Snippet Library

Displaying Knowledge Base Articles
June 30, 1999

Problem: I often see a reference To a Knowledge Base article With no Q-number hyperlink To take Me there. I have To copy the Q number, paste it into the Microsoft search page, And click On the resulting article.

Solution: A custom context menu For IE that allows Me To highlight a Q number In the browser, Right-click On it, And Select Knowledge Base from the menu. This loads the Knowledge Base article In a New browser window.
With the information provided by MSDN, I was able To achieve this.
Knowledge Base articles have a simple URL which can easily be derived from the Q number. I used VBScript because the String manipulation Is rather simple.
The following registry entry Is required To try it out (Or you can just run this file ):

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\MenuExt\Knowledge Base]
Default value="http://wsh.glazier.co.nz/knowledgebase.htm"
Binary Value "Contexts"=Hex:10

none

'Here Is the source code:


Const sBaseURL = "http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/"
Set sourceWin = external.menuArguments
Set activePage = sourceWin.document
Set activeSelection = activePage.selection ' This gives us the highlited text
Set rngActive = activeSelection.createRange
ArticleID = rngActive.Text
If ArticleID <>"" Then
	KnowledgeBaseURL = sBaseURL & Left(ArticleID, 4) & "/" & _
				 Mid(ArticleID,5,1) & "/" & _
				 Right(ArticleID,2) & ".asp"
	window.Open KnowledgeBaseURL,Null,"resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes,menubar=yes,toolbar=yes,width=790,height=590"
	Window.Close()
Else
	MsgBox "Q number not specified"
	Window.Close
End If;