Getting Help

There are several sources of user assistance in the IDL Workbench:

Hover Help

Hover Help is displayed in a pop-up window that appears when you hover the mouse cursor over the name of an IDL routine or variable. For routines, Hover Help displays the syntax documentation. For variables, Hover Help displays the current value of the variable (if execution is stopped in the routine in which the variable is defined).

Content Assist

Content Assistance is displayed in a pop-up window that appears when you place the mouse cursor in a full or partial IDL routine name and press Ctrl-Space. The Content Assist window displays a list of routine names that begin with the characters in the selected string.

Highlighting an item from the Content Assist window displays the syntax for that routine. Selecting the item inserts it at the cursor location.

Context-Sensitive Interface Help

If you are working through a task and encounter a part of the IDL Workbench interface that you do not understand, you can summon context-sensitive help. By default, this displays the Help view and gives you some specific information about the view/editor/dialog you are using, and possibly some links to topics for further help.

Context-sensitive help can be accessed by clicking on the interface part in question and then selecting Help → Dynamic Help or pressing F1 (Windows), Shift+F1 (Linux and Solaris), or Help (Macintosh). Clicking the ? icon in the lower left-hand corner of many IDL Workbench dialogs will also display context-sensitive help.

Online Help System

For more in-depth information, including general information, programming reference guides, and tutorials, refer to the IDL Online Help system. The Help system lets you browse, search, bookmark, and print Help documentation.

Tip
See Using IDL Help for complete information on using the IDL help system.

You can interact with the Workbench help system using either the Help view or a separate Help browser. The view and browser provide the same information but in different ways.

The Help View

The Help view provides help inside the Workbench. You can open the view from the main menu by selecting Help → Dynamic Help or Help → Search. The view opens showing the Related Topics or Search page, respectively. By default, typing ? followed by a search term at the IDL command line also displays help topics in the Help view. See Help View Interface for additional information.

The Help Browser

The Help browser provides the same content as the Help view, but in a separate browser application. You can open the window from the main menu by selecting Help → Help Contents. The first view shown in the window displays the table of contents for the product documentation. Click on one of the links to expand the navigation tree for a set of documentation. On some platforms, the Help browser can be either a stand-alone application or a web browser; on other platforms the Help browser is always a web browser. See Help Browser Interface for additional information.