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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-12T13:35:35+00:00

I added this question at SuperUser for the user’s perspective. So I create an

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I added this question at SuperUser for the user’s perspective.

So I create an application in Delphi or .NET which will run on a desktop system. Some nice GUI with all kinds of functionality and nice features. It works well, tests tell me it’s nearly bug-free and I’m about to deploy it…

WAIT! It needs a help file, so users can call upon context-sensitive help from the application!

Or not? Are helpfiles really a requirement for desktop applications these days? And do they really need to be context-sensitive, holding the hands of the user to tell them they have to fill in their day of birth in this field labelled “Day of birth”? Or are helpfiles becoming a bit old-fashioned?

This is something I wonder about and this is a bit subjective, so instead I’m going to ask something different, to all of you who develop desktop applications: Do you (still) offer context-sensitive helpfiles?

Yes, or no, please. Feel free to add some subjective texts but to me, what is important is knowing if modern developers are still adding context-sensitive help to their GUI applications.

(Btw, I myself have moved to non-context PDF files that can be printed as manual. It’s a lot easier to maintain.)

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Yes, I do.

    Reason:
    I just can’t expect the user to know how the program works. Ok, describing what has to be inputed into a “Day of birth” field is a bit extrem, but there’s normally more complex stuff in a software system. I had to write a help file for our cost accounting system just today, describing how the system for determining the price that should be used for the calculation works. I don’t think any user would know how to configure the system withoug this help file.

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