David-

I've been watching this thread to see what suggestions you get, but since there aren't any, I'll ask the questions that occur to me from your post. It might spur some ideas.

>I have a help button on a top level form that has a timer. Here is the code I have in the click:

First, what is it you are trying to? Invoke help for a particular topic programmatically if some time has elapsed...w/o user action?

>*helpid = 0 && Some reason this doesn't work with the top level form

HelpID = 0 would simply create a variable called HelpID and assign it a value of 0. What did you expect it to do? IOW, tell us what "doesn't work" means.

>set step on
>thisform.helpcontextid = 300
>KEYBOARD '{F1}'
>*thisform.helpcontextid = 0
>thisform.refresh()

What is it the code above is not doing that you want it to do? For example, does the KEYBOARD command call up the help? If you've SET HELP TO yourCHM I'd expect it to start the help and display it from the top. IOW, not with some specific help displayed.

Would WhatsThisHelpID be of any use to you?