{"revision":"c10276e953456835cdbb1f3a60d58ae1980be353","document":{"id":42380,"path":"platform-user-interface/r_HelpContextTypes.md","title":"Help context types and prioritization","bundle":null,"doc_type":null,"release":"australia","body":"\n# Help context types and prioritization\n\nYou can create a help context with the type **Form**, **List**, or **Record**, and link it to a particular table in your ServiceNow instance. If you have multiple help contexts, prioritization determines which help contexts apply to what a user views.\n\n## Help context types\n\nWhen a user clicks the help icon, the system analyzes the relevant help contexts to determine which help page to display.\n\n-   Record-level help applies to only one specific record, not the list or form for that table.\n\n    For example, if a **Record** type help context exists for the **Validate Number** record in the Business Rule table, the help icon only directs to the page specified when a user views that record.\n\n-   List-level help applies to the list for a table. If no form-level help is defined, list-level help also applies to the form for the same table.\n\n    For example, if a **List** type but not a **Form** type help context exists for the Business Rule table, the help icon directs to the page specified by the **List** type help context when a user views any list or record \\(if record-level help is not defined for it\\) in the Business Rule table.\n\n-   Form-level help applies to the form for a table. If no list-level help is defined, the form-level help also applies to the list for the same table.\n\n    For example, if a **Form** type but not a **List** type help context exists for the Business Rule table, the help icon directs to the page specified by the **Form** type help context when you view any record \\(if record-level help is not defined for it\\) or list in the Business Rule table.\n\n-   If both list- and form-level help are defined for a table, the appropriate help is displayed for the list and the form.\n\n    For example, if a **List** type and a **Form** type help context exist for the Business Rule table, the help icon directs to the page specified by the **List** type help context when a user views the Business Rules list. The help icon directs to the page specified by the **Form** type help context when a user views any record \\(if record-level help is not defined for it\\) in the Business Rule table.\n\n\n**Important:** If you create a help context for a base table list or record, the help system opens that target topic for any list or record in a table that extends the base table if no other help context is created in that extended table.\n\n## Help context prioritization\n\nWhen there are several matching help context records, the following rules determine which help context is used, in descending order of priority.\n\n1.  A customer-created help context is used instead of a default help context provided in the instance for the same table.\n2.  A help context that matches the user's language setting is used instead of a help context in the default language of the instance. See the **Language** field on the [Help Context form](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/platform-user-interface/t_CreateANewHelpContext.md).\n3.  A help context for a closer table in an extended table hierarchy is used instead of a help context for a further table.\n\n    Consider the case of the Linux Server \\[cmdb\\_ci\\_linux\\_server\\] table, which has the following parentage: cmdbi\\_ci > cmdb\\_ci\\_hardware > cmdb\\_ci\\_computer > cmdb\\_ci\\_server > cmdb\\_ci\\_linux\\_server. If help contexts exist for both the cmdb\\_ci\\_server table and the cmdb\\_ci table, the help icon directs to the page specified by the cmdb\\_ci\\_server help context when you view a record in the cmdb\\_ci\\_linux\\_server table.\n\n\n**Parent Topic:**[Context-sensitive help](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/platform-user-interface/c_ContextSensitiveHelp.md)\n\n**Related topics**  \n\n\n[Create a new help context]()\n\n"}}