New and better help is always a click away. Claris Organizer, ClarisWorks 3.0, ClarisDraw and ClarisImpact usher in new help systems.

This information was provided by Claris Corporation on 16 March 1998, and incorporated into Apple Computer's Tech Info Library.

Until 1994, Claris products shipped with simple black & white, HyperCard-based help systems. The help screen was sized for small monitors, and could not be expanded. The majority of information about a product was contained in the bulky manuals. Onscreen help was available as a reference, but it wasn't meant to be used in place of the manual. Fortunately, those days are over, and new, improved help systems are here to stay.

The dawn of a new help system
----------------------------------------------
Claris products shipping since 1994 include a new help environment with enhanced features for ease-of-use. Product information is now primarily onscreen, and the manual has been established as a smaller reference.

Opening the new help system, you will notice two differences from older help systems:

- Information is written as full pages of text, rather than as a fixed window size. The help window can be resized, so that the text flows into the available space.

- Headings and topics are displayed in blue text and underlined for identifying key words easily.

The help window
--------------------------
Figure 1 shows the new help window displaying the topic "Shearing an image." The window can be stretched wider and taller, if desired, using the Zoom and Size boxes. On large screens, you can show your document plus the help scrUntil 1994, Claris products shipped with simple black & white, HyperCard-based help systems. The help screen was sized for small monitors, and could not be expanded. The majority of information about a product was contained in the bulky manuals. Onscreen help was available as a reference, but it wasn't meant to be used in place of the manual. Fortunately, those days are over, and new, improved help systems are here to stay.

The dawn of a new help system
----------------------------------------------
Claris products shipping since 1994 include a new help environment with enhanced features for ease-of-use. Product information is now primarily onscreen, and the manual has been established as a smaller reference.

Opening the new help system, you will notice two differences from older help systems:

- Information is written as full pages of text, rather than as a fixed window size. The help window can be resized, so that the text flows into the available space.

- Headings and topics are displayed in blue text and underlined for identifying key words easily.

The help window
--------------------------
Figure 1 shows the new help window displaying the topic "Shearing an image." The window can be stretched wider and taller, if desired, using the Zoom and Size boxes. On large screens, you can show your document plus the help screen at the same time without overlapping the windows. This is a great benefit in that you will not need to print the steps or write them down in order to follow them.

When reading about a topic, you can easily pick out words that are further explained elsewhere in the help. By clicking on a word with a dotted underline and holding down the mouse button, you can expand a description balloon about that word. By clicking on a bold word with a solid underline, you can advance to help on that specific topic. In Figure 1, for example, you could quickly move to the related topics: "Adding perspective," "Distorting an image," and "Selecting an image." The help system makes this easy by supplying special links to other topics.

[See Figure 2 for a sample of the Help System icons. * Ed.]

- Contents button
The Contents screen is a good starting point while you are learning to use the software. You can find overviews of the product's features, and learn how to navigate the help
window.

The Contents portion of the onscreen help is reached in various ways:

- Selecting Contents from the help menu in ClarisWorks 3.0 or in the ClarisDraw application
- Clicking the Contents button within the help screen for all four programs
- Selecting "Help..." under the Apple menu in ClarisImpact, ClarisWorks 3.0, or Claris Organizer

Once you are viewing the Contents screen, all four products offer a choice to see "How to Use Help" (for ClarisImpact, this is called "About Help"). In the contents screen of all but Claris Organizer, you can also jump to a Glossary of terms, a listing of Keyboard Shortcuts, or tips on troubleshooting.

- Keyword button
The Keyword button allows you to see an alphabetical index of terms and topics. This feature is invaluable if you do not know the term used to describe a feature. For example, you may know you want to create some default settings in all future ClarisWorks 3.0 documents, but you don't know the term the program uses. Searching through Keywords, you will come across "defaults." This generates a list of topics including "Save document formatting." After clicking on that topic, you can read the topic and check for related information. One of the underlined titles for further reading is "Create stationery for all new documents." Clicking that title brings you to step-by-step directions for setting up default documents.

- Searching for Words
Using the Search for Help On... in ClarisWorks 3.0, or the magnifying glass search button in any product, you can search by specific words. The help window displays the search results as a list of topics whose text contains your search word. When you click an underlined topic, instances of the term you searched for will be highlighted in the text of that topic. This will draw your attention to paragraphs
relevant to your search.

