Help system features

Searching the topics

To search the topics, click the Search button  and then enter text in the Search box at the top of the help window. The search engine accounts for misspellings and uses autocomplete technology to make suggestions as you type. The suggested terms include your recent search history. Click X next to a suggested term to delete it from the search history.

When entering search text, use quotation marks to find a text string. For example, searching for the string “standard views” (in quotes) finds topics that contain the exact term standard views. Searching without the quotes finds instances of both words as well as each word. The search is not case-sensitive.

Press Enter to search the help system.

While searching, the progress is displayed under the Search box. When the search is complete, the number of results displays. If no results are found, “No results found” displays.

If the search is progressing slowly or appears frozen at 0%, connection or bandwidth issues may be impeding the search progress. The Session pane of the Vectorworks preferences allows switching to the local version of the help in this type of situation.

 

The search results list the topics that contain the search text or string. Topics are listed in order of relevance. For context, each result displays the topic heading, an excerpt from the text, and the breadcrumbs.

Click on a search result to open the associated topic; the search term is highlighted. To remove the highlighting, click Remove Highlight  in the right panel.

Favorites

   To view your saved articles, click Favorites from the Tool bar.

The Favorites panel opens, displaying a list of articles in the order in which they were bookmarked. Click a topic to view the contents. To remove a topic from your favorites list, click Edit Favorites , and then click Remove  next to the topic to remove. Close the Favorites panel to hide the saved articles.

 

 To add the active topic as a favorite, click Set as Favorite from the right panel. If the Set as Favorite button is not displayed on the right panel, click Favorites from the Tool bar to toggle the favorites display in the right panel.

The Set as Favorite button allows you to bookmark frequently used topics for future reference. Navigate to the desired topic and click Set as Favorite. The icon changes to filled, indicating that the topic has been added to your favorites list.

 

Printing topics

   To print the currently displayed topic, click Print from the right panel (desktop view only). Use this button rather than the browser’s Print command for best results.

Printing from certain browsers with the Print button may crop the help contents. If this happens, try using a different browser.

Related topics

At the end of certain topics, a list of additional topics with information related to the current topic is displayed. Click one of the topics to view the additional information. To return to the original topic, use the browser’s Back button.

 

Cross-references

Cross-references located within a topic are underlined and in gray. Click these links to navigate to more information about the underlined topic. To return to the original topic, click the browser’s Back button.

 

Browse navigation

The browse sequence buttons allow you to scroll through the help topics. These special navigation buttons display at the bottom of the topic window. Click Previous and Next to navigate through the topics.

Click Go to Top to return to the top of a long topic.

 

Breadcrumb navigation

In desktop view, breadcrumb navigation displays the current topic path and facilitates navigation to other topics along the path. Click any part of the breadcrumb path to navigate to that topic.

 

Help feedback form

As you use the online help system to inform yourself about the commands and tools of the Vectorworks program, you may wish to make a suggestion or report a problem. A link displays at the end of every topic in the online help. Click the link to access an online help feedback page. Internet access is required to open the page.

 

Movies

The Vectorworks YouTube channel contains video technical tips with an audio/visual explanation of various concepts. If a topic in the help has a related video tip, click on the Play button to watch the movie, or click Watch on YouTube. Internet access is required.

 

Parameter tables

The parameters of every dialog box are described in tables. By default, these tables are hidden so that you can read the steps of a procedure easily first. To view or hide a parameter table, click the link, Click to show/hide the parameters. This link toggles the table display on and off.

When you open a topic from the search tab, the tables that contain search terms display automatically.

 

You can easily toggle the display of all of the tables in a topic from the buttons on the Tool bar. Click  Expand Tables to open all tables, and click  Collapse Tables to close them all.

Commands and tools list

The Commands/Tools tab provides a filterable, alphabetical list of all the commands and tools in the Vectorworks program. Click on a command or tool name to view the associated documentation. The command and tool names can be filtered by entering a term in Find Keyword.

 

Glossary

The Glossary tab displays an alphabetical listing of frequently encountered terms in the Vectorworks program. Scroll to the term of interest and click it to view its definition. The glossary definitions can be filtered by entering a term in Find Term.