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1 <!-- ui-catalogs: khelpcenter desktop_kdebase kdelibs4 -->
3 <chapter id="help-system-user-manual">
4 <chapterinfo>
5 <date>2002-02-03</date>
6 <releaseinfo>0.08.00</releaseinfo>
7 </chapterinfo>
8 <title>&kde; Help System User Manual</title>
9 <anchor id="help"/>
11 <sect1 id="help-introduction">
12 <title>&kde; Help System</title>
14 <para>The &kde; help system is designed to make accessing the common
15 &UNIX; help systems (<application>man</application> and
16 <application>info</application>) simple, as well as the native &kde;
17 documentation (&XML;).
18 </para>
20 <para> All base &kde; applications come fully documented, thanks to
21 the efforts of the Documentation team. If you would like to help,
22 please write to the Documentation coordinator, Lauri Watts, at
23 <email>lauri@kde.org</email> for information. No experience is
24 required, just enthusiasm and patience.
25 </para>
27 <para>
28 If you would like to help translating &kde; documentation to your native
29 language, the Translation Coordinator is Albert Astals Cid,
30 <email>aacid@kde.org</email>, and he would also welcome the help. More
31 information, including the coordinators for each language team, can be
32 found on the <ulink url="http://l10n.kde.org">Localization web
33 site</ulink>, and in the <link linkend="contact">Contact</link> section
34 of this document.
35 </para>
37 <sect2 id="installation">
38 <title>Installation</title>
40 <para>
41 &khelpcenter; is an integral part of the &kde; Base installation, and
42 is installed with every copy of &kde;. It can be found in the kdebase
43 package, and is available from the &kde-ftp;, or will be found in your
44 operating system kdebase package.
45 </para>
47 </sect2>
48 </sect1>
50 <sect1 id="invoking-help">
51 <title>Invoking Help</title>
53 <para>
54 &khelpcenter; can be called in several ways:
55 </para>
57 <variablelist>
58 <varlistentry>
59 <term>From the <guimenu>Help</guimenu> menu</term>
60 <listitem>
61 <para>
62 The most common will probably be from within an application. Choose
63 <menuchoice><guimenu>Help</guimenu>
64 <guimenuitem>Contents</guimenuitem></menuchoice> to open that
65 application's help file, at the contents page.
66 </para>
67 </listitem>
68 </varlistentry>
70 <varlistentry>
71 <term>From the <guimenu>K</guimenu> menu</term>
72 <listitem>
73 <para>
74 Choose the big <guiicon>K</guiicon> in your panel, and select
75 <guimenuitem>Help</guimenuitem> to open &khelpcenter;, starting at the
76 default welcome page.
77 </para>
78 </listitem>
79 </varlistentry>
81 <varlistentry>
82 <term>From the panel</term>
83 <listitem>
84 <para>
85 By default, the &kicker; panel contains an icon to call &khelpcenter;.
86 Again, the default welcome page is displayed.
87 </para>
88 </listitem>
89 </varlistentry>
91 <varlistentry>
92 <term>From the command line</term>
93 <listitem>
94 <para>
95 &khelpcenter; may be started using a &URL; to display a
96 file. &URL;s have been added for
97 <command>info</command> and <command>man</command> pages
98 also. You can use them as follows:
