<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//KDE//DTD DocBook XML V4.5-Based Variant V1.1//EN"
"customization/dtd/kdedbx45.dtd" [
<!ENTITY % English "INCLUDE" > <!-- change language only here -->
<!ENTITY % addindex "IGNORE">
]>
<book id="khelpcenter" lang="&language;">
<bookinfo>
<title>The &khelpcenter;</title>
<authorgroup>
<corpauthor>The &kde; Team</corpauthor>
<!-- TRANS:ROLES_OF_TRANSLATORS -->
</authorgroup>
<legalnotice>&FDLNotice;</legalnotice>
<date>2016-04-17</date>
<releaseinfo>Applications 16.04</releaseinfo>
<abstract>
<para>
&kde; is an international technology team that creates
<ulink url="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html">Free Software</ulink>
for desktop and portable computing. Among &kde;'s products are a modern
desktop system for &Linux; and &UNIX; platforms, comprehensive office
productivity and groupware suites and hundreds of software titles in many
categories including Internet and web applications, multimedia, entertainment,
educational, graphics and software development.
</para>
</abstract>
<keywordset>
<keyword>KDE</keyword>
<keyword>kdebase</keyword>
<keyword>khelpcenter</keyword>
<keyword>kdehelp</keyword>
<keyword>help</keyword>
<keyword>help center</keyword>
<keyword>KDE help center</keyword>
</keywordset>
</bookinfo>
<chapter id="help-system-handbook">
<title>&kde; Help System Handbook</title>
<anchor id="help"/>
<sect1 id="help-introduction">
<title>Help System</title>
<para>The help system is designed to make accessing the common
&UNIX; help systems (<application>man</application> and
<application>info</application>) simple, as well as the user documentation of
applications including &plasma-workspaces; from the &kde; community (&XML;).
</para>
<para>
All applications (including &plasma-workspaces;) from the &kde; community come fully documented, thanks to the efforts of the
Documentation team. If you are interested in helping with the documentation
efforts, join the
<ulink url="https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-doc-english">mailing
list</ulink> and write to the team at <email>kde-doc-english@kde.org</email>. No
experience is required, just enthusiasm and patience.
</para>
<para>
If you would like to help translating &kde; documentation to your native
language, review the information, including coordinators for each language team,
on the <ulink url="https://l10n.kde.org/">Localization web site</ulink>.
</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="invoking-help">
<title>Invoking Help</title>
<para>
&khelpcenter; can be called in several ways:
</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>From the <guimenu>Help</guimenu> menu</term>
<listitem>
<para>
The most common will probably be from within an application. Choose
<menuchoice>
<shortcut>
<keycombo action="simul"><keycap>F1</keycap></keycombo>
</shortcut>
<guimenu>Help</guimenu>
<guimenuitem><replaceable>Application</replaceable> Handbook</guimenuitem></menuchoice> to open that
application's handbook.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>From the Application Launcher</term>
<listitem>
<para>
Choose the big <guiicon>K</guiicon> in your panel, and select
<guimenuitem>Help</guimenuitem> from the <guimenuitem>Applications</guimenuitem> tab
or type <userinput>help</userinput> followed by selecting
<guimenuitem>Help</guimenuitem>. This will open &khelpcenter; with the
default start page.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>From the command line</term>
<listitem>
<para>
&khelpcenter; may be started using a &URL; to display a
file. &URL;s have been added for
<command>info</command> and <command>man</command> pages
also. You can use them as follows:
</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>An application help file</term>
<listitem>
<para>
<command>khelpcenter</command>
<option>help:/<replaceable>kwrite</replaceable></option>
</para>
<para>
Opens the &kwrite; help file, at the contents page.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>A local &URL;</term>
<listitem><para>
<command>khelpcenter</command>
<option>file:/<replaceable>usr/local/src/qt/html/index.html</replaceable></option>
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>A Man page</term>
<listitem>
<para>
<command>khelpcenter</command>
<option>man:/<replaceable>strcpy</replaceable></option>
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>An Info page</term>
<listitem>
<para>
<command>khelpcenter</command>
<option>info:/<replaceable>gcc</replaceable></option>
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<para>
Invoking <command>khelpcenter</command> with no parameters opens the
default start page.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="interface-basics">
<title>The &khelpcenter; interface</title>
<para>
The &khelpcenter; interface consists of two panes of information.
</para>
<para>
The toolbar and menus are explained further in <xref
linkend="menu-and-toolbar-ref"/>.
</para>
<para>
Documents contain their own navigation tools, enabling you to move
either sequentially through a document, using
<guilabel>Next</guilabel>, <guilabel>Previous</guilabel>, and
<guilabel>Contents</guilabel> links, or to move around in a less
structured manner, using hyperlinks.
