The Yelp Help Browser application allows you to view documentation regarding GNOME and other components through a variety of formats. These formats include docbook files, HTML help pages, man pages and info pages (support for man pages and info pages may optionally be compiled in). Despite the different formats supported, Yelp does its best to provide a unified look and feel regardless of the original document format.
Yelp Help Browser is internationalised, meaning that it has support to view documents in different languages. The documents must be localised or translated for each language and installed properly for Yelp Help Browser to be able to view them.
You can start Yelp Help Browser in the following ways:
Choose Help
Execute the following command: yelp
When you start Yelp Help Browser, you will see the following window appear.
Yelp Help Browser contains the following elements in Figura 7.1, “Yelp Help Browser Window”
Use this menu to Open a New Window, view the About this Document page, Print the current document, or Close the window.
Use this menu to Copy, Select all, Find..., or to set your Preferences.
Use this menu to navigate Back, Forward, to the Help Topics page. When viewing a DocBook document, use this menu to navigate to the Next Section, Previous Section or to the Contents.
Use this menu to Add Bookmark(s), or Edit Bookmark(s).
View information about Yelp Help Browser and contributors to the project through the F1.
menuitem. Open this document with the menuitem or by pressingUse this button to navigate back in your document history.
Use this button to navigate forward in your document history.
Use this button to return to the main table of contents (shown in Figura 7.1, “Yelp Help Browser Window”)
The browser pane is where you will be presented with the table of contents or the documentation. Use the table of contents to navigate to the documentation you need.
To open a document in Yelp Help Browser, use the Table of Contents to navigate to the desired document
Alternatively, you may view a particular document by invoking Yelp Help Browser from the command line. Please see Using the Command Line to Open Documents.
To view information about the currently open document:
Click
->
![]() |
|
This option is only available for DocBook documentation. Legal notices and documentation contributors are usually listed in this section. |
To print an entire document:
Click
->
![]() |
|
This option is only available for DocBook documentation. |
To close a window in Yelp Help Browser, do the following:
Click
->Use the key combination Ctrl-W
To set your preferences in Yelp Help Browser:
Click
->A window will appear that looks like Figura 7.2, “Yelp Help Browser Preferences Window”:
The options that are available in this dialog have the following functions:
Check this option to display documentation using the default fonts used by the GNOME Desktop.
To choose your own fonts to display documentation, uncheck this option and click on the buttons next to the text Variable Width or Fixed Width.
This is the font to use when a static or fixed width font is not required. The majority of text will be of this type.
This is the font to use when all text characters need to be of the same size. This font is usually used to indicate commands, program blocks, or other text that falls under these categories.
Click this option if you would like see a caret or cursor in the Yelp Browser Pane. This allows you to browse the document more easily by showing where the cursor is located in the document.
To go back in the document history:
Click
->Use the key combination Alt-Left
Use the Back button in the Toolbar
To go forward in the document history:
Click
->Use the key combination Alt-Right
Use the Forward button in the Toolbar
To go to the Help Topics:
Click
->Use the key combination Alt-Home
Use the Help Topics button in the Toolbar
To go to the previous section:
Click
->Use the key combination Alt-Up
![]() |
|
This option is only available in DocBook formatted documents. |
To go to the next section:
Click
->Use the key combination Alt-Down
![]() |
|
This option is only available in DocBook formatted documents. |
To go to the contents for a document:
Click
->
![]() |
|
This option is only available in DocBook formatted documents. |
To add a bookmark for a particular document:
Click
->Use the key combination Ctrl-D
A window will appear that looks like Figura 7.3, “Add Bookmark Window”.
Enter your desired bookmark title in to the Title text entry field. Then click Add to add the bookmark, or click Cancel to cancel the request.
To edit your collection of bookmarks:
Click
->Use the key combination Ctrl-B
A window will appear that looks like Figura 7.4, “Edit Bookmarks Window”.
You can manage your bookmarks using this window in the following ways:
Use this button to open the selected bookmark in a new window.
Use this button to rename the title of your bookmark.
Use this button to delete the bookmark from your collection.
Once you are finished managing your bookmarks, click the Close button to exit the Edit Bookmarks Window.
Yelp Help Browser supports opening documents from the command line. There are a number of URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers) that can be used. These include:
file:
Use this URI when you want to access a file with yelp, for example:
yelp file:///usr/share/gnome/help/gcalctool/C/gcalctool.xml
ghelp:
or
gnome-help:
Use this URI when you want to access GNOME help documents, which are typically written in DocBook format.
yelp ghelp:gcalctool
If you want to open the help document at a particular section, append a question mark to the end of the URI, followed by the section id.
yelp ghelp:user-guide?yelp-advanced-cmdline
man:
Use this URI when you want to access a particular man page. You can append the section of the man page you would like to view if there are multiple man pages with the same name. The section number should be enclosed in parenthesis and therefore it may be necessary to escape the argument so that the shell does not interpret the parenthesis.
yelp man:gcalctool
or
yelp 'man:intro(1)'
yelp 'man:intro(2)'
info:
Use this URI when you want to access a particular GNU info page.
yelp info:make
This section details some of the helper applications which Yelp Help Browser uses, and provides resources where you can get more information about Yelp Help Browser.
Yelp Help Browser uses scrollkeeper to generate the table of contents for DocBook and HTML documentation, and also keep track of translations for each document.
The documentation distributed with GNOME uses this set of utilities for a variety of things:
Ease translation of documents to different languages.
Provide a set of tools to help package and install documentation into the correct location and register the documentation with scrollkeeper.
Perform conversion from DocBook format to a format suitable for display.
Yelp Help Browser relies on GNOME XSLT Stylesheets to perform conversion from DocBook to HTML. GNOME Documentation Build Utilities are relied upon by application authors to install and register documentation within the help system.
For further information on Yelp Help Browser, please visit the Documentation Project homepage, http://live.gnome.org/Yelp, or subscribe to the mailing list, gnome-doc-devel-list@gnome.org.
If you are interesting in helping produce and update documentation for the GNOME project, please visit the Documentation Project homepage: http://live.gnome.org/DocumentationProject