99 </para>
101 <variablelist>
102 <varlistentry>
103 <term>An application help file</term>
104 <listitem>
105 <para>
106 <command>khelpcenter</command>
107 <option>help:/<replaceable>kedit</replaceable></option>
108 </para>
109 <para>
110 Opens the &kedit; help file, at the contents page.
111 </para>
112 </listitem>
113 </varlistentry>
115 <varlistentry>
116 <term>A local &URL;</term>
117 <listitem><para>
118 <command>khelpcenter</command>
119 <option>file:/
120 <replaceable>usr/local/src/qt/html/index.html</replaceable></option>
121 </para>
122 </listitem>
123 </varlistentry>
125 <varlistentry>
126 <term>A Man page</term>
127 <listitem>
128 <para>
129 <command>khelpcenter</command>
130 <option>man:/<replaceable>strcpy</replaceable></option>
131 </para>
132 </listitem>
133 </varlistentry>
135 <varlistentry>
136 <term>An Info page</term>
137 <listitem>
138 <para>
139 <command>khelpcenter</command>
140 <option>info:/<replaceable>gcc</replaceable></option>
141 </para>
142 </listitem>
143 </varlistentry>
144 </variablelist>
146 <para>
147 Invoking <command>khelpcenter</command> with no parameters opens the
148 default welcome page.
149 </para>
150 </listitem>
151 </varlistentry>
153 </variablelist>
154 </sect1>
156 <sect1 id="interface-basics">
157 <title>The &khelpcenter; interface</title>
159 <para>
160 The &khelpcenter; interface consists of two panes of information.
161 </para>
163 <para>
164 The toolbar and menus are explained further in <xref
165 linkend="menu-and-toolbar-ref"/>.
166 </para>
168 <para>
169 Documents contain their own navigation tools, enabling you to move
170 either sequentially through a document, using
171 <guilabel>Next</guilabel>, <guilabel>Previous</guilabel>, and
172 <guilabel>Home</guilabel> links, or to move around in a less
173 structured manner, using hyperlinks.
174 </para>
176 <para>
177 Links can take you to other parts of the same document, or to a
178 different document, and you can use the <guiicon>Back</guiicon> (Left
179 pointing arrow) or <guiicon>Forward</guiicon> (Right pointing arrow)
180 icons on the toolbar to move through the documents you have viewed in
181 this session.
182 </para>
184 <para>
185 The two panes display the contents of the help system, and the help
186 files themselves, on the left and right respectively.
187 </para>
189 <sect2 id="contents-pane">
190 <title>The <guilabel>Contents</guilabel> pane</title>
192 <para>
193 The <guilabel>Contents</guilabel> pane in &khelpcenter; is
194 displayed on the left hand side of the window. As you might expect, you
195 can move the splitter bar, to make sure you can comfortably read the
196 contents of either pane.
197 </para>
199 <para>
200 The <guilabel>Contents</guilabel> pane is further divided into two
201 tabs, one containing a <link linkend="contents-menu">menu</link>
202 showing all the help information &khelpcenter; is aware of, and the
203 other contains the &kde; <link linkend="kde-glossary">glossary</link>
204 of terms.
205 </para>
207 <sect3 id="contents-menu">
208 <title>The <guilabel>Contents</guilabel> Menu</title>
210 <para>
211 The <guilabel>Contents</guilabel> contains the following default
212 entries:
213 </para>
215 <variablelist>
216 <varlistentry>
217 <term><guilabel>Introduction</guilabel></term>
218 <listitem><para>Welcome to &kde; - an introduction to the K Desktop
219 Environment.</para></listitem>
220 </varlistentry>
222 <varlistentry>
223 <term><guilabel>Introduction to &kde;</guilabel></term>
224 <listitem>
225 <para>
226 The &kde; Quickstart guide. Contains a tour of the &kde;
227 Interface and specific help and tips on how to work smarter with &kde;.
228 </para>
229 </listitem>
230 </varlistentry>
232 <varlistentry>
233 <term><guilabel>&kde; User's manual</guilabel></term>
234 <listitem>
235 <para>
236 The &kde; User's manual is an in-depth exploration of &kde;, including
237 installation, configuration and customization, and use.
238 </para>
239 </listitem>
240 </varlistentry>
242 <varlistentry>
243 <term><guilabel>Application manuals</guilabel></term>
244 <listitem>
245 <para>
246 Native &kde; application documentation. All &kde; applications have
247 documentation in &XML; format, which are converted to
248 <acronym>HTML</acronym> when you view them. This section lists all the
249 &kde; applications with a brief description and a link to the full
250 application documentation.
