Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional in 10 Minutes

By Dorothy Burke and Jane Calabria

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • Tell Us What You Think!
  • About the Authors
  • Introduction
  • Conventions Used in This Book
  • Lesson 1. Navigating Windows 2000 Professional
  • Lesson 2. Working with a Window
  • Lesson 3. Using Menus
  • Lesson 4. Using Windows 2000 Professional Help
    • Getting Help in Windows 2000
    • The Help Window
    • Using Windows Online Help
    • Using Web Help
  • Lesson 5. Using Dialog Boxes
  • Lesson 6. Working with Multiple Windows and Applications
  • Lesson 7. Copying, Moving, and Linking Between Windows and Applications
  • Lesson 8. Using My Computer
  • Lesson 9. Managing Files with My Computer
  • Lesson 10. Using WordPad
  • Lesson 11. Understanding File Properties and the Recycle Bin
  • Lesson 12. Printing
  • Lesson 13. Using My Network Places
  • Lesson 14. Using the Control Panel
  • Lesson 15. Using Outlook Express Mail
  • Lesson 16. Sharing Workstations and Setting Passwords
  • Lesson 17. Using Internet Explorer 5
  • Lesson 18. Web Site and Document Searching
  • Lesson 19. Troubleshooting, Restarting, and Disaster Planning
  • Lesson 20. Customizing the Windows 2000 Environment

Using Windows Online Help

Windows Online Help is designed to provide local (files found on your PC) help for using Windows 2000. Four views are available within the Help program: the Contents, Index, Search, and Favorites views.

• The Contents view displays a list of topics and subtopics, such as "Introducing Window 2000 Professional" and "What's New?"
• The Index feature enables you to access specific categories of topics—such as adapters, disk configuration, copying, and so on.
• Search lets you search for specific words and phrases—such as Copy, Memory, Printing, and so on.
• Favorites allows you to collect Help documents that you use frequently or want to find easily by adding them to your Favorites view.

Windows Help text often contains links to other documents and more information. These links are identified by underlined text, and usually appear in blue on your screen. Click the underlined text to access additional information (see Figure 4.1). Words that are underlined in green contain pop-up definitions. Click on the green word to see its definition.

Figure 4.1 Click on a category (book) to expand it; click again to collapse the category.

Using the Contents Feature

You can get help with common procedures using Help's Contents feature. The Contents feature displays a list of collapsed categories such as Start Here and Printing. Categories are represented by a closed book. To view the contents of a category, click once on the book. Expanded categories are represented by an open book. Documents or pages that contain help information are represented by a document with a question mark or an open book as shown in Figure 4.1. When you click on a document, its contents display in the preview pane on the right of the screen.

Follow these steps to use Help's Contents feature:

1. Choose the Start button and then choose Help. The Windows Help window appears; select the Contents tab if it is not already selected.

   Tip

   Pick a Tab The last tab in the Help Topics window that you accessed is the one that appears the next time you open Help.
2. In the Contents list, click the book icon in front of the topic you want to view. The book opens, and related topics appear either in a list of books or documents.
3. Click a document icon to view information about that topic.
4. When you finish with the Help topic, you can choose one of the following buttons:
   • Close (X): To close the Help window and return to the Desktop.
   • Back: To display the previously viewed Help window.
   • Options: To print, or otherwise set preferences for the Help window.

Using the Index Feature

Help's Index feature provides a list of Help topics arranged alphabetically on the Index tab of the Help Topics window. You can enter a word for which you are searching, or you can scroll through the list to find a topic. Figure 4.2 shows the Index tab of the Help Topics: Windows Help dialog box.

Figure 4.2 Use the Index tab to find specific words and phrases in Help.

To use the Help Index, follow these steps:

1. In the Windows Help window, click the Index tab.
2. Click in the text box located directly under the Index tab. Type the topic or word you want help with. As you type, Windows moves to the topics beginning with the first letters you enter.
3. Click the display button to view the topic information in the preview pane as shown in Figure 4.2.

   Tip

   Browse the List You can scroll through the index list to see what other topics are available.
4. In the list of topics, select the topic you want to view and choose Display, or simply double-click the topic. Display will either display a document in the preview screen, or display a Topics Found Window containing choices regarding your topic as shown in Figure 4.3. If the dialog box appears, highlight a topic and click Display.
   

   Figure 4.3 Depending on the topic you search in Help, an interim Topics Found window may appear.

5. Depending upon the topic you have chosen, the preview pane document will display the information you are seeking, or it may display information for obtaining more detailed data on your topic. In Figure 4.2, instructions appear in the preview pane to click an arrow to start a printing troubleshooting process, when the topic searched was "print."
6. When you're finished with the Help topic, you can choose another option, or you can close the Help window by pressing Alt+F4.

Using the Search Feature

To search for specific words and phrases within a Help topic instead of searching for a Help topic itself, use the Search Feature. The Search feature requires that the Help database be indexed; that is, the text contained within the Help documents themselves can be searched. Therefore, the first time you use the Search feature you will need to instruct Windows to create a list that contains the words from your Help files. You only create this list once, and it could take a few moments. It might be a good idea to use Search and build the list before you actually need it. This way, when you are working on a project and need to search the database, you won't have to wait for the index to build.

The Search feature is especially useful when you cannot find a particular Help topic in Help Contents or on the Index tab's list of topics.

To use the Search feature, follow these steps:

1. In the Windows Help window, choose the Search tab. If you have used Search before, skip to step 3. If you haven't previously set up the Help topics, the Search Setup Wizard dialog box appears. Continue with these steps.
2. In the Search Setup Wizard dialog box, choose one of the following:
   • Minimize Database Size: Creates a short, limited word list (recommended because it takes less hard disk space).
   • Maximize Search Capabilities: Creates a long, detailed word list.
   • Customize Search Capabilities: Enables you to create a shorter word list, including only the Help files you want to use. Use this option if you have limited disk space. If you select this option, choose Next, and then choose the topics you want to include.
   • Click the Finish button to create the word list.
3. When Windows finishes creating the word list, the Search tab contains a text box, a word list, and a topic list as shown in Figure 4.4.
   

   Figure 4.4 Search for words or phrases within Help documents using the Search feature.

To search for words or a phrase in Help, follow these steps:

1. Type the word or phrase you want to find in the keywords text box on the Search tab page. Click the List Topics button or press Enter when you are through with your word or phrase.
2. A list of available Topics appears in the Topic pane (see Figure 4.4) Select the topic you wish to display and click the Display button.
3. When you finish with the Help topic, you can close the Help window or select another option, as described in the previous section, "Using the Index Feature."

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