Not ideal. 189
C H A P T E R 9
However, many desktop applications have had a better solution than this for some time:
the Talking Paper Clip. Well, maybe not. Joking aside, what I??™m actually referring to here is the
contextual help sidebar that can be seen in applications such as Microsoft Word and Excel, as
well as in many other common applications. When users need help with a certain part of the
application, they can press a key combination or click a help button or icon and then be
shown the relevant part of the help alongside the application they are working with??”no hunting
for the correct help section or shuffling between the help window and the application
window necessary. The help you want is given to you where you need it.
This project will take this feature from the desktop to web applications using a little Ajax
and a sprinkle of server-side magic. So without further ado, let??™s get on with it.
Planning and Preparation
Besides regular preparation work, such as creating files and downloading library code (which
will be covered later on), it is worth doing some planning for the project up front. No diagrams
or written specs are required; simply pause before you start bashing away at the keyboard and
think about how the project will go together.
To provide the most robust implementation you??™ll provide the help sidebar as a progressive
enhancement to the regular help system.
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