251 </para>
252 <para>
253 The applications are displayed in a tree structure that echoes the default
254 structure of the <guimenu>K</guimenu> menu, making it easy to find the
255 application you are looking for.
256 </para>
257 </listitem>
258 </varlistentry>
260 <varlistentry>
261 <term><guilabel>&UNIX; manual pages</guilabel></term>
262 <listitem>
263 <para>
264 &UNIX; man pages are the traditional on-line documentation format for
265 &UNIX; systems. Most programs on your system will have a man page. In
266 addition, man pages exist for programming functions and file
267 formats.
268 </para>
269 </listitem>
270 </varlistentry>
272 <varlistentry>
273 <term><guilabel>Browse info pages</guilabel></term>
274 <listitem>
275 <para>
276 TeXinfo documentation is used by many &GNU; applications,
277 including <command>gcc</command> (the C/C++ compiler),
278 <command>emacs</command>, and many others.
279 </para>
280 </listitem>
281 </varlistentry>
283 <varlistentry>
284 <term><guilabel>Tutorials</guilabel></term>
285 <listitem>
286 <para>
287 Short, task based or informational tutorials.
288 </para>
289 </listitem>
290 </varlistentry>
292 <varlistentry>
293 <term><guilabel>The &kde; FAQ</guilabel></term>
294 <listitem>
295 <para>
296 Frequently asked questions about &kde;, and their answers.
297 </para>
298 </listitem>
299 </varlistentry>
301 <varlistentry>
302 <term><guilabel>&kde; on the web</guilabel></term>
303 <listitem>
304 <para>
305 Links to &kde; on the web, both the official &kde; website, and other
306 useful sites.
307 </para>
308 </listitem>
309 </varlistentry>
311 <varlistentry>
312 <term><guilabel>Contact Information</guilabel></term>
313 <listitem>
314 <para>
315 Information on how to contact &kde; developers, and how to join the
316 &kde; mailing lists.
317 </para>
318 </listitem>
319 </varlistentry>
321 <varlistentry>
322 <term><guilabel>Supporting &kde;</guilabel></term>
323 <listitem>
324 <para>
325 How to help, and how to get involved.
326 </para>
327 </listitem>
328 </varlistentry>
329 </variablelist>
331 </sect3>
332 <!--
333 <sect3 id="search">
334 <title>The <guilabel>Search</guilabel> tab</title>
336 <para>
337 Searching requires you have the <application>ht://Dig</application>
338 application installed. Information on installing and configuring the
339 search index is available in the document. Configuration of the search
340 index is performed in the &kcontrol;, by choosing
341 <menuchoice><guisubmenu>Help</guisubmenu><guimenuitem>Index</guimenuitem></menuchoice>,
342 and detailed help is available from this module.
343 </para>
345 <para>
346 For the purposes of this document, we'll assume you already have this set
347 up and configured.
348 </para>
350 <para>
351 Searching the help files is fairly intuitive, enter the word(s) you wish
352 to search for in the text box, choose your options (if any), and press
353 <guibutton>Search</guibutton>. The results display in the viewer pane
354 to the right.
355 </para>
357 <para>The options available are:</para>
359 <variablelist>
360 <varlistentry>
361 <term><guilabel>Method</guilabel></term>
362 <listitem>
363 <para>
364 Choose how to search for multiple words. If you choose
365 <guilabel>and</guilabel>, results are returned only if all your search
366 terms are included in the page. <guilabel>or</guilabel> returns results
367 if <emphasis>any</emphasis> of the search terms are found, and
368 <guilabel>boolean</guilabel> lets you search using a combination.
