Help window


The Help window provides basic contextual help for the main windows in the application, together with a basic search engine. This is in addition to the standard on-line Help you are now reading.

When you click in the various different windows, the Help window will automatically update and display a list of relevant help topics for that particular window. For example, if you click in the Graphical View, the Help window will update and links such as:

  • Understanding the Graphical View
  • Saving the contents of the Graphical View
  • Placing objects in the Graphical View

will be displayed. As soon as you then click in another window, the contents of the Help window will be updated again.

Help topics

Each individual Help topic contains:

  • a description of the topic, feature or window
  • links to other relevant Help topics
  • a button that takes you back to the previous topic
  • Some topics also contain a button that hides more detailed information - click the button or the associated link to reveal the required information. In the same way, the button can be clicked to re-hide a topic.

Search Engine

The Help window also provides a basic Search Engine. This can be used to carry out keyword searches of all the Help topics (does not include the standard on-line Help).

Keywords can be entered in the search field and results will be returned in the results page that will be displayed in the frame above the Search Engine.

A preceding minus character excludes a keyword, while phrases are supported within double-quotes. The logical OR operator is also supported.

The Search Engine is a JavaScript based Open Source tool. The search scripts are released under the GPL licence and are free to download. See http://www.tipue.com for more information.

Help window display

If you want to hide the Help window:

  1. Click View > Help
  2. Repeat the process to re-display the window
  3. You can also click the close icon in the top right-hand corner.

By default, the window will be "docked". However, you can move the window to a different location should you require:

  1. Double-click anywhere in the title bar -  this will "undock" the window and you will then be able to move it as normal.
  2. The window has other "docked" positions which can be used by moving the window until its outline changes shape and then releasing the mouse button, or you can double-click in the title bar to restore the "docked" position.

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