press ENTER.
If you type only
HELP, without specifying a data file, the pro-
gram searches first for the default data file
HELP.DAT in the
current directory; then it searches through all directories
specified in the
PATH environment variable defined in your
AUTOEXEC.BAT file. The program uses the same search tech-
nique if you type only a filename. If you type a filename pre-
ceded by a \ (backslash), which creates a pathname, the
program searches only for the file specified by the path-
name.
Adding Subjects to Existing Help Displays
You can add subjects and descriptions to the existing
HELP.DAT file, stored under the UTILS directory on the hard
disk (drive C). Use your word processor or file editor to in-
sert new subjects and descriptions anywhere in the file, fol-
lowing the rules outlined previously in this appendix.
Note: Be sure to save the file back to disk in ASCII format,
not your word processor’s particular format.
Creating Help Displays
Creating Help Displays I-5