# Getting Started

The Common Desktop Environment provides a standard set of online documentation that covers the various CDE and Motif components. The CDE desktop includes the Information Manager so that you can access, read, and search through this documentation. The Information Manager also allows you to access online documentation provided by other applications installed on your desktop.

The remainder of this chapter describes:

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## How Information Is Organized

When you view information with the Information Manager, you are looking at an information library (also called an "infolib"). An information library is divided into one or more bookcases. Within each bookcase, you will find one or more books that contain most of the elements you would expect to find in a hardcopy book.

Like a hardcopy book, an online book contains sections that contain mostly text but can include graphics and tables. The book list for a book shows all the sections in that book.

You can have multiple information libraries available on your system.

The following figure illustrates the structure of an information library.

### Information Library

## Starting the Information Manager

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. As shown in the following illustration, the Book List window displays the available information libraries.

### Book List Window

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 View (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.

### 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.

### Opening an Information Library

When you start the Information Manager, it opens one or more default information libraries. If the information library you want is not in the default set, you can have the Information Manager start and open the library by:

- Dragging the information library's icon from the File Manager window onto the Information Manager control in the Front panel.

- Double-clicking on the library's icon.

- Entering the `dtinfo` command from the Terminal window and specifying the library path for the `-l` option.

If the Information Manager is already running, you can load an information library by dragging its icon onto the Book List window or the Reading window. You can also load an information library by clicking on the Load Infolib button or by choosing Add from the Book List Edit menu.

## Exiting the Information Manager

To exit the Information Manager:

- From the Book List window, choose Exit from the File menu.

- From the Reading window, choose Exit from the Browser menu.

You can also exit from either window by double-clicking on the Window menu button (in the upper left corner).

## Getting Help

You can request help by:

- Pressing F1 or the Help key

- Choosing an item from the Information Manager's Help menu

- Clicking the Help button in a dialog box

The quickest and easiest way to get help is to press the F1 key. When you press F1, the Information Manager displays the help topic related to your current activity.

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

### Help Menu

The Information Manager provides a Help menu for requesting specific kinds of help.

Overview | Displays introductory information about Information Manager features
Tasks | Displays instructions for using Information Manager
Reference | Displays summary information about Information Manager components
On Item | Changes the pointer to a question mark. Click the question mark pointer on an item to display its description
Using Help | Displays information about using Help
About Information Manager | Displays version and copyright information about Information Manager

### QuickInfo Messages

QuickInfo messages are brief descriptions of window components. As you move the pointer over a window component, its QuickInfo message appears in the message area. The message describes the component and how to use it. For example, if you place the pointer on the Previous Section (Up-Arrow) button on the Reading window's tool bar, the message area displays:

`Go to the previous section in document`

### Using Help Windows

When you access Help, the Information Manager displays a window containing the requested Help text. For additional information about a described task, click the More... button. To get help on using Help, click the Help button. To close a Help window, click the Close button.

## Using Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard focus uses the highlight to show you which element of a window, menu, or control will respond to your input. To activate a selected menu item or control (such as a button), press the Spacebar.

You may find it helpful to press F10 to put the focus in the menu bar. This way you can navigate through menus either by using the arrow keys or by pressing the first letter in the menu name.