Help displays a help text for an object the user has selected with the cursor.

The function Help displays a help text. The help system, which was activated by choosing this function, determines the text to be displayed. Help is a standard function.

The function is to be always active.

When the user chooses the Help function, usually the help system has the control, not the task program. Often, however, you can influence the process and the displayed documentation from the task development point of view as follows:

After the user calls Help, the help system determines the documentation related to the current object and displays it. The documentation can be created in one of two ways:

• using transaction SE61
• using the development tool of the object to be documented (for functions, for example, in the Menu Painter).

The help system determines the help text to be displayed based on the technical information of the chosen object. This identification is alweays consists of the following elements for the individual objects:

For menu options Program and function code
or function keys:

For messages: Message ID and message number

For input fields: Data element

Thus, not the field names are used for input fields on the screen but the data element which is allocated to the table field specified on the screen. Consequently, the display of a help text for a field can only be used as a default, if the field has a ABAP/4 Dictionary reference (exception: see below). Generally, the data element documentation is displayed.

Since the data element documentation is in some cases insufficient, you can enter data element supplements which are then displayed in the help system together with the data element documentation. Here, you generally have to distinguish between general and screen-specific data element supplements. If general data element supplements are created, these are usually displayed together with the definition. If you also create screen-specific data element supplements, they are prioritized and displayed together with the definition instead of the general data element supplements.

Linking field documentation in reports differs in some points from procedures used with transactions. Reports can contain the following fields: parameters, select options and fields in lists.

The developer does not define screens in reports, that is, there is no event POH. Currently, there is also no equivalent event available so you cannot program the help yourself. (However, you can occupy the F1 key in the Menu Painter but this way you switch off the standard help for the entire interface status.)

Report fields are linked to a table field - and therefore to a data element - as follows:

for parameters: LIKE (for example, ZZ LIKE T001-BUKRS)

for select options: FOR (for example, UMSATZ FOR KUMUM)

for fields in lists: WRITE table field (where table has to be a ABAP/4 Dictionary table)

For fields in lists which refer to the ABAP/4 Dictionary in its definition with "LIKE" or "INCLUDE STRUCTURE", an automatic help link is planned.

When allocating data element supplements to objects via table THLPF, the report name is always to be entered as a program. For parameters and select options, you always have to specify screen "1000", regardless of the screen on which the parameters or the select option actually appear. For fields in report lists, you have to specify screen "120".