User Manual

Pro Tools Reference Guide36
Using the Help Navigation
Tools
The left frame of the Help browser is the display
area for most of the Help system’s main naviga-
tion tools.
The Contents provides a list of links to the main
topics in the Help system. By default, the Con-
tents tab shows only links to the first topic in
each chapter. This lets you quickly see the over-
all organization of the Help system. You can ex-
pand any chapter in the Contents to show the
main topics within that chapter, and you can
move to any of these topics by clicking its entry
in the Contents tab.
The Index provides an alphabetized list of en-
tries similar to the index of a printed book. If
Java is enabled in your browser, the Index dis-
plays as a dynamic index where the listing
scrolls as you type a word in the text box. If you
do not have Java enabled in your browser, or if
your browser does not support Java implemen-
tations, a JavaScript version of the index dis-
plays which lets you scroll manually through
the entries.
The Search tab lets you search the entire text of
the Help system for one or more words and then
lists the topics that include those words.
How the Search Feature
Works
The Search feature provides the best combina-
tion of usefulness and speed. To use Search suc-
cessfully, you should understand the following
aspects of the Search feature:
• The Search feature uses a database of valid
words. This database includes all words that
are significant for identifying topics and ex-
cludes all other words. When you type words
in the search text box, the system ignores any
invalid words that you have typed and
searches for valid words.
• The Search feature cannot search for words in
a certain order. For example, if you type “TIFF
graphics import” as a search entry, Search dis-
plays all topics that contains these three
words regardless of their location in the topic.
The results include topics where the three
words appear together as a phrase, and also
topics where the three words are scattered
throughout the topic.
• The Search feature cannot distinguish be-
tween words that are similar but not identical.
For example, if you type “capture” as a search
entry, Search displays topics that include that
word, but it does not find topics that include
related words such as “captures” or “captur-
ing.” If a search for a word fails to produce
useful results, you might be more successful if
you search again using one of the related
words.
The Help system’s search functionality has
a limitation when the Help system is run-
ning in the Safari browser. You can perform
one search successfully, but subsequent
searches do not return results until you clear
the Safari cache. You can do this by quitting
Safari and relaunching the Help, or by emp-
tying the cache directly (select Safari >
Empty Cache, or use the Command+Op-
tion+E keyboard shortcut). Other browsers,
for example Mozilla Firefox, do not have
this limitation.
Remember that Help includes a comprehen-
sive index. If Search does not produce useful
results for a particular topic, you can often
find the specific information you need
quickly by using the index.