369 </para>
370 <para>
371 Boolean syntax lets you use the operators <literal>AND</literal>,
372 <literal>OR</literal> and <literal>NOT</literal> to create complex
373 searches. Some examples:</para>
374 <variablelist>
375 <varlistentry>
376 <term><userinput>cat and dog</userinput></term>
377 <listitem><para>Searches for pages which have both the words
378 <userinput>cat</userinput> and <userinput>dog</userinput> in them. Pages with
379 only one or the other will not be returned.</para></listitem>
380 </varlistentry>
381 <varlistentry>
382 <term><userinput>cat not dog</userinput></term>
383 <listitem><para>Searches for pages with <userinput>cat</userinput> in them, but
384 only returns the ones that don't have the word <userinput>dog</userinput> in
385 them.</para></listitem>
386 </varlistentry>
387 <varlistentry>
388 <term><userinput>cat or (dog not nose)</userinput></term>
389 <listitem><para>Searches for pages which contain <userinput>cat</userinput>, and
390 for pages which contain <userinput>dog</userinput> but don't contain
391 <userinput>nose</userinput>. Pages which contain both
392 <userinput>cat</userinput> and <userinput>nose</userinput> would be returned,
393 pages containing all three words would not.</para></listitem>
394 </varlistentry>
395 </variablelist>
396 <para>If your searches are not returning the results you expect, check
397 carefully you haven't excluded the wrong search term with an errand
398 <literal>NOT</literal> or a stray brace.</para></listitem>
399 </varlistentry>
400 <varlistentry>
401 <term><guilabel>Max. results</guilabel></term>
402 <listitem><para>Determines the maximum number of results returned from your
403 search.</para></listitem>
404 </varlistentry>
405 <varlistentry>
406 <term><guilabel>Format</guilabel></term>
407 <listitem><para>Decide if you want just a short link to the page
408 containing your search terms, or do you want a longer
409 summary.</para></listitem>
410 </varlistentry>
411 <varlistentry>
412 <term><guilabel>Sort</guilabel></term>
413 <listitem><para>Sort the results in order of <guilabel>Score</guilabel> (how
414 closely your search terms were matched,) alphabetically by
415 <guilabel>Title</guilabel> or by <guilabel>Date</guilabel>. Selecting the
416 <guilabel>Reverse order</guilabel> check box, naturally enough, reverses the
417 sort order of the results.</para></listitem>
418 </varlistentry>
419 <varlistentry>
420 <term><guilabel>Update index</guilabel></term>
421 <listitem><para>Update the search index, to incorporate new documents,
422 or if you think your database is incomplete or damaged. This may take
423 some time.</para></listitem>
424 </varlistentry>
425 </variablelist>
426 </sect3>
427 -->
429 </sect2>
431 <sect2 id="man-and-info">
432 <title>The <application>Man</application> and <application>Info</application>
433 sections</title>
435 <para>Man pages are the standard &UNIX; manual pages, and have been in
436 use for many years on many operating systems. They are extremely
437 thorough, and are the very best place to get information about most
438 &UNIX; commands and applications. When people say
439 <quote>RTFM</quote>, the Manual they are referring to is very often the
440 man page.</para>
442 <para>The man pages are not perfect. They tend to be in depth, but
443 also extremely technical, often written by developers, and for
444 developers. In some cases this makes them somewhat unfriendly, if not
445 downright impossible for many users to understand. They are, however,
446 the best source of solid information on most command line
447 applications, and very often the only source.</para>
449 <para>If you've ever wondered what the number is when people write
450 things like man(1) it means which section of the manual the item is
451 in. You will see &khelpcenter; uses the numbers to divide the very many
452 man pages into their own sections, making it easier for you to find
453 the information you're looking for, if you're just browsing.</para>
455 <para>Also available are the Info pages, intended to be a replacement
456 for the man pages. The maintainer of some applications no longer
457 update the man pages, so if there is both a man page and an info page
458 available, the info page is probably the most recent. Most
459 applications have one or the other though. If the application you are
460 looking for help on is a &GNU; utility, you will most likely find it
461 has an info page, not a man page.</para>
463 <sect3 id="navigation">
464 <title>Navigating inside the <application>Info</application> pages</title>
466 <para>Info documents are arranged hierarchically with each page called
467 a node. All info documents have a <guilabel>Top</guilabel> node,
468 &ie; the opening page. You can return to the
469 <guilabel>Top</guilabel> of an info document by pressing
470 <guilabel>Top</guilabel>.</para>
472 <para><guibutton>Prev</guibutton> & <guibutton>Next</guibutton>
473 are used to move to the previous/next page at the current level of the
474 hierarchy.</para>
476 <para>Clicking on a menu item within a document moves you to a lower
477 level in the hierarchy. You may move up the hierarchy by pressing
478 <guibutton>Up</guibutton>.</para>
480 <para>Man is treated similarly to info, with the section index being
481 the Top node and each man page on the level below. Man entries are
482 one page long.</para>
484 </sect3>
485 </sect2>
487 <sect2 id="kde-glossary">
488 <title>The &kde; glossary</title>
490 <para>
491 The glossary provides a quick reference point, where you can look up
492 the definitions of words that may be unfamiliar to you. These range
493 from &kde; specific applications and technologies, through to general
494 &UNIX; computing terms.
