Send Yourself on a 'Help' Course.

These days you don't normally get a detailed printed instruction manual telling you how to use computer programmes. The instructions are usually contained in on-screen Help files.
Sadly, most people largely ignore these Help files. This is a shame because the information in these files can be really useful.
Apart from the benefit of showing how to do things more easily, the Help files will often reveal features of the software that you weren't aware of.
For all computer users I would strongly recommend learning how to use the Help files, and consulting them frequently. There's no need to wait until you get into trouble - why not enroll on your own personal at-home Help course!!

Some suggestions:-
1) Get a sticky Post-it note or similar and write on it F1 = Help
Stick this note on the surround above your monitor screen to remind you that you can always get access to the Help files by tapping the F1 key (keyboard top row on the left).
You can also use the menu and click the word Help but the F1 habit is more convenient.

2) Set aside some time (say 15 minutes twice a week) to sit at your computer and do nothing else but "play" with the Help files in one of your computer's programmes.
This will ensure that every week you spend half an hour learning new things about your computer.

3) Remember that the Help files which appear when you tap the F1 key will relate to whatever programme you are using at the time.
For example, if you have your word processor open at the time, you will see information about the word processor; - if you happen to be using your email programme, tapping the F1 key will display information about email.
It's important to understand that there are also Help files which tell you about your computer's operating system (Windows) as well. You will see this information if you tap the F1 key when your computer screen is displaying the desktop.

4) The best way to become familiar with Help files is to just experiment with them.
Usually you will notice there's a "contents" tab which will display the Help contents in a list, like the chapters of a book. When you click (or sometimes double-click) the headings in the list they may unfold to reveal further chapter sub headings, or the titles of information articles.
To read an article you may need to click (or double click) its title, or perhaps click the title and click a button labelled "Display" or something similar.
(As you may have gathered by now, the design of Help files varies from programme to programme - they certainly aren't all the same).
Within an article there will often be coloured or underlined links which can be clicked with the mouse to take you off to another article
Apart from the "contents" tab there's usually a tab marked "index" which, when clicked, will display the contents of the Help file as a long list of subjects set out in alphabetical order. It can be interesting (and fun) to gradually work your way through the whole list over a period of time - just to read what's in there. Occasionally you may wish to try some of the techniques that you read about.

5) If you need help on some particular subject you're working on, try using Help's "search" or "find" option (if there is one). Usually this option provides a slot in which you can type a word or phrase, and a button (typically labelled "list topics" or "search" or similar) which you can click, to display a list of all the articles in the Help file containing the word or phrase you've typed.
The trick is to search for the right word or phrase, to match the language used by the person who wrote the Help file. You may need to try several different words before you find a match. Searching for a single word will result in more matches than searching for a phrase.

Example:- With the desktop on display, tap F1 to open Help, select the "search" or "find" option tab, and search for the word keyboard. Then try searching for the word shortcut, and finally search for the phrase keyboard shortcut. You will notice different results each time, but the last search will yield fewest results
.
6) When you discover something that looks interesting or useful whilst experimenting with Help, I would recommend that you print it out whilst you have the chance, otherwise you may feel frustrated if you need the information later, and can't remember how you found it the first time. Navigating through Help can be like wandering through a maze and it's not always easy to retrace your steps later.
Usually there's a Print button in the help window (sometimes you may first have to click another button called "options" or something similar to get access to the Print button).

7) It's easier to read the Help information if you maximise the Help window. Use the "maximise" button (if there is one) at the top right corner of the Help window.

8) Explore the facilities in the menu bar or toolbar of the Help window. For example there may be a "back" button you can use to return to a view of the previous menu you were looking at. Feel free to experiment!
John Selby.

First Printed in the August 2003 SNN Newsletter