// Copyright (C) 2021 The Qt Company Ltd. // SPDX-License-Identifier: LicenseRef-Qt-Commercial OR GFDL-1.3-no-invariants-only /*! \page creator-help.html \if defined(qtdesignstudio) \previouspage studio-help.html \nextpage studio-faq.html \else \previouspage creator-help-overview.html \nextpage creator-faq.html \endif \title Using the Help Mode \QC comes fully integrated with Qt documentation and examples using the Qt Help plugin. \list \li To view documentation, switch to \uicontrol Help mode. \li To view context sensitive help on a Qt class or function as a tooltip, move the mouse cursor over the class or function. If help is not available, the tooltip displays type information for the symbol. \li To display tooltips for function signatures regardless of the cursor position in the function call, press \key {Ctrl+Shift+D}. \li To display the full help on a Qt class or function, press \key F1 or select \uicontrol {Context Help} in the context menu. The documentation is displayed in a view next to the code editor, or, if there is not enough vertical space, in the fullscreen \uicontrol Help mode. \li To select and configure how the documentation is displayed in the \uicontrol Help mode, select \uicontrol Edit > \uicontrol Preferences > \uicontrol Help. \endlist The following image displays the context sensitive help in the \uicontrol Edit mode. \image qtcreator-context-sensitive-help.png "Context-sensitive help in Edit mode" If the help HTML file does not use a style sheet, you can change the font family, style, and size in \uicontrol Edit > \uicontrol Preferences > \uicontrol Help > \uicontrol General. \image qtcreator-help-options.png "General tab in Help preferences" You can set the default zoom level in the \uicontrol Zoom field. When viewing help pages, you can use the mouse scroll wheel to zoom them. To disable this feature, deselect the \uicontrol {Enable scroll wheel zooming} check box. To switch to the editor context when you close the last help page, select the \uicontrol {Return to editor on closing the last page} check box. The help viewer backend determines the style sheet that is used to display the help files. The default help viewer backend that is based on litehtml is recommended for viewing Qt documentation. You can choose another help viewer backend in the \uicontrol {Viewer backend} field. To take the new backend to use, reload the help page. \section1 Viewing Function Tooltips To hide function tooltips by default, select \uicontrol Edit > \uicontrol Preferences > \uicontrol {Text Editor} > \uicontrol Behavior > \uicontrol {Show help tooltips using the mouse} > \uicontrol {On Shift+Mouseover}. You can still view the tooltips by pressing and holding down the \key Shift key. To use a keyboard shortcut for viewing help tooltips, select \uicontrol {Show help tooltips using keyboard shortcut (Alt)}. \section1 Finding Information in Qt Documentation \QC, \QSDK and other Qt deliverables contain documentation as .qch files. All the documentation is accessible in the \uicontrol Help mode. By default, \QC registers only the latest available version of the documentation for each installed Qt module. To register all installed documentation, select \uicontrol Edit > \uicontrol Preferences > \uicontrol Kits > \uicontrol {Qt Versions} > \uicontrol {Register documentation}. To find information in the documentation, select: \list \li \uicontrol Bookmarks to view a list of pages on which you have added bookmarks. \li \uicontrol Contents to see all the documentation installed on the development PC and to browse the documentation contents. \li \uicontrol Index to find information based on a list of keywords in all the installed documents. \li \uicontrol {Open Pages} to view a list of currently open documentation pages. \li \uicontrol Search to search from all the installed documents. \endlist \section2 Adding Bookmarks to Help Pages You can add bookmarks to useful help pages to easily find them later in the \uicontrol Bookmarks view. You can either use the page title as the bookmark or change it to any text. You can organize the bookmarks in folders in the view. \image qtcreator-help-add-bookmark-dlg.png "Add Bookmark dialog" To add a bookmark to an open help page: \list 1 \li Click the \inlineimage icons/bookmark.png (\uicontrol {Add Bookmark}) button on the toolbar. \li In the \uicontrol {Add Bookmark} dialog, click \uicontrol OK to save the page title as a bookmark in the selected folder. \endlist To import and export bookmarks, select \uicontrol Edit > \uicontrol Preferences > \uicontrol Help > \uicontrol General > \uicontrol {Import Bookmarks} or \uicontrol {Export Bookmarks}. \section2 Full-text Search In the \uicontrol Search pane, you can use full-text search for finding a particular word in all the installed