Adding simple "help" description to menu bar

Question

I am looking at adding support for mac computers to some of my Ipad apps, and am trying to add a simple help description under the menu bar.

In the default menu bar of the app there is a "Help" UIMenu. Click on it and there is a button which says "[app name] Help". By default it has an alert dialogue popup with your app icon, the title "Help" and a message "Help isn't available for [app name]".

I was simply going to direct them to the Q/A page I already have made but am unsure how to change these texts.

Mac Catalyst

683

Posted by

lj000

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Answer 1

Thank you for the help @robnotyou

I was unable to drag any segue onto my other vc's, but your answer prompted me to find a way.

In the storyboard I clicked on the "Application Help" and saw it had a sent action to the first responder.

Selecting the "Main Menu Scene" in the storyboard then viewing the first responder outlets, it said the button was connected to an action "showHelp", with a warning sign that the action is not defined. So I added this code to my appDelegate:

@IBAction func showHelp(_ sender: Any) {
		let mess = NSLocalizedString("mac menu bar help instructions", comment: "")
		let alert = UIAlertController(title: nil, message: mess, preferredStyle: UIAlertController.Style.alert)
		alert.addAction(UIAlertAction(title: NSLocalizedString("okay", comment: ""), style: UIAlertAction.Style.default, handler: nil))
		
		self.window?.rootViewController?.present(alert, animated: true, completion: nil)
}

By calling the method the default alert controller is no longer displayed, but the code I above recreates the default alert, but allows me to alter the contents.

This achieved what I was after, thanks again.

Posted by

lj000

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Answer 2

If you're using a Storyboard for your Mac app:

• Create a scene that you want to use for "Help" (you may already have this... your Q/A page?)
• From the Main Menu "[app name] Help" item, drag a (Show) segue over to your Help scene

Posted by

robnotyou

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Answer 3

Thank you for the help @robnotyou

I was unable to drag any segue onto my other vc's, but your answer prompted me to find a way.

In the storyboard I clicked on the "Application Help" and saw it had a sent action to the first responder.

Selecting the "Main Menu Scene" in the storyboard then viewing the first responder outlets, it said the button was connected to an action "showHelp", with a warning sign that the action is not defined. So I added this code to my appDelegate:

@IBAction func showHelp(_ sender: Any) {
		let mess = NSLocalizedString("mac menu bar help instructions", comment: "")
		let alert = UIAlertController(title: nil, message: mess, preferredStyle: UIAlertController.Style.alert)
		alert.addAction(UIAlertAction(title: NSLocalizedString("okay", comment: ""), style: UIAlertAction.Style.default, handler: nil))
		
		self.window?.rootViewController?.present(alert, animated: true, completion: nil)
}

By calling the method the default alert controller is no longer displayed, but the code I above recreates the default alert, but allows me to alter the contents.

This achieved what I was after, thanks again.

Posted by

lj000

Add a Comment

Adding simple "help" description to menu bar

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