Entering help messages

Although the system is now technically complete, it would be useful to add a few extra touches. One of these would be to incorporate help screens which can be defined through option 13.

Because the process is effectively repeated for each entry, only one example will be presented here. Let us create a help display for the item code field on the F.BOOKINGS file. To do this, take option 13.

For FILE REF enter the short hand code for F.BOOKINGS i.e. EG1. Next the FIELD NAME which in this case is ITEM.CODE.

The user is now in a position to enter the help information. Once this is done the screen should look as follows.

This help text will now be held against that item indefinitely. It will be inserted into each routine that subsequently uses that attribute as an input. Any changes to the text will be picked up straight away. However, if you have already generated the EXAMPLE routine, the user must regenerate the routine and recompile it after the help has been entered to incorporate the new help facility, i.e. select options 7 and 8 for that routine.

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