Accessing context sensitive help¶
To access the context-sensitive help for a given widget select the widget by putting focus on it (see the table below). then press F1 key. On GTK windowing system use CTRL + F1, and on Carbon windowing system use Help key instead of F1. This displays an infopop with the description of the selected widget, and usually, a list of links to related information. You can dismiss the infopop by clicking outside it, or by pressing Esc.
If you want more information than what is shown in the infopop, click a link to the related information. This opens the Help browser to the selected topic and closes the infopop. The list of related links stays in the left hand frame, so you do not have to press F1 again if you are interested in other topics related to the same widget.
To access context sensitive help for a widget, you must put focus on it and then press F1. The following table shows how to put focus on some of the different kinds of widgets.
| Widget type | How to select it |
| Menu item (e.g. Save in the File menu) | Let your mouse pointer rest over it so that it is highlighted, but don’t click on it. |
| Field | Put the cursor in the field. |
| Button (e.g. Cancel button on a Dialog) | Tab until the button is in focus. |
| List | Click an item in the list. |
| View or pane | Click the title bar of the View or pane. |
| Check box | Click the check box (which changes its state) or use the Tab key to bring it into focus. |
Note
Context-sensitive help via F1 is unavailable from toolbar buttons. Instead, let your mouse pointer hover over a toolbar button to view tooltip help for buttons.