495 </para>
497 <para>
498 In the left hand pane you will see a tree view, with two choices:
499 <guilabel>Alphabetically</guilabel> or <guilabel>By topic</guilabel>.
500 Both contain the same entries, sorted differently, to allow you to
501 quickly find the item of interest.
502 </para>
504 <para>
505 Navigate down the tree views to the left, and items you select will be
506 displayed on the right.
507 </para>
509 </sect2>
511 <sect2 id="menu-and-toolbar-ref">
512 <title>The menus and toolbar</title>
514 <para>
515 &khelpcenter; has a very minimal interface, allowing you to concentrate
516 on getting help rather than learning how to use the help browser.
517 </para>
519 <para>
520 The icons available to you in the toolbar are as follows:
521 </para>
523 <variablelist>
524 <title>Toolbar Icons</title>
526 <varlistentry>
528 <term><guiicon>Back</guiicon></term>
529 <listitem>
530 <para>Go to the previous page you viewed.</para>
531 </listitem>
532 </varlistentry>
534 <varlistentry>
535 <term><guiicon>Forward</guiicon></term>
536 <listitem>
537 <para>Go forward one page. This icon is only active if you have
538 already used the <guiicon>Back</guiicon> icon.</para></listitem>
539 </varlistentry>
541 <varlistentry>
542 <term><guiicon>Print</guiicon></term>
543 <listitem>
544 <para>
545 Print the contents of the currently visible page.
546 </para>
547 </listitem>
548 </varlistentry>
550 <varlistentry>
551 <term><guiicon>Find</guiicon></term>
552 <listitem>
553 <para>
554 Find a word or words within the currently visible page.
555 </para>
556 </listitem>
557 </varlistentry>
559 <varlistentry>
560 <term><guiicon>Increase Font</guiicon></term>
561 <listitem>
562 <para>
563 Increase the size of the text in the viewer pane.
564 </para>
565 </listitem>
566 </varlistentry>
568 <varlistentry>
569 <term><guiicon>Decrease Font</guiicon></term>
570 <listitem>
571 <para>
572 Decrease the size of the text in the viewer pane. This icon is only
573 enabled if you have previously enlarged the text.
