Default Help Balloons for Menus, Windows, and Icons
application when help is enabled and the user moves the cursor to
certain standard areas of the user interface. These areas include the
standard window frame and the menu titles and menu items in the
Apple menu, Help menu, Keyboard menu, and Application menu. You do
take advantage of the default help balloons. The following list
summarizes the items that have default help balloons.
Interface item Description
Application icon in Finder Default help also for desk accessories,
system extensions, control panels; can
be customized
Document icon in Finder Cannot be customized
Standard file dialog boxes You add balloons for extra dialog items
Window title bar In standard and customized WDEFs
Window close box In standard and customized WDEFs
Window zoom box In standard and customized WDEFs
Inactive window Can be customized
Apple menu title Standard menu definition procedure
only
Apple menu items Default balloons are provided for items
in the Apple Menu Items folder, but
there is no default balloon for the
About command or other items that
your application adds
Help menu title Standard menu definition procedure
only
Help menu items Default balloons are provided only for
the About Balloon Help and
Hide/Show Balloons items
Application menu title Standard menu definition procedure
and items only
Keyboard menu title Standard menu definition procedure
and items only
provides help balloons for its standard file dialog boxes. If your
application uses a system software routine (such as the
StandardPutFile procedure) that provides help balloons, and the
user has turned on Balloon Help assistance, the Help Manager
displays each help balloon as the user moves the cursor to each hot
rectangle. If you've added your own buttons, check boxes, or controls to
such a dialog box or alert box, you can also provide these elements
with help balloons.
frame and other standard elements described in the 'hovr' resource.
You can override any of the default help balloons defined in the 'hovr'
resource by providing your own resource of type 'hovr'. See
Overriding Other Default Help Balloons for more information.
to determine whether the cursor is in the window frame and, if so,
which part of the window frame ( title, close box, or zoom box) the
cursor is over. If the cursor is in any of these areas, the
Help Manager displays the associated help balloon. The Figure
below shows the default help balloons for the active window of an
application that uses the standard window definition function. If you
displays these default help balloons for the corresponding elements in
your windows.
Default help balloons for the window frame
The Finder also uses these help balloons for its window titles and its
close and zoom boxes. The Finder provides additional help for other
elements of its windows-for example, the scroll bar and size
box-although this help is not provided for the windows in your
application.
Help Manager to display help balloons for these menus regardless
of whether you supply help balloons for the rest of your menus. The
Help Manager also provides default help balloons for the Keyboard
menu when a non-Roman script system is installed. The Figure below
shows the default help balloons for the Apple menu and Help menu
titles.
for applications that use the standard menu definition
procedure. If you use your own menu definition procedure,
your application must track the cursor and use Help Manager
routines to display and remove help balloons.
Default help balloons for the Apple and Help menus
you put at the top of your application's Apple menu or items you add to
the Help menu. You typically put one item at the top of the Apple menu:
help facilities, list them in the Help menu-not in the Apple menu. You
have control only over those items that you add to these menus; system
software handles help balloons for the rest of the items.
The Finder provides default help balloons for your application icon
and any documents created by your application. The Figure below
shows the default help balloon for the SurfWriter application and a
document created by this application. You can customize the help
balloon for your application icon by providing an 'hfdr' resource;
however, you can not customize the default help balloon for the
documents created by your application.
The default help balloon for the SurfWriter application and one of its
documents.