Adding hover help and error messages

Help is displayed to the user when they hover the cursor over an item on a form, or when they enter an invalid format. Help should be concise, yet descriptive so that it helps the user understand the item or correct the error without extraneous information.

All help message for the user are set in the Properties window. The Hover Help: text field in the Formattab acts as both hover help, and an error message. You can also set the Hover Help: in the User Help tab.

If you want to insert help for an existing item, double-click on the item to open the Properties window. If you want to insert help for a new item, select the item from the Palette, and drop it into the form.
In the Properties window, click the Format tab.
- If you set a specific Pattern, a default message is inserted into the Hover Help: text field.
  Note: Should you modify the default message, it will not clear from the Hover Help: field if you change Pattern type.
- If you do not set a Pattern, you can enter your own message into the Hover Help: text field.
When you set a Pattern, the default message is also inserted into the Hover Help: text box in the User Help tab. You do not need to duplicate the information in the User Help tab.
Click OK to save changes and close the Properties window.

To see hover help in the Viewerthe user needs to activate the User Help mode. If the user inputs incorrect information into the field, the error message will appear whether the User Help mode is activated or not.
If the user opens the form using Webform Server, the hover help will automatically display when the user hovers over an item. There is no way to turn hover help on and off.