# Static vs. Dynamic Help Contexts

UI components can define the associations between UI controls and help contexts, either statically or dynamically.

- When defined statically, the effective help context changes only when the user explicitly requests context-sensitive help, that is, when the context-sensitive help trigger is activated.
- When defined dynamically, the effective help context changes whenever the user activates any UI control with a dynamic context association, for example, selecting a menu option, moving from one page to another in a dialog, and so on.

That distinction is significant when the Help view is visible.

- When the context association is defined statically, context-specific content shown in the Help view remains unchanged, regardless of the user’s action, unless the user explicitly requests context-sensitive help, for example, by pressing F1.
- When the context association is defined dynamically, context-specific content shown in the Help view is updated automatically, whenever the user activates a UI control.

All help contexts are defined and subsequently identified by a help context ID. The Eclipse help system uses help context IDs to locate matching org.eclipse.help.IContext objects, which represent the context-specific help content.

Parent topic: Introduction to Context-Sensitive Help