- Taking notes
As you read the help listing for a subject, you may find that you have your own notes to add. Clicking the note button opens a screen for your personal notes. You can take notes only within topics, so the Notes button is unavailable when viewing lists such as the Keyword list.

When you add a note, a new icon will appear to remind you a note is present in the specific topic.

The "pencil" icon appears next to a topic name to indicate that a personal note is added.

To delete your notes on a topic, click the pencil button to reveal your notes, then delete the text of your note; the pencil icon disappears, indicating that there are no more personal notes for this topic.

- Sharing your notes with others
Your notes are stored in your System Folder. You can display your notes on a colleague's computer by copying the notes file to your colleague's System Folder. Follow these steps on the Macintosh:

1. Copy your Help.note file to a diskette. This file is called ClarisDraw Help.note for ClarisDraw, ClarisWorks Help.note for ClarisWorks 3.0 etc. It is found in your System Folder, inside the folder called Claris.
2. Ask your colleague if any personal notes have been added. If saving personal notes is desired, place your colleague's Help.note file onto another diskette. Notes can be restored any time by placing this note file back in the Claris folder.
3. Copy your notes file from your diskette into your colleague's Claris folder.

The next time your colleague launches the program, there will be full access to your notes. This is useful for annotating instructions for colleagues who aren't as familiar with the programs.

- Topics A-Z button
Clicking on the Topics A-Z button takes you to a view of the alphabet. Here, you can click on a letter to see an alphabetical listing of the help topics that start with that letter. This is similar to browsing the index of a book. However, the difference here is that you can click on a topic to see information about it instantly. When you already know the title of a topic, this can help you quickly move to that topic. The list can also be browsed for items of interest.

The Topics A-Z button can be found on the Contents screen and on the How to Use Help screen in ClarisWorks 3.0 and ClarisDraw. In Claris Organizer, the Topics A-Z button is on the Claris Organizer Basics screen, plus the opening screen. There is no Topics A-Z button in ClarisImpact.

- Return to previous topic
As you are reading about topics, you may decide you landed in a subject in which you're not interested. You can quickly return to the list or topic you saw last by clicking the Previous Topic button.

- Navigation buttons
If you advance to a topic and a navigation button is available (not grayed out), you can scan forward or backward through related topics. This will save the time of returning to a previous topic in order to select another underlined topic.

Help is always a click away
--------------------------------------
With the development of this new help system, Claris has provided a powerful new tool to assist you in becoming more productive with your Claris products. The resizeable window allows you to size the help screen so that it is comfortable for you. The different ways of searching for information help you streamline the process of moving from related topic to related topic. And, best of all, you can now enter your own notes about a topic right in the Help system itself!

Help Screen Differences in ClarisWorks for Windows.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Claris Help system for ClarisWorks for Windows operates almost the same as for Macintosh. The new and enhanced features that make the Help system more user-friendly and intuitive assist you in becoming more productive. The few differences are listed below.

- Contents
By choosing Contents from the Help menu you get a general listing of ClarisWorks topics which are available for browsing. When your cursor touches one of the topics (titled in green), it becomes a "pointer." By clicking once on a topic with the pointer it will bring you to more de-tailed information about the selected subject.

- Search for help by topic or key word
When you are not sure what topic to look up, choose "Search for Help on..." under the Help menu. In the resulting Help window that appears, you get a list of all the different topics that have associations with the word you typed in the first search screen. Scan the items in this list and double-click on a topic to find the set of step-by-step instructions associated with the task. If you need additional related information, you can choose from any of the related topics listed at the end of the instructions. Any word highlighted in green letters can be clicked on to get a brief, more descriptive explanation of that highlighted word or term.

- Annotate (Taking Notes)
As in the Macintosh version of the Help system, you can "take notes" at just about any time while you are in the help system. Click on Edit from the ClarisWorks Help menu bar and select Annotate to access the note system. Unfortunately, the notes system is not available when searching for Keywords. However, if notes already exist or when they are added, an icon in the shape of a small green paper clip will appear as the first character at the beginning of the topic's paragraph to indicate that there are notes for that specific topic.
To delete a note, simply click on Edit, Annotate, and highlight the portion of the text to be deleted then click on Delete, then OK. The entire contents of your notes can be deleted by clicking directly on delete and then OK.

- Back
The Back button is similar to the Return to Previous Topic button in the Macintosh version. You can click on the Back button to bring you backward one screen at a time.

