NAME

helpviewer − OpenWindows viewer for online help

SYNOPSIS

helpviewer <help-info-file>

AVAILABILITY

helpviewer is available only as part of the OpenWindows 3.0 release, which requires the Sun-4 architecture, and SunOS 4.1 (or later). 

DESCRIPTION

helpviewer is an OpenWindows application for viewing and navigating on-line help documents.  helpviewer is a PostScript-based viewer for displaying specially prepared help handbooks.  Because documents are in PostScript format, they may contain high quality fonts and graphics, and will have the same appearance on-line as they do on the printed page. 

USAGE

Once a document is displayed in the helpviewer window, you can turn pages using the Next Page, Previous Page, and Go Back buttons—or you can use the following keys on Sun type-4 keyboards: PgUp [R9] (Next Page), PgDn [R15] (Previous Page), Undo [L4] (Go Back), Home [R7] (to beginning of file), and End [R13] (to next file). 

helpviewer keeps track of each page of each document visited.  To return to a previously viewed page, click SELECT on the Go Back button until the desired page is displayed. 

helpviewer has a simple hypertext mechanism.  Documents may have hypertext links to other help handbooks or to other pages in the same handbook.  Links are displayed as rectangular outlines around words or graphics on a page.  Double-clicking SELECT in a link causes helpviewer to display the document and page to which the link points.  helpviewer hypertext links can also be used to initiate system processes, enabling an author to launch shell scripts and applications or communicate with other processes directly from a link in a document. 

Because helpviewer is PostScript-based, pages displayed in the Viewer window can be proportionally scaled to arbitrary sizes to increase legibility or minimize screen real estate usage.  Use the Magnify button menu to scale a page incrementally larger or smaller or to specify a magnification percentage. 

Selecting the Page Info item in the View button menu brings up the Page Info popup window, which describes where the current page fits within the document collection hierarchy. 

ENVIRONMENT

HELPPATH

This environment variable should be set to the directories that contain help handbooks (e.g. $OPENWINHOME/lib/locale:$OPENWINHOME/lib/help). The helpviewer uses the $HELPPATH variable to locate PostScript files. 

SEE ALSO

helpopen(1)

DIAGNOSTICS

helpviewer(1) displays NeWS/PostScript error messages in the console. 

NOTES

PostScript is a trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated. 
NeWS is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.

BUGS

helpviewer should be capable of viewing generic PostScript documents, but currently there are limitations on the kind of PostScript files it can handle. 

The helpviewer hypertext link format is not documented. 
 

Solbourne Computer, Inc.  —  16 July 1991