How to create a guide button on LabVIEW?

[jiale]

I'm new to LabVIEW so i was wondering if i am able to create a button whereby on clicking it, it will pop out a guide telling the user how to use my program.

[Dennis_Knutson]

You asked the same question at http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/is-it-possible-to-create-a-guide-on-labview-interface-to-tell/m-p/30... and marked it as solved. Do NOT start multiple threads for the same question. Do NOT mark s thread as solved if you still have questions.

[Jacobson-ni]

Jiale,

To add to what Dennis said, I would also try to mark only one response as the solution.  This helps people who have the same questions as you did find the answer more easily in longer threads.

To try and answer your question, I have seen some people add a button in larger applications that opens up a PDF in the event that it is clicked.  The link below shows how to open up a PDF with the System Exec VI.  You may also want to look into creating a custom run-time menu with a help section to do the same thing as it cleans up the UI.

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/9A6A259EB5A2BEDA86256DD00048C604

I would not rely on this too much to guide users.  Usually the best way to get users to understand how to use your application is through good UI design.

[stevem181]

For future viewers of this thread ...

A handy way to open many different file types can be found in:

[Your LabVIEW Version]\vi.llb\Platform\browser.llb.

It is called "Open a Document on Disk.vi".

Just give it a path to the document (PDF, Word, Excel, etc.).

steve

[Hooovahh]

Please read over this when you get a chance.  Specifically the Marking solutions section, and the When you don't get the help you want sections.

[JÞB]

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@jiale wrote:

I'm new to LabVIEW so i was wondering if i am able to create a button whereby on clicking it, it will pop out a guide telling the user how to use my program.

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Personally, for a nice app like that I would publish a compiled Help file (*.chm) then use the control properties of you custom controls to point to the bookmarks or tags in the help file 

[Hooovahh]

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@JÞB wrote:

Personally, for a nice app like that I would publish a compiled Help file (*.chm) then use the control properties of you custom controls to point to the bookmarks or tags in the help file 

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Great suggestion, and if you are using 2014 or newer there are more documentation options like linking to PDFs.