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# showsHelp

Specifies whether the alert has a help button.

```
var showsHelp: Bool { get set }
```

## Discussion

Set this property’s value to <doc://com.apple.documentation/documentation/Swift/true> to specify that the alert has a help button, or <doc://com.apple.documentation/documentation/Swift/false> to specify it does not.

When a user clicks an alert’s help button, the alert delegate ([`delegate`](/documentation/AppKit/NSAlert/delegate)) receives an [`alertShowHelp(_:)`](/documentation/AppKit/NSAlertDelegate/alertShowHelp(_:)) message. The delegate is responsible for displaying the help information related to this particular alert.

Clicking an alert’s help button can alternately cause the [`openHelpAnchor(_:inBook:)`](/documentation/AppKit/NSHelpManager/openHelpAnchor(_:inBook:)) message to be sent to the app’s help manager with a `nil` book and the anchor specified by the [`helpAnchor`](/documentation/AppKit/NSAlert/helpAnchor) property, if any of the following conditions are true:

- There is no alert delegate.
- The alert delegate does not implement [`alertShowHelp(_:)`](/documentation/AppKit/NSAlertDelegate/alertShowHelp(_:)).
- The alert delegate implements [`alertShowHelp(_:)`](/documentation/AppKit/NSAlertDelegate/alertShowHelp(_:)) but returns <doc://com.apple.documentation/documentation/Swift/false>. When this is the case, an exception is raised if no help anchor is set.

---

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