Navigating Help

The Help window is split into two "panes". The right pane contains the contents of the current topic. The left pane displays the Table of Contents, Index, Favorites, or Search tabs. Press Ctrl + Tab to switch among the features (tabs) displayed in the left pane.

Using The Table of Contents (Alt + c)

When you first open the Help system, the Table of Contents is displayed in the left pane of the split window. Like any Table of Contents, it lists all the sections and subsections of Help information and the individual topics under each. The sections appear as book or folder icons, the topics as page icons. You can use Up Arrow and Down Arrow to move through the Table of Contents, Right Arrow to open a book or folder, and Left Arrow to close it. Press Enter on a selected page (topic) to show the text of that topic, and then press F6 to move into the topic pane. Press F6 again to return to the Table of Contents, or press Alt + c to return to the Table of Contents from any section of the Help system.

Reading the Topic Pane

To navigate the topic pane, you can use the keyboard commands that apply in your browser. For example, use F6 to switch back and forth between a topic and the navigation pane. While in the topic pane, the Up Arrow and Down Arrow keys scroll through its contents.

Likewise, you can use the keyboard commands of a screen reader. In JAWS, Insert + Down Arrow invokes the Continuous Read command. The keys Alt + Left Arrow move back to a previous topic where applicable. Use the keys Tab or Shift + Tab to move to a link. For more on screen reader commands, see JAWS Scripts.

If, while reading a topic, you decide that you want to add it to your favorite topics list, press Alt + i and Alt + a, then press F6. This quick sequence brings up the favorites list, adds the current topic, and returns you to the reading pane. Navigating back to the topic will be much quicker in the future.

Text Size

As mentioned in "Welcome", you can adjust the size of the text in the topic pane. If you have a wheel mouse, click anywhere in the topic, hold down the Control key, and roll the mouse wheel backwards or forwards to decrease or increase the font size to an acceptable level. If your mouse has no wheel, you can hold down the Control key and tap the "+" key to increase the text size. Using Control with the minus key ("-") make the text smaller.

As a less convenient alternative, you can affect the display using the Options icon in the top bar. Click it and select Internet Options. Once there, find the Appearances section and click Accessibility. This button opens a dialog where you can make adjustments to the text display. For example, checking "Ignore font sizes specified on web pages" generally makes your text display larger.

Using the Index (Alt + n)

Press Alt + n to move to the Index. Type in keywords to locate related topics. Keywords are Help related terms or concepts. After typing in a keyword, press Up Arrow or Down Arrow to move through a list of matching index entries. Press Enter to select a keyword. If there is only one matching topic, it is displayed in the topic window. Press F6 to move into the topic window. If there are multiple matching topics, they are displayed in a list. Select a topic from the list, press Enter, then press F6 to move to the topic window.

Using Search (Alt + s)

Press Alt + s to move to the Search pane. Type in the word or phrase you are looking for, and then press Tab to move to the List Topics button. Press Enter, and then press Tab to move to the list of topics.

Use the arrow keys to locate topics and press Enter to open them. Press F6 to move to the topic window.

Note: Search follows much the same rules as when searching in a web browser. If you type in a single word, it will find topics containing that word. For example, if you typed in the word font, it would find many, many topics containing that word. However, if you typed in braille font, do not be surprised to find many additional topics, as this would find all occurrences in topics of the word braille or the word font. To narrow the search, type the expression inside double quotes, i.e. "braille font". This method finds only topics where the words "braille font" appear as you have typed them.

Using Favorites (Alt + i)

Press Alt + i to move to Favorites. Once you have it created, focus is initially on your list of Favorite Topics. However, when you first start to use Favorites, there will be none listed.

If you press Alt + u you arrive at a Text Box called "Current Topic". This normally lists the Topic displayed in the right-hand window. If you would like to add this to your list of Favorites, type Alt + a.

Once you have topics added to your list, you can arrow up and down the list to the one of your choice. Press Alt + d to display the selected topic, then press F6 to move focus to the right hand window where the topic is displayed.

If you decide you no longer wish an item to appear in your list, move to the item as described above and press Alt + r.