Repository Help Editor

Visual LANSA provides a very simple line editor for creating you help text. This line editor does not control fonts or font presentation characteristics (bold, italic, underline, etc.).

LANSA HELP text has the following characteristics:

• It is free format. No restrictions usually exist on the content or format of HELP text.
• Help text may uses special Help Text Enhancement & Substitution Values. (Refer to How to Use Special Values.)

Please note the following about the Repository Help Editor:

• The editor is a simple line editor. It is not a document editor.
• The editor supports a maximum line length of 74 characters.
• The editor does not support any line wrapping. Once the 74 character limit is reached, you must manually move text to the next line.
• The editor supports basic cut, paste and copy features. For example, you could copy text from a Word document and paste it into the LANSA Help editor.
• You can only paste 74 characters of text per line into the editor. If you try to paste a large amount of text into the editor an error may result. You must check that the text being pasted has been broken into lines of no more than 74 characters by adding a line feed character at the end of each "line" of text.
• Text will appear as it is entered into the editor unless Special Characters or values are used. (Refer to How to Use Special Characters.)
• In a multilingual partition, the Visual LANSA Repository Help Tab uses a separate tab for each language. The special $$LANGUAGE tags are not used to designate languages. Always remember to review all language tabs when editing the help text.

Note: A simple line editor approach is required in order to allow text to be mapped exactly for different database and presentation requirements. Each line of help text is assigned an internal line number.