</para>
<para>
Links can take you to other parts of the same document, or to a
different document, and you can use the <guiicon>Back</guiicon> (Left
pointing arrow) or <guiicon>Forward</guiicon> (Right pointing arrow)
icons on the toolbar to move through the documents you have viewed in
this session.
</para>
<para>
The two panes display the contents of the help system, and the help
files themselves, on the left and right respectively.
</para>
<sect2 id="contents-pane">
<title>The Contents Pane</title>
<para>
The contents pane in &khelpcenter; is
displayed on the left hand side of the window. As you might expect, you
can move the splitter bar, to make sure you can comfortably read the
contents of either pane.
</para>
<para>
The contents pane is further divided into three
tabs, one containing a <link linkend="contents-tab">tree view</link>
showing all the help information &khelpcenter; is aware of, and the
other contains the &kde; <link linkend="kde-glossary">glossary</link>
of terms.
On the third tab you can configure the <guilabel>Search Options</guilabel>.
</para>
<sect3 id="contents-tab">
<title>The Contents Tab</title>
<para>
The <guilabel>Contents</guilabel> tab contains the following default
top level entries in the tree view:
</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Fundamentals</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>The Fundamentals introduce you to the many features of the &plasma-workspaces; and &applications; and
describe many common tasks you can perform in all &applications;.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Plasma Manual</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>
The &plasma; Manual is the documentation for the &plasma-workspaces;.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Online Help</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>A page with links to online help and additional information provided by the &kde; community.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Application Manuals</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Native &kde; application documentation. All &kde; applications have
documentation in &XML; format, which are converted to
<acronym>HTML</acronym> when you view them. This section lists all the
&kde; applications with a brief description and a link to the full
application documentation.
</para>
<para>
The applications are displayed in a tree structure that echoes the default
structure of the <guimenu>K</guimenu> menu, making it easy to find the
application you are looking for.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Settings Modules</guilabel> entities</term>
<listitem>
<para>
Provide a list of links to various modules in the &systemsettings; application or
to modules for &konqueror;, Filemanager or Browser.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>KInfoCenter Modules</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Contains a list of links to various KInfocenter modules documentation.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>KIO Workers</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Contains a list of links to various <acronym>KIO</acronym> modules documentation.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>&UNIX; manual pages</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>
&UNIX; man pages are the traditional on-line documentation format for
&UNIX; systems. Most programs on your system will have a man page. In
addition, man pages exist for programming functions and file
formats.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Scrollkeeper</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Additional non-&kde; documentation installed on your system.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Browse Info Pages</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>
TeXinfo documentation is used by many &GNU; applications,
including <command>gcc</command> (the C/C++ compiler),
<command>emacs</command>, and many others.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="search">
<title>The <guilabel>Search Options</guilabel> tab</title>
<para>
Searching the help files is fairly intuitive, enter the word(s) you wish
to search for in the text box, choose your options (if any), and press
<guibutton>Search</guibutton>. The results display in the viewer pane
to the right.
</para>
<note><para>Search is not case sensitive, &ie; uppercase and lowercase characters are considered the same. For
example, if you search for <quote>Shortcut</quote>, results that contain
<quote>shortcut</quote> will be returned as well.</para></note>
<!--no wildcards? -->
<para>The options available are:</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Method</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Choose how to search for multiple words. If you choose
<guilabel>and</guilabel>, results are returned only if all your search
terms are included in the page. <guilabel>or</guilabel> returns results
if <emphasis>any</emphasis> of the search terms are found.
</para>
<para>If your searches are not returning the results you expect, check
carefully you haven't excluded the wrong search term with an erroneous setting.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Max. results</guilabel></term>
<listitem><para>Determines the maximum number of results returned from your
search.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Scope selection</guilabel></term>
<listitem><para>This is used to select the sections where the search will be done.
