The Help function allows to branch to a Help documentation screen at any time.
The user branches to a Help screen by positioning the cursor on the appropriate field and pressing a PFkey, or by positioning a designated character in the CHOICE field for screen-level Help, or in the desired input field for input field Help.
The Definition of the Help screen must be created, but it is not described, since its format is fixed and cannot be modified.
The code of this Screen will be XXHELP, where XX is the Dialog code; the external name must also be indicated (PACHELP by default). It must then be generated using the appropriate Type of Cobol and Map to generate, according to the hardware in use.
VA Pac generates documentary Help messages that will be used to document Screens and Data Elements and to explain the rules for information coding and error detection.
These messages can be created as needed and generated on request to update the sequential error message file.
This file will be used to create the applications’ error messages files. These are indexed files or databases depending on the hardware in use.
The error message file of a given application will be accessible in the generated transactions and for documentary purposes via the standard program performing the Help function.
The screen-level Help documentation is taken from the -GE Lines section of the -G Lines tab.