Using the Help Viewer

The 89600 VSA external help viewer contains several features, which are listed as follows:

Help viewer toolbar

The Help Toolbar contains the following buttons:

Navigation

The external help viewer provides the following navigation aids: Table of Contents, Search, and Favorites. These can be accessed by clicking the corresponding button at the bottom of the left panel.

The Table of Contents provides an organized way of browsing through the help documentation. Since topics are grouped according to subject, you can use the Table of Contents find out more about a subject by browsing to topics that are near a topic you found while searching.

The topic that is shown in the topic panel is also highlighted in the Table of Contents.

Search allows you to search for words or phrases in the help text.

The basic rules for formulating queries are as follows:

  • Not case-sensitive: you can type your search in uppercase or lowercase characters.
  • Allowed characters: you can search for any combination of letters (a-z) and numbers (0-9).
  • Punctuation marks: punctuation, such as the period, colon, semicolon, and comma, are ignored during a search.

  • Grouping: you can group the elements of your search using double quotes (") or parentheses to set apart each element.

    You cannot search for quotation marks.

For multiple-word or phrase searches, you can use operators to precisely define your search by creating a relationship between search terms.

If no operator is specified, the OR operator (|) is used.  For example, the query Vector Signal Analysis is equivalent to searching for all topics that contain at least one of the words vector or signal or analysis.

To search for

Example

Results
an exact phrase. "vector signal analysis" Topics containing the exact phrase "vector signal analysis".

both terms in the same topic.

span + center

span and center

span & center

Topics containing both the words "span" and "center."

either term in a topic.

spectrum vector

spectrum | vector

spectrum or vector

Topics containing either the word "spectrum" or "vector" or both.

the first term without the second.

reference -level

reference ! level

reference not level

Topics containing the word "reference" but not "level."
either the first term or the second term, but not both. reference ^ level Topics containing either "reference" or "level" but not both words.
a combination of the above. (resbw + span) + "time points" Topics containing "resbw" and "span" and containing the exact phrase "time points".

Favorites allows you to have a list of favorite topics and searches for easy reference.

To add a topic to Favorites, click the Add to Favorites button in the toolbar.

To add a search phrase to Favorites, click the Add to Favorites button next to the search box in the Search panel.

You can also remove favorites, by selecting the check box next to a favorite and clicking the red X button in the Favorites panel.