Context-sensitive help
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Context-sensitive help is a kind of online help that is obtained from a specific point in the state of the software, providing help for the situation that is associated with that state.
Context-sensitive help, as opposed to general online help or online manuals, doesn't need to be accessible for reading as a whole. Each topic is supposed to describe extensively one state, situation, or feature of the software.
Context-sensitive help can be implemented using tooltips, which either provide a terse description of a widget or display a complete topic from the help file. Another commonly used way to access context-sensitive help is to click a button, which changes the mouse pointer shape to a question mark, and then, after the user clicks a widget, the help appears.
Context-sensitive help is most used in, but is not limited to, GUI environments. An example is Microsoft WinHelp.