documents. Enter the term you are looking for, and select the \uicontrol Search button. All documents that contain the specified term are listed. The list is sorted by document version (if you have installed several Qt versions, for example) and the number of search hits that the documents contain. Select a document in the list to open it. \image qtcreator-help-search.png "Search pane" The following are examples of common search patterns: \list \li \c deep lists all the documents that contain the word \c deep. The search is not case sensitive. \li \c{deep*} lists all the documents that contain a word beginning with \c deep \li \c{deep copy} lists all documents that contain both \c deep and \c copy \li \c{"deep copy"} lists all documents that contain the phrase \c{deep copy} \endlist Full-text search is based on indexing all the installed documents the first time when you open the \uicontrol Search pane. If you add or remove documents, \QC recreates the index. If you cannot find words that you know are there, indexing might not have been completed for some reason. To regenerate the index, click \inlineimage icons/reload_gray.png (\uicontrol {Regenerate Index}). Punctuation is not included in indexed terms. To find terms that contain punctuation, such as domain names, use the asterisk as a wild card. For example, to find \c {Pastebin.Com}, enter the search term \c {Pastebin*}. \section1 Adding External Documentation You can display external documentation in the \uicontrol Help mode. To augment or replace the documentation that ships with \QC and Qt: \list 1 \li Create a .qch file from your documentation. For information on how to prepare your documentation and create a .qch file, see \l{The Qt Help Framework}. \li To add the .qch file to \QC, select \uicontrol Edit > \uicontrol Preferences > \uicontrol Help > \uicontrol Documentation > \uicontrol Add. \endlist \section1 Detaching the Help Window By default, context-sensitive help is opened in a window next to the code editor when you press \key F1. If there is not enough vertical space, the help opens in the full-screen help mode. You can specify that the help always opens in full-screen mode or is detached to an external window. Select \uicontrol Edit > \uicontrol Preferences > \uicontrol Help > \uicontrol General and specify settings for displaying context-sensitive help in the \uicontrol {On context help} field. To detach the help window, select \uicontrol {Always Show in External Window}. To change this setting in a help view, select the \inlineimage icons/linkicon.png toolbar button. \section1 Selecting the Start Page You can select the page to display when you open the \uicontrol Help mode in the \uicontrol Edit > \uicontrol Preferences > \uicontrol Help > \uicontrol General > \uicontrol {On help start} field. To display the page and help views that were open when you exited the mode, select the \uicontrol {Show My Tabs from Last Session} option. However, Web pages are not opened because loading them would slow down opening the \uicontrol Help mode. To display a particular page, select \uicontrol {Show My Home Page}, and specify the page in the \uicontrol {Home Page} field. To display a blank page, select the \uicontrol {Show a Blank Page} option. You can also select the \uicontrol {Use Blank Page} button to set a blank page as your home page. \section1 Using Documentation Filters You can filter the documents displayed in the \uicontrol Help mode to find relevant information faster. Select a filter from a list of filters (1). The contents of the \uicontrol Index and \uicontrol Contents view in the sidebar change accordingly. \image qtcreator-help-filters.png "Filters field on the Help mode toolbar" You can define your own filters to display documentation for a set of Qt modules and versions. To add filters: \list 1 \li Select \uicontrol Edit > \uicontrol Preferences > \uicontrol Help > \uicontrol Filters. \image qtcreator-help-filter-attributes.png "Filters tab in Help preferences" \li Select \inlineimage icons/plus.png to add a new filter in the \uicontrol {Add Filter} dialog. \li In the \uicontrol {Filter name} field, enter a name for the filter, and then select \uicontrol {OK} to return to the \uicontrol Filters tab. \li In the \uicontrol Components field, select the Qt modules to include in the filter. \li In the \uicontrol Versions field, select the Qt versions to include in the filter. \li Click \uicontrol OK. \li In the \uicontrol Help mode, select the filter in the list of filters to see the filtered documentation in the sidebar. \endlist To modify the selected filter, add and remove Qt modules and versions, and then select \uicontrol Apply. To rename the selected filter, select \uicontrol Rename. To remove the selected filter select \inlineimage icons/minus.png . */