- Bookmark
One feature not available in the Macintosh version of the Help system is the Bookmark (click Bookmark from the ClarisWorks Help menu bar). It can be a very useful tool. For example, it enables you to go directly to a particular screen that contains step-by-step directions on how to perform a fairly complex procedure that you may use frequently. Or, perhaps you may choose to set a bookmark for a screen you refer to often, thereby saving yourself the need to click through five submenus in order to get to it. Bookmarks can be created almost anywhere in the help window, except when in the Searching on Keywords Help screen. To create a Bookmark from any other help screen, you just click on Bookmark from the menu bar, choose Define, type a Bookmark name that will help you remember the place you want to keep. "Printing Labels," for example, may be a good name for a Bookmark. Click OK to save the Bookmark name. The Bookmark is then saved and added to the list in alphabetical order.

To recall your Bookmark, click on Bookmark from the menu bar, and all your bookmarks appear in chronological order with the most recent one added being listed at the bottom of the drop-down list. To delete a Bookmark name, click on Bookmark, select define, highlight the Bookmark name that you want to delete by clicking once on the name from the list, click on the Delete button, and click OK when finished.
een at the same time without overlapping the windows. This is a great benefit in that you will not need to print the steps or write them down in order to follow them.

When reading about a topic, you can easily pick out words that are further explained elsewhere in the help. By clicking on a word with a dotted underline and holding down the mouse button, you can expand a description balloon about that word. By clicking on a bold word with a solid underline, you can advance to help on that specific topic. In Figure 1, for example, you could quickly move to the related topics: "Adding perspective," "Distorting an image," and "Selecting an image." The help system makes this easy by supplying special links to other topics.

[See Figure 2 for a sample of the Help System icons. * Ed.]

- Contents button
The Contents screen is a good starting point while you are learning to use the software. You can find overviews of the product's features, and learn how to navigate the help
window.

The Contents portion of the onscreen help is reached in various ways:

- Selecting Contents from the help menu in ClarisWorks 3.0 or in the ClarisDraw application
- Clicking the Contents button within the help screen for all four programs
- Selecting "Help..." under the Apple menu in ClarisImpact, ClarisWorks 3.0, or Claris Organizer

Once you are viewing the Contents screen, all four products offer a choice to see "How to Use Help" (for ClarisImpact, this is called "About Help"). In the contents screen of all but Claris Organizer, you can also jump to a Glossary of terms, a listing of Keyboard Shortcuts, or tips on troubleshooting.

- Keyword button
The Keyword button allows you to see an alphabetical index of terms and topics. This feature is invaluable if you do not know the term used to describe a feature. For example, you may know you want to create some default settings in all future ClarisWorks 3.0 documents, but you don't know the term the program uses. Searching through Keywords, you will come across "defaults." This generates a list of topics including "Save document formatting." After clicking on that topic, you can read the topic and check for related information. One of the underlined titles for further reading is "Create stationery for all new documents." Clicking that title brings you to step-by-step directions for setting up default documents.

- Searching for Words
Using the Search for Help On... in ClarisWorks 3.0, or the magnifying glass search button in any product, you can search by specific words. The help window displays the search results as a list of topics whose text contains your search word. When you click an underlined topic, instances of the term you searched for will be highlighted in the text of that topic. This will draw your attention to paragraphs
relevant to your search.

- Taking notes
As you read the help listing for a subject, you may find that you have your own notes to add. Clicking the note button opens a screen for your personal notes. You can take notes only within topics, so the Notes button is unavailable when viewing lists such as the Keyword list.

When you add a note, a new icon will appear to remind you a note is present in the specific topic.

The "pencil" icon appears next to a topic name to indicate that a personal note is added.

To delete your notes on a topic, click the pencil button to reveal your notes, then delete the text of your note; the pencil icon disappears, indicating that there are no more personal notes for this topic.

- Sharing your notes with others
Your notes are stored in your System Folder. You can display your notes on a colleague's computer by copying the notes file to your colleague's System Folder. Follow these steps on the Macintosh:

1. Copy your Help.note file to a diskette. This file is called ClarisDraw Help.note for ClarisDraw, ClarisWorks Help.note for ClarisWorks 3.0 etc. It is found in your System Folder, inside the folder called Claris.
2. Ask your colleague if any personal notes have been added. If saving personal notes is desired, place your colleague's Help.note file onto another diskette. Notes can be restored any time by placing this note file back in the Claris folder.
3. Copy your notes file from your diskette into your colleague's Claris folder.

