A-Link/Shg Work-Around

["Wing, Michael J" <mjwing -at- INGR -dot- COM>]

A couple of weeks ago I posted a message asking if anyone had
successfully executed A-Links from a SHG file.  After many variations, I
have not been able to execute an ALink from the SHG macro call; however,
I have a work-around.

My situation is as follows:

The main help window contains the topic's description.  Directly to the
right is a hypergraphic (SHG) depicting a hierarchy hierarchy (I
document O-O automation so a hierarchy may be
Application-Documents-Document).  Each of the items displayed in the
diagram is linked to display the selected topic description in the main
window.  In turn, the main window has a start-up macro that puts the
correct hypergraphic into the secondary window.

My need for an ALink in the hypergraphic arose when an item in the
hierarchy could branch to two or more topics (such as the Document
object extending to a MSWord file, Excel file, or a PowerPoint slide).
Furthermore, the number of objects that branch from the hyperlink
depends on the user's configuration.  They may have 3, 4, or more
applets (each with their own help file) which branch from this link and
could add others later.  Thus, the need for a dynamic link instead of
creating links for each branch.

To resolve this, I created a dummy topic which invoked an A-Link
start-up macro.  This worked except that the main window resized (about
half of its designed size).  Also, if the user decide to opt out of
following the link, the main topic and hypergraphic were blank.
Therefore, I strung four macros together in the dummy topic.  The first
two reloaded the secondary and main windows with their original topics,
the third performed the Alink, and the forth sized the main window to
its designed settings.  The syntax is as follows:

JumpId(`>Secondarywindow',`OriginalSecondaryTopic');
JumpId(`>main',`OriginalMainTopic');
Alink(`MultipleBranchTopicALinkTerm', 1, "IfNotFoundTopic", main);
PositionWindow(0,0,400,800,1,"main")

Mike Wing
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
_/
_/   Michael Wing
_/   Principal Technical Writer
_/   Jupiter Customization and Educational Services
_/   Intergraph Corporation
_/   730-7250
_/   mjwing -at- ingr -dot- com
_/

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