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                                         Chapter 6: The Help System   111
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    CHAPTER 6:  THE HELP SYSTEM

    The Help system is an on-line resource that can be accessed from
    anywhere in HyperPAD. Its material consists of informational screens and
    illustrations designed to answer your questions both about individual
    pads and about HyperPAD.

    In this chapter, we'll discuss two basic aspects of using the Help
    system:

        0  Finding information in the Help system

        0  Navigating within the Help system

    Most users tend to regard an on-line Help system as their last resort
    when they get stuck trying to operate a program. HyperPAD's Help system
    does indeed serve this purpose very effectively. However, if you only
    use the Help system to bail yourself out of trouble, you're failing to
    take full advantage of its potential. We suggest that you might also
    wish to familiarize yourself with what the Help system has to offer and
    employ it as one of your supplemental resources for learning about
    HyperPAD.

    We'll start by showing you how to locate Help system material that's
    relevant to whatever question or interest you currently have and then
    explain how to navigate around within the Help system after you've
    reached the desired material.


    FINDING INFORMATION IN THE HELP PAD

    In this section of the chapter, you'll learn how the Help system is set
    up, how to get into the Help system, and once you're there, how to
    access relevant information.


    STRUCTURE OF THE HELP SYSTEM

    HyperPAD's Help system is organized in two layers. The first layer, Pad
    Help, is a context-sensitive resource designed to provide further
    information about a particular pad. (For example, Pad Help for the Phone
    pad is called Phone Help; for the Notes pad, it's called Note Help; for
    the Index Cards pad, it's called Index Help; and so on.) The second
    layer, General Help, is a resource designed to provide further
    information about HyperPAD.



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                                         Chapter 6: The Help System   112
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    If you run into a problem while using HyperPAD or would like more
    information about some aspect of HyperPAD, you'll locate relevant Help
    material a lot more quickly by giving a moment's thought both to the
    nature of your question and to the structure of the Help system before
    accessing Help.

    Does the question involve an operation common to all or most of the pads
    in HyperPAD, such as how to select a button, how to work with fields, or
    how to open a menu? If so, the answer probably lies in General Help.
    Does the question involve an operation that seems pretty specific to the
    current pad or to only a few pads, such as how to add a note to a Phone
    pad page, how to find information you've entered into the Notes pad, or
    how to sort your Index Cards? If so, the answer probably lies in Pad
    Help for that particular pad.

    Once you've decided which layer of the Help system might contain the
    desired information, you'll need to know how to enter the Help system,
    which is discussed in the following subsection.


    ACCESSING THE HELP SYSTEM

    As you can see from the accompanying table, reaching the Help system is
    an extremely simple process.

    Action:                         Result:
    ------------------------------------------------------------------
    Press F1 from anywhere in       Takes you to Pad Help.
    HyperPAD.

    Press F1 while in Pad Help.     Takes you to General Help.

    Press F1 twice from HyperPAD.   Takes you directly to General Help.

    Press ALT+F1 from HyperPAD.     Takes you back to the last-viewed
                                    Pad Help or General Help page.


    When you press F1, you get a Pad Help page that summarizes key
    information about the page you were just viewing, thereby answering the
    questions you're most likely to have about that page. You can then get
    even more information by selecting the summary page's Index button to
    bring up a list of all the Help system material that's directly relevant
    to how your current pad works.



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                                         Chapter 6: The Help System   113
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    When you access General Help (either from a pad or from within Pad
    Help), you get the Index for General Help, which lists all the Help
    system material dealing with basic HyperPAD operations.

    The accompanying illustration shows a sample index page from a typical
    Help system.

 Ŀ
                                                                        
  **** The Printed Documentation has a picture or screen shot here **** 
                                                                        
 
    

    Each topic on a Help system Index is actually a HyperPAD button, so once
    you spot the topic heading for the desired information, you can select
    the heading by using HyperPAD's standard button-selecting techniques,
    which takes you straight to the start of the Help system material on
    that topic. In the next section of the chapter, you'll learn how to
    navigate around within the Help system once you've reached the topic
    you're after.



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    NAVIGATING WITHIN THE HELP SYSTEM

    Moving around within the Help system is simply a matter of learning to
    use the navigational buttons, nearly all of which are located on the
    command line. In the following subsections, we'll explain the purpose of
    these navigational devices and tell you whether each one appears on all
    Pad Help and General Help pages or only on some pages in the Help
    system.