574 </para>
575 </listitem>
576 </varlistentry>
578 </variablelist>
580 <para>
581 The menus contain the following entries:
582 </para>
584 <variablelist>
585 <varlistentry>
586 <term><guimenu>File</guimenu></term>
587 <listitem>
589 <variablelist>
590 <varlistentry>
591 <term>
592 <menuchoice>
593 <guimenu>File</guimenu>
594 <guimenuitem>Print...</guimenuitem>
595 </menuchoice>
596 </term>
597 <listitem>
598 <para>
599 Print the contents of the currently visible page.
600 </para>
601 </listitem>
602 </varlistentry>
604 <varlistentry>
605 <term>
606 <menuchoice>
607 <shortcut>
608 <keycombo action="simul">&Ctrl;<keycap>Q</keycap></keycombo>
609 </shortcut>
610 <guimenu>File</guimenu>
611 <guimenuitem>Quit</guimenuitem>
612 </menuchoice>
613 </term>
614 <listitem>
615 <para>
616 Close and exit &khelpcenter;
617 </para>
618 </listitem>
619 </varlistentry>
620 </variablelist>
621 </listitem>
622 </varlistentry>
624 <varlistentry>
625 <term><guimenu>Edit</guimenu></term>
626 <listitem>
628 <variablelist>
629 <varlistentry>
630 <term><menuchoice><shortcut>
631 <keycombo action="simul">&Ctrl;<keycap>A</keycap></keycombo></shortcut>
632 <guimenu>Edit</guimenu>
633 <guimenuitem>Select All</guimenuitem>
634 </menuchoice>
635 </term>
636 <listitem>
637 <para>
638 Select all the text in the current page.
639 </para>
640 </listitem>
641 </varlistentry>
643 <varlistentry>
644 <term><menuchoice><shortcut>
645 <keycombo action="simul">&Ctrl;<keycap>F</keycap></keycombo></shortcut>
646 <guimenu>Edit</guimenu>
647 <guimenuitem>Find...</guimenuitem>
648 </menuchoice>
649 </term>
650 <listitem>
651 <para>
652 Find a word or words in the currently visible page.
653 </para>
654 </listitem>
655 </varlistentry>
656 </variablelist>
657 </listitem>
658 </varlistentry>
660 <varlistentry>
661 <term><guimenu>View</guimenu></term>
662 <listitem>
663 <variablelist>
664 <varlistentry>
665 <term><menuchoice>
666 <guimenu>View</guimenu>
667 <guimenuitem>View Document Source</guimenuitem>
668 </menuchoice>
669 </term>
670 <listitem>
671 <para>
672 View the <acronym>HTML</acronym> source of the page you are currently
673 viewing.
674 </para>
675 </listitem>
676 </varlistentry>
678 <varlistentry>
679 <term><menuchoice><guimenu>View</guimenu>
680 <guisubmenu>Set Encoding</guisubmenu>
681 </menuchoice>
682 </term>
683 <listitem>
684 <para>
685 Change the encoding of the current page. Normally, the default setting
686 of <guimenuitem>Auto</guimenuitem> should be sufficient, but if you are
687 having problems viewing pages written in languages other than English,
688 you may need to choose a specific encoding in this menu.
689 </para>
690 </listitem>
691 </varlistentry>
692 </variablelist>
693 </listitem>
694 </varlistentry>
696 <varlistentry>
697 <term><menuchoice><guimenu>Go</guimenu>
698 <guimenuitem>Back</guimenuitem></menuchoice></term>
699 <listitem>
700 <para>Go back to the previous page you were viewing.</para>
701 </listitem>
702 </varlistentry>
704 <varlistentry>
705 <term><menuchoice><guimenu>Go</guimenu>
706 <guimenuitem>Forward</guimenuitem>
707 </menuchoice></term>
708 <listitem>
709 <para>If you have previously moved back with the back icon or menu
710 entry, you can work your way forward again with this menu
711 entry.</para>
712 </listitem>
713 </varlistentry>
715 <varlistentry>
716 <term><menuchoice><guimenu>Go</guimenu>
717 <guimenuitem>...</guimenuitem>
718 </menuchoice></term>
719 <listitem>
720 <para>At the bottom of the <guimenu>Go</guimenu> menu, you will find a
721 history list, of the last few pages you have looked at. Selecting one
722 will take you directly back to that page.</para>
723 </listitem></varlistentry></variablelist>
725 </sect2>
727 </sect1>
729 <sect1 id="credits">
730 <title>Credits and Licenses</title>
732 <para>&khelpcenter;</para>
734 <para>Originally developed by &Matthias.Elter; &Matthias.Elter.mail;</para>
735 <para>The current maintainer is &Cornelius.Schumacher; &Cornelius.Schumacher.mail;</para>
737 &underFDL;
738 &underGPL;
740 </sect1>
741 </chapter>