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Help files are presented in HTML, based on the HTML 4.0 Transitional standard
published by the W3C. These pages should be displayed in a reasonable format by any
modern Web browser. The format will be considerably improved if you enable your
browser's support for Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and
Javascript.
Throughout the help, you will find links that can be clicked to move to another
page, or to another section of the current page. After visiting a link, you can use
your browser's [Back] button to return to the help page that
you were reading. There are three types of links in help pages.
Types of Links in Help Pages - inline help links
Inline links are underlined, and are colored to stand out from ordinary text.
These links will usually take you to another help page, or to another section
of the current help page.
This is an example
of an inline link.
Some inline links may point to external resources on the World Wide Web. All
such links will be clearly identified as external links.
- inline glossary links
Glossary links are displayed the same as inline help links. These links
will always take you to the glossary definition of the underlined word or
phrase.
- link lines
A link line is a link that appears on a line by itself, separate from
surrounding text. Link lines may appear individually, or in a list. These
links are preceded with the symbol »,
as in this example:
These links are colored like inline links, and an underline may appear as you
move your mouse cursor over the link text.
To make it easy to use the help system, every help page contains certain common
components.
Common Components of Each Help Page - banner
At the top of the page is a colored banner identifying the help system and the
language in which the help page is written.
- topic path
Beneath the banner is a single line in small font, showing the topic hierarchy
that leads to the current page. If the current topic has parent topics, you
can click on any of the parent topic names to go to the corresponding help page.
- title block
Beneath the topic path is a title block identifying the current help page.
- search controls
If the help system was configured with search capability, a search field will
be displayed, allowing full-text search of the help system. Enter the word or
phrase to search for, and click the Search button.
Advanced search options are available from the search results page.
- page table of contents
Some help pages are subdivided into multiple sections. The section title
inside a colored banner marks the beginning of each major section. The page
table of contents is a list of link lines that point to the start of each
section. It appears directly under the title block in those pages that
contain multiple sections.
- navigation links
At the left side of the page is a block of link lines, arranged as a topic
outline. The link line corresponding to the current page is dimmed, and is
inactive. As you move through the help system, the outline is automatically
expanded or collapsed, depending on the position of the current help page.
Top-level help topics are always shown.
All subtopics of the current page are shown.
All peer topics of the current page are shown.
All peer topics of the parent of the current page are shown.
These navigation links are designed to make it easy to get to other topics
that are closely related to the current topic, without cluttering the outline
with unrelated topics. If you want to see the entire outline of topics and
subtopics, click the Table of Contents link at the top
of the navigation links.
The following standard links are included at the top and bottom of the navigation
link lines.
Standard Navigation Links (top) - Table of Contents
An outline view of all the help pages, with all subtopics expanded. From the
table of contents, you can go directly to any help page with a single mouse
click.
- Index
A keyword index of all the help pages. Index entries are linked to the
help pages where the keywords appear. If you cannot find the help that you're
looking for, you are always one click away from the index.
Standard Navigation Links (bottom) - Glossary
A glossary of terms used in the help pages.
- Using Help
This help page.
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