Visual C++ ships with an online help system called HTML Help. HTML Help uses the underlying components of Microsoft Internet Explorer to display help content.

To create online help for your application, you use the authoring tool in HTML Help called HTML Help Workshop.

The topics in this section explain how to create context-sensitive help for an application by using HTML Help Workshop. Applications that use context-sensitive help typically have a user interface. Commonly, an MFC (.exe), MFC ActiveX control, or an ATL ActiveX control are types of applications that use context-sensitive help. The examples used in the topics in this section use handlers available in an MFC (.exe) application to implement context-sensitive help.

You can select HTMLHelp for your application's context-sensitive help on the Advanced Features, MFC Application Wizard page of the MFC Application Wizard.

For more information about HTML Help Text pop-ups, see article Q241218, "HOWTO: Implement HTML Help Text Pop-Ups in an MFC Application," in the Microsoft Knowledge Base at http://support.microsoft.com.