Beginners and experts alike occasionally need help operating Windows Xp or one of its applications. The Help system in Windows Xp is new, but you will find it very easy to use. It includes access to help files on your local drive, links to resources on the web, access to Microsoft support engineers, and a Windows Update Manager that keeps your software and drivers current.
14-1-Understanding Help
Windows XP Help uses the new HTML Help engine created by Microsoft. The HTML Help engine displays HTML pages containing help information. With this help engine, Windows can look locally, on your network, or on the Internet for help files or other types of assistance programs. Although HTML Help displays HTML pages, you will not find a large collection of HTML Help files on your system. The HTML Help engine accesses HTML files that have been compressed into one or more files, thereby preserving disk space.
14-2-Getting Help from Windows Help Files
You start Windows XP Help by clicking Start, Help. Show in Figure (63) the Help windows XP that appears. The help shown uses the HTML Help engine.
FIGURE (63) Windows XP Help uses the HTML Help engine to produce clean and simple displays.
NOTE: To start Help from within a Windows XP application, you can press the F1 key. Windows then displays help information for the active application or window.
14-3-Navigating the Contents Pane
The Contents tab, the left pane shown in Figure (64), lists Windows XP help topics by category. The Contents pane of the Help windows Xp displays the plus and pages with their topic titles. The right pane displays the contents of the page that's selected in the left pane.
Categories in the left pane appear as plus. You can open a plus to see additional categories or help pages it contains. Show in Figure (64) the Contents tab with a plus expanded to multiple levels and a page selected from the minuses. To expand or close a book, click in the left pane on the plus or its Topic title.
FIGURE (64) Expand plus to see their topical contents.
You can change the widths of the panes by dragging the vertical bar between the panes to the left or right. To completely hide the left pane, click the Hide button in the toolbar. While the topic list is hidden, the Hide button is replaced by a Show button. Click the Show button to redisplay the topic list pane.
14-4-Jumping to a Related Help Topic
Some help topics contain hyperlinks to related topics. These hyperlinks appear underlined as you would expect in a web browser. To display a page of related information or a list of related topics, click the hyperlink. To return to the original page, click the Back button located on the toolbar.
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14-5-Searching by Topic on the Index Page
If you aren't sure of how to describe the topic on which you need help, use the Index tab. The Index tab, shown in Figure (65), enables you to find the help you need by scanning for appropriate words or phrases. The Index tab is visible when the left pane is shown.
Suppose you want to find information on a feature called Net Watcher. As you can see in the figure, you would type the word net watcher and then click Display. A Topics Found windows XP appears showing all topics containing this key word.
Choose one of the topics listed, such as "Using Net Watcher to Monitor Shared
Resource Use." In the right pane, the Help system displays how to use NetWatcher to monitor shared resources.
You can search through the list by scrolling or by typing a key word or phrase in the edit box at the top of the list. When you find a word or phrase that seems to be appropriate, click on it.
FIGURE (65) The Index tab displays phrases describing helpful topics.
In some cases, when you click Display, the Topics Found window appears, showing a list of subcategories that further differentiate your choice. Just choose the topic most related to what you want. Help will appear in the right pane of the Help window.
If you aren't sure what you are looking for, scroll through the index looking for related topics. Choose a related topic, and then check the right pane to see if the topic contains a hyperlink to a more specific topic that fits your needs.
14-6-Finding Help with a Keyword
If you know a word that describes the topic you need help on, click the Search tab. To find all topics that contain your word, type the word in the text box at the top of the right pane, and then click List Topics. Help displays a list of topics that contain this word, as shown in Figure (65).
Multiple topics will probably appear in the Topic list. Click the topic that looks most helpful, and then click Display to see the help information in the right pane.
14-7-Printing a Help Topic
If you have a large display area, it's possible and convenient to display the application in which you are working and the Help window side by side. However, if your display area is smaller or if you want to create a written reminder, you might want to print a page of help so you can refer to it as you work.
To print any displayed page, either right-click the topic shown in the Contents pane and choose Print, or click in the right pane and choose Print.
NOTE: Some of the handiest information that you can print or copy from help is an application's shortcut keys. If you didn't get a shortcut keystroke template for your application, look in the application's help contents for a topic similar to Keyboard Shortcuts. Copy these topics by selecting them and pressing Ctrl+C. Then paste (Ctrl+V) them into a word processor, reorganize them, and print them. Alternatively, you can print the topics directly from Help. You can then copy the contents at a reduced size and paste them onto 3-by-5 cards.