Overview of the Yelp Help Browser

The Yelp Help Browser application enables you to view documentation regarding GNOME and other components through a variety of formats. These formats include docbook files, HTML help pages, man pages, and info pages (support for man pages and info pages might optionally be compiled in). Yelp tries to provide a unified look and feel regardless of the original document format.

The Yelp Help Browser is internationalized, meaning that it has support to view documents in different languages. The documents must be localized or translated for each language and installed for Yelp Help Browser to be able to view them.

You can start Yelp Help Browser in one of the following ways:

• Choose System -> Help.

• At the command line, type yelp.

Yelp Help Browser Interface

The browser pane displays the table of contents or the documentation. Use the table of contents to navigate to the documentation you need.

Yelp Help Browser contains the elements described in the following table.

Menubar

File

Use this menu to open a new window, view the About this Document page, print the current document, or close the window.

Edit

Use this menu to copy, select, find, or to set preferences.

Go

Use this menu to navigate back or forward, to the Help Topics page. When viewing a docbook document, use this menu to navigate to the next section, the previous section, or to the contents page.

Bookmarks

Use this menu to add or edit bookmarks.

Help

View information about the Yelp Help Browser and contributors to the project through the About menu item. Open this document from the Contents menu item or by pressing F1.

Toolbar

Back

Navigate back in document history.

Forward

Navigate forward in document history.

Help Topics

Return to the main table of contents (shown in).

Working With Yelp

You can use Yelp to perform the following actions:

• Open documents

• View the About the Document page of a document

• Print a page or a document

• Set preferences to work with the documents

• Add and edit bookmarks

How to Open a Document Through the GUI

• Open a document through the Yelp Help Browser in of the following ways:
  • In an application, choose Help -> Contents and use the Table of Contents to navigate to the desired document.
  • Drag a Docbook XML file from the file manager to the Yelp window or launcher.
  • Press F1.

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  Tip - To reload the DocBook document that is currently open, press Ctrl+R. This key combination allows you to view changes to documents as they are made.

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How to Open a New Window

1. Click File -> New Window.
2. Press Ctrl+N.

How to Display Information About a DocBook Document

This option is only available for DocBook documentation. Legal notices and documentation contributors are listed in this section.

• Choose File -> About This Document to view the information about the currently open document.

How to Print the Current Page

• Choose File -> Print this Page to print the page that you are currently viewing.

How to Print a Docbook Document

This option is only available for DocBook documentation.

• Click File -> Print this Document to print an entire document.

How to Close a Window

• You can close a window in any one of the following ways:
  • Choose File -> Close Window.
  • Press Ctrl+W

How to Set Preferences

• Choose Edit -> Preferences.

  The following options are available in this Preferences dialog:

  • Use system fonts – Displays documentation using the default fonts used by the Oracle Solaris Desktop. To choose your own fonts to display documentation, deselect this option and click the buttons next to the Variable Width or Fixed Width.

  • Variable Width – Select this font when a static or fixed width font is not required.

  • Fixed Width – Select this font when all text characters need to be of the same size. This font is used to indicate commands, program blocks, or other text that comes under these categories.

  • Browse with caret – Select this option to locate the cursor while browsing the document.

How to Add a Bookmark

1. Choose Bookmarks -> Add Bookmark or press Ctrl+D.

   The Add Bookmark window is displayed.

2. Type a desired bookmark title in the Title field.
3. Click Add to add the bookmark.

How to Edit Bookmarks

1. Choose Bookmarks -> Edit Bookmarks or press Ctrl+B.

   The Bookmarks window is displayed. It provides the following options:

   • Open – Opens the selected bookmark in a new window.

   • Rename – Renames the title of a bookmark.

   • Remove – Deletes the bookmark from the collection.

2. Click Close to exit the Bookmarks window.

How to Display Help

• Choose Help -> Contents to view the online help for the Yelp Help Browser.

Navigating the Yelp Help Browser

You can navigate within the Yelp Help Browser as follows:

• To go back in document history:

  • Choose Go -> Back.

  • Press Alt+left arrow key.

  • Use the Back button in the Toolbar.

• To go forward in document history:

  • Choose Go -> Forward.

  • Press Alt+right arrow key.

  • Use the Forward button in the Toolbar.

• To go to help topics:

  • Choose Go -> Help Topics.

  • Press Alt+Home.

  • Use the Help Topics button in the Toolbar.

• To go to previous section:

  • Choose Go -> Previous Section.

  • Press Alt+Up

• To go to next section:

  • Choose Go -> Next Section.

  • Press Alt+Down

Opening Documents from the Command Line

The Yelp Help Browser supports opening documents from the command line. A number of URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers) can be used, including the following:

-file:

Accesses a file with Yelp, for example:

yelp file:///usr/share/gnome/help/gcalctool/C/gcalctool.xml

-ghelp: or -gnome-help:

Accesses GNOME help documents, which are written in DocBook format.

yelp ghelp:gcalctool

If you want to open the help document at a particular section, append a question mark to the end of the URI, followed by the section ID.

yelp ghelp:user-guide?yelp-advanced-cmdline

-man:

Accesses a particular man page. You can append the section of the man page you would like to view if there are multiple man pages with the same name. The section number must be enclosed in parenthesis and you might have to escape the argument so that the shell does not interpret the parenthesis.

yelp man:gcalctool

or

yelp 'man:intro(1)'
yelp 'man:intro(2)'

-info:

Accesses the specified GNU info page.

yelp info:make