Help View Interface

The Help View interface is available in all versions of the IDL Workbench except Solaris. For notes on differences in appearance and behavior between platforms, see Help System Platform Dependencies.

For information on configuring IDL to use the Help View interface, see Selecting a Help System Interface.

The Help view is an IDL Workbench view that is not displayed by default; it appears when you request help content.

Main View

The main view window displays the requested help content. The view functions like a web browser.

Sub-views

Icons at the bottom of the Help view allow you to switch between different sub-views that correspond to the tabs navigation pane of the Help Browser interface:

All Topics displays the Table of Contents

Search displays the full-text search interface

Related Topics displays topics related to the current topic, if it relates to the IDL Workbench interface itself. Note that the Related Topics sub-view is not particularly useful for topics that describe the IDL language; use the See Also links of those topics to find related information.

Bookmarks displays a list of topics you have bookmarked.

Index displays the documentation index.

See Navigation Pane Tabs for additional details on these sub-views.

Note
You can also switch between the sub-views using the Help view menu (a downward-pointing arrow to the right of the Help view toolbar buttons).

Toolbar Icons

Several toolbar buttons are included above the Help view:


	Display the current topic in the Help browser. (This icon is only present when a topic is displayed.)
	Display the location of the current topic in the table of contents.
	Create a bookmark for the current topic.
	Highlight occurrences of search term.
	Go backward in the browser history. (See About the IDL Workbench Help Topics for notes on moving sequentially through the table of contents.)
	Go forward in the browser history. (See About the IDL Workbench Help Topics for notes on moving sequentially through the table of contents.)