Common User Access (CUA) guidelines recommend that you have an extended help panel for every window that has an action bar. The extended help panel provides general information for that window.

The extended help panel is shown when there is no specific help panel defined for the selected item or for the object with the focus.

To define an extended help ID in ESL, use the extended keyword with the helpid is attribute definition. Use the extended keyword with regions and dialog boxes only.

Every ESL object does not need to have a help ID. If the user requests help for an object that does not have a help ID, the object's ancestry is traced until a region with an extended help ID is found. The topic with this help ID is then displayed.

If the user requests help for a pull-down item that does not have a help ID, the region containing the action bar is checked first. Then the ancestry of that region is traced until a region with an extended help ID is found. The panel with this help ID is displayed.

If the desktop is reached and no extended help ID is found, and the top window in the ancestry is not the primary region, the primary region is checked to see if it has an extended help ID. ESL does not generate a runtime error if no extended help ID is found.