Making a floater with tool documentation

[Bobo]

I'm wanting to add a "help floater" to a tool I'm developing, so that when the user hits a button on the main floater, another floater pops open and displays the documentation for using the tool.

Is there any EASY way to display lots of text in a floater? So far, it looks like none of the standard UI components like EditText use word wrapping.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Use either a DotNet or ActiveX control. Possibly the best way would be to add a web browser control and display an HTML document because you get all the formatting, pictures etc.

That being said, I personally just make such buttons open the default web browser with the URL of the online help.

[Jon-Huhn]

I was really hoping to keep the script self-contained, so the user only has to drop one .mcr file into their macroscripts folder, but I guess throwing in an extra .html file isn't the end of the world.

And if I'm willing to have them launch a web browser for the help, why not just keep the help on the internet? Yeah... that would work too... except that it's straying farther and father away from my goal of having a single self-contained tool. I'll kick around those ideas and see what works best.

Thanks so much, Bobo.

[Bobo]

I was really hoping to keep the script self-contained, so the user only has to drop one .mcr file into their macroscripts folder, but I guess throwing in an extra .html file isn't the end of the world.

And if I'm willing to have them launch a web browser for the help, why not just keep the help on the internet? Yeah... that would work too... except that it's straying farther and father away from my goal of having a single self-contained tool. I'll kick around those ideas and see what works best.

Thanks so much, Bobo.

When I said Online Help, I REALLY meant Online :)
Having the help online (on the Internet) means that the user of your tool can hit the help button anytime and get the LATEST version of the help, so you can make additions, fixes and changes to the help anytime and never have to send an updated HTML to the end user. You can also handle updates of the script itself via that page by providing a link for getting the latest version on the Help page with notes of fixes and improvements etc.

I am not doing this for my own scripts but we do for example for Deadline where both the general help of the application and the Max Submitter connect to the Internet to show the latest help. The Max Submitter even has a [?] button next to each option with a URL target associated to it and then opens this page (http://software.franticfilms.com/content/support/deadline/plugins/3dsmax/submission2/content.html).

[Jon-Huhn]

Yeah, I think that idea's growing on me. I'll put the docs online.

Thanks!

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