Chapter 25. Help and Documentation

Contents

25.1. Using the KDE Help Center
25.2. Using GNOME Yelp
25.3. Browsing Man and Info Pages From Your Desktop
25.4. Additional Help Resources

Abstract

SUSE® Linux Enterprise Desktop comes with various sources of information and documentation, many of which are already integrated in your installed system:

Desktop Help Centers

The help centers of both the KDE desktop (KDE help center) and the GNOME desktop (Yelp) provide central access to the most important documentation resources on your system, in searchable form. These resources include online help for installed applications, man pages, info pages, and the Novell/SUSE manuals delivered with your product. Learn more about your desktop's help center in Section 25.1, “Using the KDE Help Center” and Section 25.2, “Using GNOME Yelp”.

Separate Help Packages for Some Applications

When installing new software with YaST, the software documentation is installed automatically in most cases, and usually appears in the help center of your desktop. However, some applications, such as GIMP, may have different online help packages that can be installed separately with YaST and do not integrate into the help centers.

Documentation in /usr/share/doc

This traditional help directory holds various documentation files and the release notes for your system. Find more detailed information in Section “Documentation Directory” (Chapter 28, Help and Documentation, ↑Administration Guide).

Man Pages and Info Pages for Shell Commands

When working with the shell, you do not need to know the options of the commands by heart. Traditionally, the shell provides integrated help by means of man pages and info pages. Read more in Section “Man Pages” (Chapter 28, Help and Documentation, ↑Administration Guide) and Section “Info Pages” (Chapter 28, Help and Documentation, ↑Administration Guide).

25.1. Using the KDE Help Center

From the KDE desktop, you can access the KDE help center in various ways: If you need information from within an application, simply click the application's Help button or press F1 to open the application's documentation in the help center. If you start the help center from the main menu, or from the command line with khelpcenter, you are taken to the main window of the help center from which you can browse the help topics.

Figure 25.1. Main Window of the KDE Help Center

Main Window of the KDE Help Center

The menu and the toolbar provide options for printing contents from the help center, searching the currently displayed page, and navigating and customizing the help center. The display field in the right part of the window always shows the currently selected contents, such as online manuals, search results, or Web pages.

The navigation area in the left part of the window contains several tabs:

Contents

Presents a tree view of all available information sources. The help center addresses various target groups, such as users, administrators, and developers. Click on an entry to open and browse the individual categories. The help center also provides access to some online databases that cover special hardware and software issues for your product. All these sources can be searched conveniently once a search index has been generated.

The contents of your help center depends on which software packages are currently installed and which languages are selected as your system languages.

Glossary

Provides a quick reference where you can look up the definitions of words that might be unfamiliar to you.

Search Options

Holds options for the full text search of the help center. You can combine several search criteria.

Procedure 25.1. Searching the Help Center

To use the full text search KDE help center offers, generate a search index and set the search parameters. If the search index has not yet been generated, the system automatically prompts you to do so when you click the Search tab.

  1. To search for a term, click into the text field and enter the search string.

  2. To combine your search strings with operands, click Method and select the operand to use.

  3. Choose an option from Max. Results to limit the number of hits to display.

  4. To restrict your search to certain types of documentation, choose an option from Scope selection. With Default, a predefined selection of documents is searched. All includes all types of documents in the search. Custom lets you define which documents to include in your search. Just activate the documents you want in the list.

  5. When you have set the options according to your wishes, click Search. The search results are then displayed as a list of links in the display field and can be navigated with mouse clicks.

Procedure 25.2. Generating a New Search Index

  1. To create a new search index, select Settings+Build Search Index from the menu. A window opens, showing a list of the documentation currently available in the help center. In case no search index exists, you are automatically asked to build one, once you enter a search term into the search field.

  2. Select the documents to integrate in the search index and click Build Index. After the index has been generated, you can use the full text search.

25.2. Using GNOME Yelp

On the GNOME desktop, to start Yelp directly from an application, either click the Help button or press F1. Both options take you directly to the application's documentation in the help center. However, you can also start Yelp from the main menu, or from the command line with yelp and then browse through the main window of the help center.

Figure 25.2. Main Window of Yelp

Main Window of Yelp

The menu and the toolbar provide options for navigating and customizing the help center, for searching and for printing contents from Yelp. To view a table of contents, click the home icon or press Alt+Home. The help topics are grouped into categories presented as links. Click one of the links to open a list of topics for that category. To search for an item, just enter the search string into the search field at the top of the window.

25.3. Browsing Man and Info Pages From Your Desktop

With the KDE or GNOME desktop, you can also access (or print) man pages and info pages:

KDE

In Dolphin or Konqueror, to view the man page for ls, type man:/ls in the location bar. If there are different categories for a command, Konqueror displays them as links. To display the info page for grep, for example, type info:/grep.

In the KDE help center, click UNIX Manual Pages or Browse Info Pagesin the table of contents to browse man pages and info pages. You may also use the search and limit the scope to UNIX Manual Pages.

GNOME

Run yelp man:ls or yelp info:ls to display the man or info page. Alternatively enter man:ls or info:ls in the search field of Yelp.

Figure 25.3. Viewing a Man Page With Konqueror

Viewing a Man Page With Konqueror

25.4. Additional Help Resources

In addition to the online versions of the Novell manuals installed under /usr/share/doc, you can also access the product-specific manuals and documentation on the Web. For an overview of all documentation available for SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop check out your product-specific documentation Web page at http://www.suse.com/documentation/.

If you are searching for additional product-related information, you can also refer to the following Web sites:

You might also want to try general-purpose search engines. For example, you might try the search terms Linux CD-RW help or LibreOffice file conversion problem if you were having trouble with the CD burning or with LibreOffice file conversion. Google™ also has a Linux-specific search engine at http://www.google.com/linux that you might find useful.