Help Series - having multiple locations

[cmiranda]

I would like to be able to stored Series Help files onto a server for everyone to access, rather than having mutliple copies on our desktops. So is there a way to re-route the place that LabVIEW searches for these help files? Have we have multiple locations - desktop & server?

[Scott Y]

Hello,

I am not sure if I completely understand your question. Are you creating your own help files, or are you talking about a specific help file that comes with LabVIEW?

If you are looking to create your own help files you can find more information in the LabVIEW help. By selecting Help >> VI, Function, & How-To Help... and the looking for "help files" in the index you should see a section titled "creating".

Scott Y
NI

[cmiranda]

The files I am talking about are files from LabVIEW such as the NI-TIO Help Series. I would like to store them on a server rather than on individual machines. Reason being is because I have several computers that I would like to be able to access these files from but I don't want to place a copy of the help files in every computer so I thought I could place them on the server and just have LabVIEW check for them there rather than in the LabVIEW folder.

[Scott Y]

Hi,

I am still not completely clear when you would like this help file displayed. If you place the .chm file for the TIO help on a remote machine, in a shared directory that can be accessed from the local machine you could just use a method like the one shown in the example program Calling HTML Help (.chm) Files from LabVIEW.

If this still doest not answer your question I would like to ask you to describe, step by step, what menu selections or button clicks your would like to have display a remote help file.

Scott Y
NI

[waldemar.hersacher]

Dear Scott,

I think he is talking about the following:

If you put a help file or a subdirectory into the LV/help folder this help file is displayed in the Help menu of LV. This happens if you install the Real-Time module or Filed Point. You can do this even with your own LLB which is installed in the user.lib and the help file in LV/help.

He is looking for a method to tell LV where to find additional help files and display them into the LV Help menu. Something like the search path for VIs but in this case for help files.

[AnalogKid2DigitalMan]

Why not just search your local hard drive's National Instuments folder for *.chm (Help files) and copy them all to a folder on your network. A double click on one opens it up. Of course you have to look at their filenames to know which one you need to open up, but NI named them faily straightforward. Works for me...

[Scott Y]

Thanks for the clarification, Waldemar!

Here is what I was able to do to get LabVIEW to look to a network share for a list of help files. I created a network file share on a remote computer called myhelp and placed several .chm files into the folder.

On my local machine I browsed to this network share and created a shortcut to the myhelp directory. I placed this shortcut (myhelp.lnk) in the C:\Program Files\National Instruments\LabVIEW 7.1\help\ directory and restarted LabVIEW.

When LabVIEW was running again there was a new menu item on the help directory called myhelp.lnk. Hovering over this menu option listed all of the .chm files in the remote shared folder.

If you would like to see what this looks like without trying it yourself, I have attached a screen shot.

Scott Y
NI

[cmiranda]

Thanks!

The clarification from the above and your answer is exactly what I needed.... Thanks!!!