Important Notice

The pages on this site contain documentation for very old MS-DOS software, purely for historical purposes. If you're looking for up-to-date documentation, particularly for programming, you should not rely on the information found here, as it will be woefully out of date.

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                          Navigating in QuickHelp
 
Using the Menus
 
    You can choose a menu by pressing the key corresponding to the first
    letter of the menu name (with or without pressing the CTRL or ALT key).
    You can get help on a menu item either by pressing the F1 key while the
    menu item is highlighted or by clicking the menu item with the right
    mouse button.
 
Using the Mouse
 
    You can use the mouse to select menus, scroll through text, or bring up
    new topics by selecting them from the screen. To select a topic from the
    screen (inside or outside the QuickHelp window), move the mouse pointer
    anywhere on the name of the topic (function, structure, etc.) and
    double-click the left mouse button or single-click the right mouse
    button.
 
    The default action for the right mouse button is identical to that of
    the left button except that it takes a single-click to make a selection
    instead of a double-click. You can change the action of the right mouse
    button; for example, you can set the right mouse button so that clicking
    it switches back and forth between the currently displayed topic and the
    previously displayed topic. You change the action of the right mouse
    button by selecting the Options menu and choosing the Right Mouse
    Command. This presents you with a list of possible actions for the right
    mouse button. You can make the change permanent by setting the -r option
    in the QH environment variable. For more information, see the QuickHelp
    Options topic.
 
    You can also use the mouse to change the height of the QuickHelp window.
    This allows you to see more or less of the screen that was displayed
    before you started or activated QuickHelp. To change the height of the
    QuickHelp window, click on the bottom line of the window and move the
    mouse up or down. When you release the mouse, the window is resized to
    the current mouse position.
 
Stepping Through All Topics in a List
 
    List topics are different from other topics in that QuickHelp displays a
    highlighted line on the currently selected topic. Beginning with the
    highlighted line, you can step through all topics in a list by using the
    M key or the View Next List Item command in the View menu. If you press
    the M key while displaying a list topic, QuickHelp displays the topic
    whose name is highlighted. If you press the M key while displaying a
    non-list topic, QuickHelp redisplays the last list topic you viewed,
    moves the highlighted line down one line, and displays the topic whose
    name is highlighted. Upon reaching then end of the list, QuickHelp
    redisplays the list with the topic name at the end of the list
    highlighted. At this point, the M key has no effect until you move the
    highlighted line or display a different list.
 
Searching for a Word or Phrase
 
    You can use the Global Search command to search for a string in all
    topics (full-text search). The search starts with the portion of the
    database that contains the topic currently being displayed. If you know
    which portion of the database the string is in, you should display a
    topic in that portion of the database first. While QuickHelp is
    searching, it displays a box telling you the status of the search. You
    can press the ESC key at any time to terminate the search and display a
    list of all topics that have been found up to that point. Unless you
    stop it, QuickHelp continues searching until it has found the maximum
    number of topics allowed or has searched all open databases.
 
    Once QuickHelp has completed the search and displayed the list of topics
    that it found, you can easily step through every topic. Move the
    highlighted line to the first topic of interest, and press the M key or
    choose the View Next List Item command from the View menu. QuickHelp
    displays that topic and highlights the string that you asked to search
    for. To view the next topic in the list, press the M key or choose the
    View Next List Item command from the View menu. QuickHelp switches back
    to the list of topics, moves the highlighted line down one line, then
    displays that topic.
 
    While displaying a topic, you can move to other occurrences of the
    string within that topic by pressing the A key or by choosing the
    Current Search command from the View menu. QuickHelp displays a dialog
    box asking you for the string to search for. Since the string you used
    for the Global Search command is displayed in the dialog box as the
    default, you can press ENTER to search for the same string.
 
    You cannot use wildcards in either the Global Search or the Current
    Search commands, as you can in the keyword search used by the Search and
    Duplicate Search commands. Searching for strings or keywords is
    case-insensitive.
 
Searching for a Topic
 
    You can use the Search or Duplicate Search commands when you want to
    search for a specific topic. Both commands let you use a question-mark
    character (?) to match any single character. You can also use the
    asterisks character (*) at the end of the string to match any number of
    characters.
 
    If you use the Search command, you can find the next occurrence of a
    topic by pressing the E key or by choosing the Continue Search command
    from the View menu. If you use the Duplicate Search command, QuickHelp
    displays a list of all topics found and the title of the database each
    topic appeared in. Move the highlighted line to the topic of interest,
    and press either the ENTER key or the M key to display the topic. You
    can now press the M key or choose the View Next List Item command from
    the View menu to view the next duplicate topic. QuickHelp switches back
    to the list of topics, moves the highlighted line down one line, and
    then displays that topic.
 
See Also
 
◄Building a database►, ◄QuickHelp as a monitor►
 
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