Instructions
The table below describes how to proceed to link a ready-made online help to a self-developed block. The Online Help of STEP 7 is to be opened by marking the block in the SIMATIC Manager and pressing the F1 key. For this you need a tool for creating help topics ("RoboHelp" or "DocToHelp", for example) and the "Notepad" ASCII editor for creating the registration file.
 

No.	Procedure
1	For your STEP 7 blocks you create the corresponding help topic using one of the tools mentioned about and define the link address to Online Help ("Topic ID" + "Map#") for each topic. Please note that the project name must not be longer than 8 characters and the last character is predefined for the STEP 7 language ID: A: German B: English C: French D: Spanish E: Italian Compile the help text in the creation tool and an HLP help file is created with the project name "S7COMSCLA.hlp", for example, for the German language ID or "S7COMSCLB.hlp" for the English language ID. Note More information on creating a help file is available in the technical description of the creation tool ("RoboHelp" or "DocToHelp", for example).
2	To create the registration file you must assign the names for "Header", "Family" and "Author" beforehand for the STEP 7 block. Mark the block in the SIMATIC Manager and right-click to open the pop-up menu. In the pop-up menu you open "Properties..." and select the "General - Part 2" tab. Enter the names as shown in Fig. 01 below and confirm with OK. Fig. 01
3	Open the text editor (Notepad or Wordpad) to add the necessary folders to the paths in the Registry. If you have grouped your blocks in several families (Fig. 01), you must add a separate code for each family in the registration file. Enter the following text depending on your operating system: In Windows XP REGEDIT4 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Siemens\STEP7\2.0\Applications\s7libs\mylib\Siemens] "HelpFileGerman"="s7libs\\mylib\\S7COMSCLA.hlp" [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Siemens\STEP7\2.0\Applications\s7libs\mylib\Siemens\COMM] "AS_BRECV"=dword:00000001 "AS_BSEND"=dword:00000002 In Microsoft Windows 7 (64-bit) REGEDIT4 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Siemens\STEP7\2.0\Applications\s7libs\mylib\Siemens] "HelpFileGerman"="s7libs\\mylib\\S7COMSCLA.hlp" [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Siemens\STEP7\2.0\Applications\s7libs\mylib\Siemens\COMM] "AS_BRECV"=dword:00000001 "AS_BSEND"=dword:00000002 Note You need administrator rights for registering.
4	Select "File > Save as..." and save the registration file as a "Reg" file. You can choose any name for the registration file. For the sake of clarity it is best to used the name of your library. Or use a common name for your blocks ("S7COMM.reg", for example). A few additional notes on creating the registration file: The library name (here: "mylib") can be chosen arbitrarily and corresponds to the name of the STEP 7 subdirectory in which you store the Help file. The name "Author" is identical to the author in the Object properties (here "Siemens"). You enter the same names for the library and author (No. 1) for the second registration path. "Family" corresponds to the name entered for the "Family" in the Object properties (here "COMM"). For each STEP 7 block you must specify the block name as given in the Object properties under "Name (Header)" with the link address from the help file. The link address "00000002" in hex format is the number of the Topic ID.
5	Transfer the data from the Reg file into the registration. In Windows XP You double-click the Reg file (here "S7COMM.reg") to execute it.. You then get the message or query as to whether you want to add the data to the registration file. Click on the "Yes" button and acknowledge the message with "OK". But you can also execute the registration file by opening the registration editor with "Start > Run... > Regedit" and opening the registration file (here "S7COMM.reg") with the function "File > Import". The data is entered in the Registry in both cases. In Microsoft Windows 7 (64-bit) Right-click the Reg file ("S7COMM.reg") and select "Open with > Registration editor" in the pop-up menu that opens. Two dialogs open with a query and a warning. In both dialogs you click "Yes". The codes and values are then entered accordingly in the Registry. Confirm with "OK".
6	Open the Explorer and add the folder named "mylib" to the drive on which you have installed STEP 7. Then add the help file (in this example: "S7COMSCLA.hlp") to the folder. Fig. 02
7	The self-made online help is now linked to the STEP 7 block and appears when you mark the block in the SIMATIC Manager and press the "F1" key.

Important
This entry contains information for editing the registry. You should make a backup copy of the registry before editing it. More information about making a backup copy, restoring and editing the registry is available in the Microsoft Knowledge Base in Entry ID: 256986. Incorrect use of the registry editor can cause serious problems that affect the complete system and make it necessary to reinstall the operating system. You use the registry editor at your own risk.

Creation environment
The screens in this FAQ response were created with STEP 7 V5.5.

Additional Keywords
Documentation