[ID Discuss] Access points for context sensitive help

[Navneet Nair]

With our next release of our web based software we are planning to incorporate 
context sensitive help as part of the application. Currently the help is 
accessed from a drop-down Help menu that has a link to the ‘Contents and 
Index.’ This of course, opens the help with the TOC and the default welcome 
page. As per the current implementation, the context sensitive help can be 
accessed by using the F1 key which opens the help related to the page the user 
is accessing in a window without the index and TOC. There is no other link to 
the context sensetive help.

What would be the ideal access point for help? I’ve noticed Lotus Notes has two 
links in the help menu. One takes you to the ‘Help Topics’ and the other 
opens ‘Context Help,’ but I’ve not noticed this variation in a lot of other 
applications. Usually the F1 key does the job of context sensitivity with no 
link separate link in the Menu.

Are there any patterns or conventions in this respect?

TIA
Navneet

PS: Apologies for cross posting on CHI-WEB but I need to get the interactions 
speced for this feature over the weekend :(

Navneet Nair
Interaction Architect
http://www.onclipevent.com
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Blog: http://www.onclipevent.com/enterframe/