Online help design

You can define online help by using either panel groups or records.

By using either panel groups, online help can be defined as objects into which user interface manager (UIM) source is entered. By using records, online help can be defined as a set of DDS keywords contained in a source file member.

If the user interface manager is used for defining online help, the panel groups are defined either in place of DDS or in the display file. In either case, the encoding of the data to be displayed must be indicated by the CHRID value in the display file or the panel group. A panel group is an object that can be used to contain help information. The operating system uses *PNLGRP as an identifier for the object type that contains a collection of help information.

Guidelines: Online help

When defining online help information to be translated into national language versions, keep in mind the following considerations about panel groups and records:

Records do not have word processing available (functions such as spell check and word wrap though system APIs exist to provide spell checking).
Various i5/OS™ messages and panel groups determine the national language conventions and translations. Not all countries have a national language version available for the operating system. Not all national language versions are completely translated, with many parts still in English. The messages and panel groups that are not translated do not reflect the national language cultural conventions. The command design information includes an example of a translated panel in which part of the panel has remained in English because not all parts of the NLV were translated.
Allow for translation expansion.

Guidelines: DDS online help design

When multiple languages are installed on one system, the help documents are stored in different folders. The DDS source file needs to be copied, changed, and compiled again for each language on the system.