    PGUP=PREV AND PGDN=NEXT

    These buttons appear on all Pad Help and General Help pages. Once you
    leave the Pad Help or General Help Index and arrive at the start of a
    Help system topic, select the PGDN button (or press the keyboard's PGDN
    key) to move through the material on that topic. To return to the
    previous Help page, either select the PGUP button or press the PGUP key.

    If you keep pressing PGDN once you reach the end of the material on a
    particular Help system topic, you'll continue into the material on the
    next Help system topic listed on the Index. (If you're ever unsure about
    whether you've progressed into the next topic, just check the screen
    title in the center of the title bar. It matches the topic heading on
    the Index page, and it changes as you move from one topic to another
    within Pad Help or General Help.) If you continue pressing PGDN when you
    reach the end of the last topic in Pad Help or General Help, you'll
    automatically return to the Index page from which you started.


    INDEX

    This button, which appears on the command line of Pad Help and General
    Help pages, takes you back to the Index for the layer of Help that
    you're currently in. From there, you can select another Pad Help or
    General Help topic.


    LEARN

    This button appears only on those Pad Help and General Help pages
    dealing with topics covered in the on-line Tutorial. Selecting the Learn
    button takes you directly to the relevant portion of the Tutorial, where
    you can deepen your understanding of the topic in question by reviewing
    instructional material and completing one or more practice sessions. (If
    you'd like more information about the Tutorial, see Chapter 5 of the
    HyperPAD User's Guide..) Upon exiting from the Tutorial, you return to
    the Pad Help or General Help page on which you selected the Learn
    button.



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                                         Chapter 6: The Help System   115
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    NOTEBOOK

    HyperPAD's Tutorial includes an on-line Notebook, which you can use to
    record key observations and reminders, both as you're learning HyperPAD
    and as you're working with it. The Notebook button, which appears on all
    Pad Help and General Help pages, provides immediate access to your
    notes, so you can modify or expand upon them as the need arises. (The
    Notebook is described more fully in Chapter 5 of the User's Guide,
    "The On-Line Tutorial.") Upon exiting from the Notebook, you return to
    the Pad Help or General Help page on which you selected the Notebook
    button.


    F1=HELP

    The F1=Help button appears only on Pad Help pages. You can either select
    this button or press the F1 key to move from Pad Help to General Help.


    ESC=EXIT

    Pressing the ESC key or selecting the ESC=Exit button, which appears on
    all Pad Help and General Help pages, takes you directly back to the
    HyperPAD page you were on when you first accessed the Help system.


    HIGHLIGHTED WORDS AND PHRASES

    Sometimes you'll find one or more highlighted words and phrases worked
    into the text on Pad Help and General Help pages. (You might, for
    instance, see a Phone Help sentence reading "You can print address
    labels easily from your Phone pad.") These highlighted elements, which
    are especially common on the summary pages that appear when you press F1
    to call up Pad Help, are actually buttons. You can select them if you'd
    like further information about that subject. (By selecting "print" in
    the preceding example, you would proceed directly to a Phone Help page
    that explains how to print address labels.)


    HINT

    When you press CTRL+ALT, HyperPAD displays a dotted border around all
    buttons and fields on the current screen. You can use this technique if
    you ever have trouble determining which elements on a particular Help
    system screen are buttons.

    Once you're finished with the supplemental material you called up by
    selecting the highlighted word or phrase, press F5 to return to the Help
    system page from which you accessed that material.



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    CONCLUSION

    To reach the on-line Help system from anywhere in HyperPAD, all you have
    to do is press F1 once to bring up Pad Help (the Help layer that
    contains material directly relevant to operating the current pad) or
    press F1 twice to bring up General Help (the Help layer that contains
    material relevant to operating HyperPAD). Selecting a topic from the Pad
    Help or General Help Index takes you to the start of the material on
    that topic, after which you can use the Help system's navigational keys
    to move around within the material. Pressing ESC when you're done takes
    you right back to the page you were on when you first pressed F1.
    Really, there's nothing to it!

    However, to use HyperPAD's on-line Help system most productively, it's a
    good idea to refer to it not only when you get stuck but before you get
    stuck. Start by familiarizing yourself with the General Help Index and
    with the Pad Help Indexes for the pads you use most often. That way,
    you'll know what Help system material is available. Spending some time
    browsing through those portions of the Help system that explain HyperPAD
    operations you haven't quite mastered yet might very well keep you from
    getting stuck in the first place.
