‘HELP’ windows without programming

Easy Help for CICS displays interactive help data to users without changing application programs. Pressing the designated “Help” PF key causes help text to be displayed based on the cursor location of the screen being viewed. The help text is displayed in a window comprising a portion (or all) of the screen, depending on the amount of text to display and Easy Help configuration. 

Help text is organized into screens and fields, where a field is a designated area on a specific screen. Text items contain the actual text, and are displayed when help is requested from a specific screen and field. Menus can be created to organize help text and make it easier for users to navigate to help text of interest. Hyperlinks can be defined linking to text items based on field content. For complete flexibility, user exit programs can provide data for help text from any data source accessible by the CICS region.

Help text is maintained by authorized users using either CICS transactions or batch programs. Application or system programming staff is not required to maintain help data.

Easy Help for CICS can replace more expensive “help” software. Conversion and migration assistance from other products is available.