help-string

Arguments: standard-object

Returns the help string of the specified object, or nil if it does not have a help string. (setf help-string) may be called to set the help string of an object; the value should be either a string or nil.

This value is not used internally except in the IDE where the help-string of any dialog-item will be displayed in the IDE's status-bar after the mouse cursor has paused over the widget. This property is provided simply to facilitate storing help strings for individual objects so that an application could retrieve and display them in some arbitrary way. A help-string will be displayed automatically when the mouse is over an object if the object's show-help-string-under-mouse property is true and a suitable status bar is found.

Methods of interest exist for the classes dialog-item, basic-pane, hotspot, menu-item, button-info, and property.

See show-tooltip for an example of displaying dialog-item help-strings whenever the mouse has paused over any widget.

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This page was not revised from the 8.1 page.
Created 2010.1.21.