The help system

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The help system

Help is available in a number of different ways.

Context sensitive help

Context sensitive help provides detailed information on the use of each pane and window. To access context sensitive help press the F1 key or click on a Help button.This opens help in a separate window.

The Windows help viewer

You can print out sections of the help by right-clicking on a topic and selecting Print. The Windows help application contains 4 standard help tabs:

Contents

Displays the Help table of contents as a tree. Click on topics to expand them.

Index

Displays the Help index.

Search

Type a word or phrase into the field and click List Topics. A list of topics that contain the word or phrase will be displayed. Double-click one of these to display the desired topic in the right pane.

Favorites

Use this pane to bookmark useful pages.

PDF help

A PDF version of the help is also installed with the application. You may find this more suitable for printing. Note however that is over 300 pages in length!

'How do I?' help

Click on the How do I? button on the main tool bar to see a list of common tasks you might want to perform. Select an item in the list to go to the relevant help page. The list of topics shown varies depending on what you are trying to do (e.g. which panes are visible).

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Tool tips

Some controls display tool tip windows when you hover your mouse cursor over them. You can turn this feature on/off using the show tool tips checkbox in the prefs_16Preferences window.

'What's This' help

What's This help provides tips on individual controls, e.g. on the function of tool bar buttons, menu items, text entry fields etc.

To access What's This help from the Main window select Help>whats_this_16What's This. Then click on the item you are interested in and a brief description will appear in a small What's This window.

To access What's this help for other windows select the whats_this_title_bar logo in the title bar of the window (the exact logo will depend on your operating system and other settings). Then click on the item you are interested in.

Note pressing Shift+F1 also activates this facility for the Main window.

Web pages

Additional documentation may be available on our web pages. To open the web pages in a browser select Help>FAQ Page or Help>web_16Web Pages.