The available options quickly select the most common option, while
<guimenuitem>Custom</guimenuitem> allows one to select single sections.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</sect3>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="man-and-info">
<title>The <application>Man</application> and <application>Info</application>
sections</title>
<para>Man pages are the standard &UNIX; manual pages, and have been in
use for many years on many operating systems. They are extremely
thorough, and are the very best place to get information about most
&UNIX; commands and applications. When people say
<quote>RTFM</quote>, the Manual they are referring to is very often the
man page.</para>
<para>The man pages are not perfect. They tend to be in depth, but
also extremely technical, often written by developers, and for
developers. In some cases this makes them somewhat unfriendly, if not
downright impossible for many users to understand. They are, however,
the best source of solid information on most command line
applications, and very often the only source.</para>
<para>If you've ever wondered what the number is when people write
things like man(1) it means which section of the manual the item is
in. You will see &khelpcenter; uses the numbers to divide the very many
man pages into their own sections, making it easier for you to find
the information you're looking for, if you're just browsing.</para>
<para>Also available are the Info pages, intended to be a replacement
for the man pages. The maintainer of some applications no longer
update the man pages, so if there is both a man page and an info page
available, the info page is probably the most recent. Most
applications have one or the other though. If the application you are
looking for help on is a &GNU; utility, you will most likely find it
has an info page, not a man page.</para>
<sect3 id="navigation">
<title>Navigating inside the <application>Info</application> pages</title>
<para>Info documents are arranged hierarchically with each page called
a node. All info documents have a <guilabel>Top</guilabel> node,
&ie; the opening page. You can return to the
<guilabel>Top</guilabel> of an info document by pressing
<guilabel>Top</guilabel>.</para>
<para><guibutton>Prev</guibutton> & <guibutton>Next</guibutton>
are used to move to the previous/next page at the current level of the
hierarchy.</para>
<para>Clicking on a menu item within a document moves you to a lower
level in the hierarchy. You may move up the hierarchy by pressing
<guibutton>Up</guibutton>.</para>
<para>Man is treated similarly to info, with the section index being
the Top node and each man page on the level below. Man entries are
one page long.</para>
</sect3>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="kde-glossary">
<title>The &kde; glossary</title>
<para>
The glossary provides a quick reference point, where you can look up
the definitions of words that may be unfamiliar to you. These range
from &kde; specific applications and technologies, through to general
&UNIX; computing terms.
</para>
<para>
In the left hand pane you will see a tree view, with two choices:
<guilabel>Alphabetically</guilabel> or <guilabel>By Topic</guilabel>.
Both contain the same entries, sorted differently, to allow you to
quickly find the item of interest.
</para>
<para>
Navigate down the tree views to the left, and items you select will be
displayed on the right.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="menu-and-toolbar-ref">
<title>The menus and toolbar</title>
<para>
&khelpcenter; has a very minimal interface, allowing you to concentrate
on getting help rather than learning how to use the help browser.
</para>
<para>
The icons available to you in the toolbar are as follows:
</para>
<variablelist>
<title>Toolbar Icons</title>
<varlistentry>
<term><guiicon>Table of Contents</guiicon></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Go to the main start page of &khelpcenter;.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guiicon>Back</guiicon></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Go to the previous page you viewed. Click the check mark right to the icon.
This displays a list of previously viewed pages. Selecting one
will take you directly back to that page.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guiicon>Forward</guiicon></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Go forward one page. This icon is only active if you have
already used the <guiicon>Back</guiicon> icon.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<!--
<varlistentry>
<term><guiicon>Print Frame</guiicon></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Print the contents of the currently visible page.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
-->
<varlistentry>
<term><guiicon>Copy</guiicon></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Copy text to the clipboard to be pasted in another application.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guiicon>Find</guiicon></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Find a word or words within the currently visible page.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guiicon>Increase Font Sizes</guiicon></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Increase the size of the text in the viewer pane.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guiicon>Decrease Font Sizes</guiicon></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Decrease the size of the text in the viewer pane. This icon is only
enabled if you have previously enlarged the text.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<para>
The menus contain the following entries:
</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><guimenu>File</guimenu></term>
<listitem>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>
<menuchoice>
<shortcut>
<keycombo action="simul">&Ctrl;<keycap>P</keycap></keycombo>
</shortcut>
<guimenu>File</guimenu>
<guimenuitem>Print</guimenuitem>
</menuchoice>
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
Print the contents of the currently visible page. Handbooks in <acronym>PDF</acronym> format you find
on the <ulink url="https://docs.kde.org/index.php?language=en"> &kde; Documentation Server</ulink>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
