Using the HTML Help Viewer

SQL Server Books Online is displayed using the HTML Help Viewer.

Using Full-text Search

A basic search of Help topics consists of the word or phrase you want to find. Several options for refining your search are available:

Using words, phrases, and wildcards
Using operators: AND, OR, NOT, and NEAR
Using nested expressions

Some guidelines apply when performing a full-text search:

Searches are case-insensitive; you can type your search in either uppercase or lowercase characters.
Punctuation marks, such as the period (.), colon (:), semicolon (;), comma (,), and hyphen (-), are ignored.
Group the elements of your search using double quotation marks or parentheses. If you are searching for a file name with an extension, group the entire string in double quotation marks, for example, “filename.ext”. Otherwise, the search will treat the period as an AND. The period is a delimiter that breaks the file name into two terms.

To search topics and topic titles using full-text search

In the navigation pane of the HTML Help Viewer, click the Search tab, and then type the word or phrase to find.
- To search in topic titles only, select Search titles only.
- To refine a search to include only the last group of topics you searched, select Search previous results.
- To add Boolean operators to your search, click the right-arrow button.
Click List Topics, select the topic, and then click Display.
- To sort the topic list, click Title, Location, or Rank.

Words, Phrases, and Wildcards

You can search for words or phrases and use wildcard expressions. This table displays the results of these different kinds of searches.

Search for	Example	Result
Single word	select	Topics that contain the word select. (You will also find grammatical variations, such as selector and selection.)
Phrase	“new operator” Or new operator	Topics that contain the literal phrase “new operator” and all its grammatical variations. Without the quotation marks, the query is equivalent to specifying “new AND operator,” which finds topics containing both of the individual words, instead of the phrase.
Wildcard expressions	esc*	Topics that contain the terms ESC, escape, escalation, and so on. The asterisk cannot be the only character in the term.
	80?86	Topics that contain the terms 80186, 80286, 80386, and so on. The question mark cannot be the only character in the term.
	*86	Topics that contain the terms 386, 486, x86, QEMM386, 8086, and so on. The asterisk cannot be the only character in the term.

Note Select Match similar words to include grammatical variations for the word(s) on which you search. For example, a search on the word add finds add, adds, and added.

Operators: AND, OR, NOT, and NEAR

The AND, OR, NOT, and NEAR operators allow you to refine your search. If no operator is specified, AND is used. For example, the query “spacing border printing” is equivalent to “spacing and border and printing.”

Search for	Example	Result
Both terms in the same topic	dib AND palette	Topics containing both the words dib and palette.
Either term in a topic	raster OR vector	Topics containing either the word raster or the word vector.
First term without the second term	ole NOT dde	Topics containing the word OLE, but not the word DDE.
Both terms in the same topic, close together	user NEAR kernel	Topics containing the word user within eight words of the word kernel.

Note The |, &, and ! characters do not work as Boolean operators (use OR, AND, and NOT).

Nested Expressions

Nesting allows you to create more complex search expressions. For example, “control AND ((active OR dde) NEAR window)” finds topics containing the term control along with the terms active and window close together, or containing control along with the terms dde and window close together.

Some guidelines apply when searching Help topics using nested expressions:

Use parentheses to nest expressions within a query. The expressions in parentheses are evaluated before the rest of the query.
Searches that do not contain a nested expression are evaluated from left to right. For example, “Control NOT active OR dde” finds topics containing the term control without the term active, or topics containing the term dde. (However, “control NOT (active OR dde)” finds topics containing the term control without either of the terms active or dde.)
You cannot nest expressions more than five levels deep.

Other Features of the HTML Help Viewer

To find information in a Help topic

These are the tabs available in the navigation pane of the HTML Help Viewer for finding a Help topic:

To browse through topics by entries in the table of contents, click the Contents tab.
To see a list of index entries, click the Index tab, and then either type a word or scroll through the list. Similar to the index in a printed book, topics are often indexed under more than one entry.
To locate every occurrence of a word or phrase that may be contained in a Help topic, click the Search tab. You can narrow your search by defining subsets of topics that you specify.
To add a topic to a list of frequently used topics, display the topic you want to add, click the Favorites tab, and then click Add.

