MathGroup Archive 1999

[Date Index] [Thread Index] [Author Index]

Search the Archive

Re: About help browser notebooks/hyperlinks

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg17190] Re: About help browser notebooks/hyperlinks
  • From: "P.J. Hinton" <paulh>
  • Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 01:21:02 -0400
  • Organization: "Wolfram Research, Inc."
  • References: <7fe990$cnm@smc.vnet.net>
  • Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

On 18 Apr 1999, Iacovos Kyprianou wrote:

> I am trying to write documentation for a package I created. The problem
> is that I want to use some hyper links that call other help notebooks. I
> use the standard Create Hyper link from Input but when I click on the
> hyper link a notebook opens not in the help browser but in a separate
> window.
> 
> How do I create help browser hyper links?
> 
> Note that in the Mathematica book there is no documentation on the help
> browser, in the book Programming in mathematica there are some trivial
> things and nothing in mathsource.
> 
> Please reply to my email because currently I am not subscribed in the
> list :)

Hyperlinks that access online documentation have an underlying button
function of the form:

FrontEndExecute[
  FrontEnd`HelpBrowserLookup[
    <help branch>,
    {<index tag>, <copy tag>}
  ]
]

Where <help branch> is one of the following strings:

	"RefGuide"	"MainBook"	"AddOns"
	"GettingStarted"	"OtherInformation"

These strings refer to which radio button is depressed to access the help
topic.

The <index tag> is a string which contains a unique identifier string can
be entered by the user in the Go To text field of the browser window.  

The <copy tag> is a string that refers to a cell tag option value in the
target notebook.  If specified, the browser will scroll to the first cell
with this tag.  

The mechanism of creating these hyperlinks is simplified by the fact that
all of the shrink-wrapped style sheet notebooks contain cell style
definitions that call the HelpBrowserLookup[] function.  These styles are:

"RefGuideLink"	"MainBookLink"	"AddOnsLink"
"GettingStartedLink"	"OtherInformationLink"

To create a hyperlink that summons some material in the online help, you
can do the following.

1) Enter the text that will anchor the hyperlink and select it.

2) Click on the front end menu command sequence Input -> Create Button ->
<button style>.

3) Locate the relevant content in the online help.  Note the text that
is displayed in the Go To line of the browser.  This is your index tag
value.  

4) If you want to scroll to a particular block of text in the document,
note the unique cell tag by clicking on the front end menu command
sequence Find -> Show Cell Tags.  The value of this tag is the copy tag.

5) Drag select the text of the hyperlink from right to left.

6) Click on the front end menu command sequence Input -> Edit Button...

7) On the resulting dialog box, enter the index tag and copy tag in the
button data field.

8) Click the Apply button to have the front end update the underlying
ButtonBox[] expression of the hyperlink.

9) Click OK to dismiss the dialog box.

Here is an example ButtonBox[] expression that was created with the above
technique.  It will open the Help Browser to Section 0.5.1 in the online
version of _The Mathematica Book_ (Third Edition).  The second element
None tells the HelpBrowser that it does not need to scroll anywhere within
the target notebook.

  ButtonBox["use Mathematica",
    ButtonData:>{"0.5.1", None},
    Active->True,
    ButtonStyle->"MainBookLink"]

If you need help creating your own online documentation, see the notebook
at URL:

http://www.wolfram.com/conference98/schedule/customizing_online_documentation.html

This is the presentation notebook that Andre Kuzniarek gave at the 1998
Worldwide Mathematica Conference on the topic of online docs.

--
P.J. Hinton
Mathematica Programming Group           paulh at wolfram.com
Wolfram Research, Inc.                  http://www.wolfram.com/~paulh/




  • Prev by Date: Re: ndsolve with discrete, piecewise variable
  • Next by Date: Re: importing and using data
  • Previous by thread: RE: About help browser notebooks/hyperlinks
  • Next by thread: Conics section