CompuServe Messages

Continuation… None of that is 'cheap' code, nor is it necessairly efficient, and most of all…I don't think it's what the average user wants. In my experience, what the users want is a 'quick reference card' with the heavy details left to the manual. We just went thru this at work, the system provides us with the ability to add a help message for each field on the screen the user can get to. We asked the users what they wanted in the help fields (that get displayed if you hit the HELP key) and without exception, they wanted nothing there. They didn't want context sensitive help, they were able to figure out if the field was labeled "Street: ____________" then the name of the street went into that field. What they did want was a quick reference card form of help for the F-Keys and special keystrokes (ESC + key). We had to put something into the help string for each field to prevent the system from putting up a nonsense help screen for each field (the system would display field characteristics such as CHAR data type, 4 wide and Database table and column name). The few users that looked at the field level help thought it was silly and a waste of time. Don