The next time your colleague launches the program, there will be full access to your notes. This is useful for annotating instructions for colleagues who aren't as familiar with the programs.

- Topics A-ZÊbutton
Clicking on the Topics A-Z button takes you to a view of the alphabet. Here, you can click on a letter to see an alphabetical listing of the help topics that start with that letter. This is similar to browsing the index of a book. However, the difference here is that you can click on a topic to see information about it instantly. When you already know the title of a topic, this can help you quickly move to that topic. The list can also be browsed for items of interest.

The Topics A-Z button can be found on the Contents screen and on the How to Use Help screen in ClarisWorks 3.0 and ClarisDraw. In Claris Organizer, the Topics A-Z button is on the Claris Organizer Basics screen, plus the opening screen. There is no Topics A-Z button in ClarisImpact.

- Return to previous topic
As you are reading about topics, you may decide you landed in a subject in which you're not interested. You can quickly return to the list or topic you saw last by clicking the Previous Topic button.

- Navigation buttons
If you advance to a topic and a navigation button is available (not grayed out), you can scan forward or backward through related topics. This will save the time of returning to a previous topic in order to select another underlined topic.

Help is always a click away
--------------------------------------
With the development of this new help system, Claris has provided a powerful new tool to assist you in becoming more productive with your Claris products. The resizeable window allows you to size the help screen so that it is comfortable for you. The different ways of searching for information help you streamline the process of moving from related topic to related topic. And, best of all, you can now enter your own notes about a topic right in the Help system itself!

Help Screen Differences in ClarisWorks for Windows.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Claris Help system for ClarisWorks for Windows operates almost the same as for Macintosh. The new and enhanced features that make the Help system more user-friendly and intuitive assist you in becoming more productive. The few differences are listed below.

- Contents
By choosing Contents from the Help menu you get a general listing of ClarisWorks topics which are available for browsing. When your cursor touches one of the topics (titled in green), it becomes a "pointer." By clicking once on a topic with the pointer it will bring you to more de-tailed information about the selected subject.

- Search for help by topic or key word
When you are not sure what topic to look up, choose "Search for Help on..." under the Help menu. In the resulting Help window that appears, you get a list of all the different topics that have associations with the word you typed in the first search screen. Scan the items in this list and double-click on a topic to find the set of step-by-step instructions associated with the task. If you need additional related information, you can choose from any of the related topics listed at the end of the instructions. Any word highlighted in green letters can be clicked on to get a brief, more descriptive explanation of that highlighted word or term.

- Annotate (Taking Notes)
As in the Macintosh version of the Help system, you can "take notes" at just about any time while you are in the help system. Click on Edit from the ClarisWorks Help menu bar and select Annotate to access the note system. Unfortunately, the notes system is not available when searching for Keywords. However, if notes already exist or when they are added, an icon in the shape of a small green paper clip will appear as the first character at the beginning of the topic's paragraph to indicate that there are notes for that specific topic.
To delete a note, simply click on Edit, Annotate, and highlight the portion of the text to be deleted then click on Delete, then OK. The entire contents of your notes can be deleted by clicking directly on delete and then OK.

- Back
The Back button is similar to the Return to Previous Topic button in the Macintosh version. You can click on the Back button to bring you backward one screen at a time.

- Bookmark
One feature not available in the Macintosh version of the Help system is the Bookmark (click Bookmark from the ClarisWorks Help menu bar). It can be a very useful tool. For example, it enables you to go directly to a particular screen that contains step-by-step directions on how to perform a fairly complex procedure that you may use frequently. Or, perhaps you may choose to set a bookmark for a screen you refer to often, thereby saving yourself the need to click through five submenus in order to get to it. Bookmarks can be created almost anywhere in the help window, except when in the Searching on Keywords Help screen. To create a Bookmark from any other help screen, you just click on Bookmark from the menu bar, choose Define, type a Bookmark name that will help you remember the place you want to keep. "Printing Labels," for example, may be a good name for a Bookmark. Click OK to save the Bookmark name. The Bookmark is then saved and added to the list in alphabetical order.

To recall your Bookmark, click on Bookmark from the menu bar, and all your bookmarks appear in chronological order with the most recent one added being listed at the bottom of the drop-down list. To delete a Bookmark name, click on Bookmark, select define, highlight the Bookmark name that you want to delete by clicking once on the name from the list, click on the Delete button, and click OK when finished.