<menuchoice>
<shortcut>
<keycombo action="simul">&Ctrl;<keycap>Q</keycap></keycombo>
</shortcut>
<guimenu>File</guimenu>
<guimenuitem>Quit</guimenuitem>
</menuchoice>
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
Close and exit &khelpcenter;
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><guimenu>Edit</guimenu></term>
<listitem>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>
<menuchoice>
<shortcut>
<keycombo action="simul">&Ctrl;<keycap>C</keycap></keycombo>
</shortcut>
<guimenu>Edit</guimenu><guimenuitem>Copy</guimenuitem>
</menuchoice>
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
Copy the selected text to the clipboard.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><menuchoice><shortcut>
<keycombo action="simul">&Ctrl;<keycap>A</keycap></keycombo></shortcut>
<guimenu>Edit</guimenu>
<guimenuitem>Select All</guimenuitem>
</menuchoice>
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
Select all the text in the current page.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><menuchoice><shortcut>
<keycombo action="simul">&Ctrl;<keycap>F</keycap></keycombo></shortcut>
<guimenu>Edit</guimenu>
<guimenuitem>Find...</guimenuitem>
</menuchoice>
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
Find a word or words in the currently visible page.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><guimenu>View</guimenu></term>
<listitem>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><menuchoice><guimenu>View</guimenu>
<guisubmenu>Set Encoding</guisubmenu>
</menuchoice>
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
Change the encoding of the current page. Normally, the default setting
of <guimenuitem>Default</guimenuitem> should be sufficient, but if you are
having problems viewing pages written in languages other than English,
you may need to choose a specific encoding in this menu.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><menuchoice><guimenu>View</guimenu>
<guisubmenu>Full Screen Mode</guisubmenu>
</menuchoice>
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
Changes &khelpcenter; to full screen mode, in which the &khelpcenter; window
takes up the whole screen, and does not have the usual window decorations. To
exit full screen mode, press <keycombo action="simul">&Ctrl;&Shift;
<keycap>F</keycap></keycombo>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><guimenu>Go</guimenu></term>
<listitem>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><menuchoice><shortcut>
<keycombo action="simul">&Alt;<keycap>Home</keycap></keycombo></shortcut>
<guimenu>Go</guimenu>
<guimenuitem>Table of Contents</guimenuitem></menuchoice></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Go to the main start page of &khelpcenter;.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><menuchoice><shortcut>
<keycombo action="simul">&Ctrl;<keycap>PgUp</keycap></keycombo></shortcut>
<guimenu>Go</guimenu>
<guimenuitem>Previous Page</guimenuitem></menuchoice></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Go to the previous page of the current documentation.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><menuchoice><shortcut>
<keycombo action="simul">&Ctrl;<keycap>PgDown</keycap></keycombo></shortcut>
<guimenu>Go</guimenu>
<guimenuitem>Next Page</guimenuitem></menuchoice></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Go to the next page of the current documentation.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><menuchoice><shortcut>
<keycombo action="simul">&Alt;<keysym>Left</keysym></keycombo></shortcut>
<guimenu>Go</guimenu>
<guimenuitem>Back</guimenuitem></menuchoice></term>
<listitem>
<para>Go back to the previous page you were viewing.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><menuchoice><shortcut>
<keycombo action="simul">&Alt;<keysym>Right</keysym></keycombo></shortcut>
<guimenu>Go</guimenu>
<guimenuitem>Forward</guimenuitem>
</menuchoice></term>
<listitem>
<para>If you have previously moved back with the back icon or menu
entry, you can work your way forward again with this menu
entry.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<variablelist id="bookmarks-menu">
<varlistentry>
<term><guimenu>Bookmarks</guimenu></term>
<listitem>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><menuchoice>
<shortcut><keycombo action="simul">&Ctrl;<keycap>B</keycap></keycombo></shortcut>
<guimenu>Bookmarks</guimenu>
<guimenuitem>Add Bookmark</guimenuitem></menuchoice></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Add a bookmark for the current page, the title of the pages is appended to the bookmarks menu.
Use the action <guimenuitem>Delete Bookmark</guimenuitem> in the context menu of an item to remove it from the menu.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><menuchoice>
<guimenu>Bookmarks</guimenu>
<guimenuitem>New Bookmarks Folder</guimenuitem></menuchoice></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Open the <guilabel>New Folder</guilabel> dialog where you can add new submenuitems to the bookmarks menu.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><guimenu>Settings</guimenu></term>
<listitem>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>
<menuchoice>
<guimenu>Settings</guimenu>
<guimenuitem>Configure Fonts...</guimenuitem>
</menuchoice>
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
Allows you to configure the font family and size used by &khelpcenter;.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<para>
Additionally &khelpcenter; has the common &kde; <guimenu>Settings</guimenu> and <guimenu>Help</guimenu>
menu items, for more information read the sections about the <ulink url="help:/fundamentals/menus.html#menus-settings"
>Settings Menu</ulink> and <ulink url="help:/fundamentals/menus.html#menus-help">Help Menu</ulink>
of the &kde; Fundamentals.
</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="credits">
<title>Credits and License</title>
<para>&khelpcenter;</para>
<para>Originally developed by &Matthias.Elter; &Matthias.Elter.mail;</para>
<para>The current maintainer is &Cornelius.Schumacher; &Cornelius.Schumacher.mail;</para>
<!-- TRANS:CREDIT_FOR_TRANSLATORS -->
&underFDL;
&underGPL;
</sect1>
</chapter>
</book>
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