[D. McC]: For those who want super-simple hypertext help with extremely little overhead, here's something that will do the job. It requires: * Tk 8.4 or greater, to hide link markup tags with the "-elide" flag in the text widget. * A plain-text help file with uniquely named section titles (or other section identifiers), plus minimal markup for links with names that exactly replicate the section titles, like this: Run Programs ---- package require Tk # Here's a proc to create the text box: proc userhelp {} { toplevel .uhelp grid [text .uhelp.tx -width 65 -height 25 -bg white \ -yscrollcommand ".uhelp.roll set" \ -font "times 14" -wrap word -cursor top_left_arrow] \ -row 0 -column 0 -sticky news grid [scrollbar .uhelp.roll -width 12 \ -command ".uhelp.tx yview"] -row 0 -column 1 -sticky news grid [button .uhelp.close -text "Close" -borderwidth 6 \ -command {destroy .uhelp}] -row 1 -column 0 \ -columnspan 2 -sticky news grid rowconfigure .uhelp 0 -weight 1 grid columnconfigure .uhelp 0 -weight 1 } # Here's one to get the text widget to display links and let the user see # the uniquely named sections when the links are clicked # (anybody who can make this one even simpler than it is, please let me know): proc getlinks {} { # Find beginnings and ends of all links: set linkstars [.uhelp.tx search -regexp -all \ -count cti "" 1.0 end] set linkends [.uhelp.tx search -regexp -all "" 1.0 end] ;# !! # Fix the links up to work: for {set i 0} {$i < [llength $linkstars]} {incr i} { set star [lindex $linkstars $i] ; # Begin link-start tag set starleng [lindex $cti $i] ; # Length of link-start tag set starsplit [split $star "."] set starline [lindex $starsplit 0] ; # Line number in text set starchar [lindex $starsplit end] ; # Position in line # End of link-start tag: set starend $starline.[expr {$starchar + $starleng}] # Content of link-start tag: set linkstar [.uhelp.tx get $star $starend] set linkname [string trim $linkstar "<>"] ; # Link name # Tag to hide link tags: .uhelp.tx tag configure hide -elide 1 .uhelp.tx tag add hide $star $starend # Add tag for clickable link between link-start and link-end tags: set finis [lindex $linkends $i] .uhelp.tx tag add $linkname $starend $finis # And one to hide the link-end tag: .uhelp.tx tag add hide $finis "$finis +7c" # Get clickable tag to look right and do things: .uhelp.tx tag configure $linkname -foreground blue -underline 1 .uhelp.tx tag bind $linkname { # See where clicked link is: set clickpos [.uhelp.tx index insert] # Verify that it's really a link: set tagnames [.uhelp.tx tag names $clickpos] set tagplace [lsearch $tagnames "link *"] if {$tagplace > -1} { # If so, strip off everything but its name: set tagname [lindex $tagnames $tagplace] set tagend [lindex [.uhelp.tx tag range "$tagname"] end] set searchname [string map "{link } {} {\"} {}" $tagname] # And find where the name appears in the help-file text: set target [.uhelp.tx search "$searchname" $tagend \ end] if {$target ne ""} { .uhelp.tx see $target } } } } } # And here's an example of a proc for getting an application to invoke the help system: proc comhelp {} { userhelp wm title .uhelp "WISH Command Center - User Help" set helpfile [open /home/david/9.com/wish/suite/comhelp_link.txt r] set helpcontents [read $helpfile] close $helpfile .uhelp.tx insert 1.0 $helpcontents getlinks } # Test: comhelp ---- [HJG] I get an error: 'bad switch "-all": must be -, -backward, -count, -elide, -exact, -forward, -nocase, or -regexp' in getlinks (the line marked with "!!"). Maybe requiring Tcl 8.4 is not specific enough ? ---- [Category Deployment] | [Category Documentation]