To navigate through previously viewed topics

To display the previous Help topic listed in the table of contents, click Previous.
To display the next Help topic listed in the table of contents, click Next.
To display the last previously viewed Help topic, click Back.
To display the next Help topic in a previously displayed sequence of topics, click Forward.
To display the Home page topic for the Help file you are viewing, click Home.

Note The HTML Help Viewer toolbar may not contain all the above options for moving through topics.

To link to other Help topics

In a Help topic, click colored, underlined words to see other information related to the topic.

To copy and paste a Help topic

In the topic pane of the HTML Help Viewer, right-click anywhere in the topic, click Select All, right-click again, and then click Copy.
This copies the topic to the Clipboard.
Open the document into which you want the topic copied.
Position the cursor where you want the information to appear, and then on the Edit menu, click Paste.

Note To copy only part of a topic, select the part that you want to copy, right-click your selection, and then click Copy.

To print a Help topic

In the topic pane of the HTML Help Viewer, right-click anywhere in the topic, and then click Print.

Note If you print from the Contents tab, you will see options for printing either the current topic or all of the topics under the selected heading.

To hide or show the HTML Help Viewer navigation pane

To hide the navigation pane, that contains the table of contents, index, search, and favorites list, click Hide. Only the topic pane will be displayed.
To display the navigation pane, click Show.

Note If you close the HTML Help Viewer, it will reopen using the last size, position, and navigation pane settings you selected.

To change the color of the HTML Help Viewer topic pane

In Microsoft® Internet Explorer version 4.0, on the View menu, click Internet Options.
On the General tab, click Colors.
In the Colors dialog box, select the options you want, and then click OK.
On the General tab, click Accessibility.
Under Formatting, select the check boxes for the options you want, and then click OK.
To apply the new color settings, in the Internet Options dialog box, click OK.

Note This only changes the color of the HTML Help Viewer topic pane.

To change the font size in the HTML Help Viewer topic pane

On the Help toolbar, click Font.

Note This only changes the font in the HTML Help Viewer topic pane.

To use accessibility shortcut keys in the HTML Help Viewer

The following keyboard shortcuts can be used for navigation in the HTML Help Viewer version 1.2.

Action	Shortcut
Close the HTML Help Viewer	ALT+F4
Switch between the HTML Help Viewer and other open windows	ALT+TAB
Display the Options menu	ALT+O
Hide or show the navigation pane	ALT+O, and then press T
Print a topic	ALT+O, and then press P
Refresh the topic that appears in the topic pane	ALT+O, and then press R
Move back to the previous topic	ALT+O, and then press B
Move forward to the next topic (provided you have viewed it previously)	ALT+O, and then press F
Switch focus between the navigation pane and the topic pane	F6
Scroll through a topic	UP ARROW or DOWN ARROW
Move to the end or beginning of a topic	CTRL+END and CTRL+HOME
Scroll through the links in a topic, or through all of the options on a tab	TAB

The following keyboard shortcuts can be used for navigation on the Contents tab.

Action	Shortcut
Display the Contents tab	ALT+C
Open a book or folder	ENTER
Close a book or folder	ENTER
Select a topic	DOWN ARROW or UP ARROW
Display the selected topic	ENTER

The following keyboard shortcuts can be used for navigation on the Index tab.

Action	Shortcut
Display the Index tab	ALT+N
Select a keyword in the list	UP ARROW or DOWN ARROW
Display the associated topic	ALT+D

The following keyboard shortcuts can be used for navigation on the Search tab.

Action	Shortcut
Display the Search tab	ALT+S
Start a search	ALT+L
Select a topic in the results list	ALT+T, and then UP ARROW or DOWN ARROW
Display the selected topic	ALT+D