# Getting Help

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Here are the ways you can request help:

- Press F1 or the Help key

- Choose an item from the Help menu

- Click the Help button in a dialog box

- Open the Help Manager to browse all the available help

## Help Key

&newline;∅&newline;The quickest and easiest way to get help is to press the F1 key. When you press F1, the application you are using displays the help topic most closely related to your current activity.

Some keyboards have a dedicated "Help" key which may take the place of the F1 key.

## More ...

1. - help-menu

   - help-button

   - help-browser

## Help Menu

&newline;∅&newline;Most applications have a Help menu for requesting specific kinds of help.

Overview displays introductory information about the application&newline;Tasks displays instructions for using the application &newline;Reference displays summary information about application components &newline;On Item changes the pointer to a question mark--click the question mark pointer on an item to display its description &newline;Using Help displays information about using Help &newline;About&sigspace;...&sigspace;displays version and copyright information about the application (in this case, Text Editor)

To learn more about using help windows, choose Using Help from an application's Help menu. Or, you can press F1 while using a Help window.

## See Also

1. - help-key

   - help-button

   - help-browser

   - WindowMenuTA

## Help Button

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If you need help using an application's dialog box, click it's Help button.

In response, the Help Viewer displays information about the dialog box.

## See Also

1. - help-key

   - help-menu

   - help-browser

## Help Manager

&newline;∅&newline;The Help Manager lists all the online help volumes installed on your system.

## To Display the Help Manager

1. 1. Click the Information subpanel on the Front Panel.

   2. Click Help Manager.

      The Help Viewer opens, displaying the Help Manager.

   3. Choose the "Common Desktop Environment" topic to display the list of help volumes for the desktop.

   4. Browse the list of titles. To open a volume, choose its title.

   &newline;∅&newline;

   &newline;To start the Help Manager from here,&newline; click this picture of the Help control.

## See Also

1. - help-key

   - help-menu

   - help-button

## Getting Information

The Information Manager allows you to browse and search large collections of online documents containing graphics and hypertext links. These collections are referred to as "information libraries". An information library consists of a collection of book cases, each of which contains a collection of books.

You can start the Information Manager by:

- Clicking on the Information Manager control in the Front Panel.

- Clicking on the Information Manager icon in the Information Manager subpanel.

- Dragging and dropping an Information Library icon (shown in the File Manager window) on the Information Manager control in the Front Panel.

- Entering the `dtinfo` command from the Terminal window.

When the Information Manager starts, it displays the Book List window. The Book List window displays the available information libraries.

The contents of information libraries are arranged hierarchically so that you progress from larger to smaller pieces of information. The hierarchy consists of bookcases, books, chapters, and sections.

- To open any item in the hierarchy, click the right arrow next to it. The Information Manager expands the item to show its contents.

- To close an item (chapter, book, book case), click the down arrow next to it. The Information Manager collapses the item and removes its contents from the display.

- To browse a section of a book, select the section name and then click on the Display (Binoculars) button in the tool bar or simply double-click on the section's name. The Information Manager opens the Reading window, displaying the contents of the selected section. The following figure shows how text appears in the Reading window.

With a section displayed, you can click the Previous Section and Next Section browse buttons (located in the tool bar) to move to earlier or later sections.

By clicking on hypertext links (shown bold and underlined), you can move to other locations in the book.

You can keep the Book List window or the Reading window open for easy access while you work. You can also minimize these windows.