Multiple context-sensitive help files?

Subject: Multiple context-sensitive help files?
From: geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA
Date: Thu, 11 Sep 1997 12:19:33 -0500

I know you can tack as many Win3.1 help files as you want
onto the Help menu... piece of cake. But can you produce
two different versions of the same help file and make both
context sensitive? Here's the situation:

I'm working in Word 6 and RoboHelp 3 to document something
produced with Delphi. The software has a toggle to switch
between English and French menus and dialog boxes. I need
to produce the same docs in both English and French, and
although most users will pick a single language and stick
with it forever, some will want to switch languages. It's
easy to make both files accessible from the help menu, but
then there's no context sensitivity. It's also easy to pick
one file to link with the dialog boxes during the
installation process, and leave the other file on the hard
disk as a freestanding help application with no links to
the software; this provides a single context-sensitive
version, and one "insensitive" version. But can I let users
switch languages midstream and automatically receive their
context-sensitive help in the new language?

For the moment, I'm going with the "choose one during
installation" routine, but it would be nice if something
more elegant exists. Please copy all responses to me, and
I'll summarize to the list.

--Geoff Hart @8^{)} geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Disclaimer: Speaking for myself, not FERIC.

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