Using Help

The Help system can be accessed in two ways:

• in the application, choose Help topics from the Help menu
• press the F1 key at any time to open the help topic appropriate for that part of the interface

HTML Help is viewed in the standard HTML Help Viewer, which consists of:

• Topic Pane - where the help topics are viewed
• Navigation Pane- which contains a number of tabs that aid you with finding your way round the help file
• Help Toolbar (also known as HTML toolbar) - located at the top of the viewer below the help window title bar. Contains useful tools allowing the user to navigate within the help.

Innovyze help systems include some additional tools in the viewer, particularly at the top of the Topic Pane. These are:

• "Trail of breadcrumbs" encompassing the table of contents (TOC) entries above the current topic in the TOC hierarchy. It allows the user to see, at a glance, where the topic displayed is located at, in the table of content structure of the Help.
• WebHelp toolbar which provides not only similar functionality to the HTML toolbar, but also some extra features, such as:
  • the ability to show all the hidden images and information in a topic (and subsequently to hide them again)
  • the possibility of sending an e-mail to our support team
  • a link to our website

There are four tabs on the Navigation Pane that help you find your way around the HTML help system

• Contents - Table of Contents defining the help system structure. See Using the Table of Contents.
• Index - allows you to search for information using keywords or phrases. See Using the Index.
• Search - you can search for all instances of a word or phrase that occur in the help system. You can create some complex searches using boolean operators and other tools. See the Search Help Tips topic and all the topics in that section for more information.
• Favourites - you can save a list of commonly used help topics for easy access in future. See Listing Your Favourite Help Topics.

You can also find related information by following the hyperlinks embedded in individual help topics.

Some graphics in the help file are clickable. Clicking various areas of the image will show additional information in a popup window, or another topic. All clickable graphics are clearly marked.

The help is structured in a logical way, with the user interface help (reached using F1), and the step-by-step instructions and background information, usually (but not always) stored in the same section. See Structure of Help.

In many cases, images (and sometimes additional information) are kept hidden so only the important points are visible when you open a topic. The hidden information is displayed when you click a button. See Hidden Images and Information.

Typographic conventions are used to make the information easier to follow.

The help system includes links back to Innovyze, so you can access the web site or make comments and suggestions to the Support Team. There may also be links to other help systems and various useful sources of information around the World Wide Web.

This section describes help options that are generally available in all HTML Help systems. Some of the options may not be included, depending on the scope or purpose of the HTML Help system.

You can:

• find topics you want using the Table of Contents, the Index, and the Full-Text Search facilities.
• maintain a list of favourite topics so you can access them more quickly
• print topics
• Adjust the layout of the help window, change the font size, and hide the Navigation Pane completely
• Access useful commands from popup menus
• Use shortcut keys instead of menu commands

HTML Help uses some of the functionality of Internet Explorer to display help topics. It is therefore easy to understand that many of the settings of your Internet Explorer installation will affect how HTML Help operates, and how individual topics are displayed.

For more information on how Internet Explorer settings might affect HTML Help, and vice versa, see Internet Explorer Options.

Here are some tips on how to find more information when using the HTML Help Viewer:

• To link to another topic or access a Web page, click the words coloured in blue.
• To see if a word or phrase contained in a topic is in the index, select the word, and then press F1.
• If you are viewing content from the World Wide Web in the Topic Pane, you can click Refresh on the toolbar to refresh a Web page.
• If you use a particular help topic often, you can add it to your favourites list.
• Right-click the Contents Tab or Topic Pane for popup menu commands.

There is sometimes a long gap between releases of Innovyze products. When this occurs, we intend to make updates to the Help system available between software releases.

Updated help files are regularly available for download from the Innovyze web site. You may optionally request help files by e-mail, but please bear in mind that these help files can be very large.

If you have specific requests for additional information not currently covered in help, do not hesitate to get in touch by contacting the Innovyze Support Team. These will be added to the list of improvements needed for the help system and will appear in a future update.