There are three methods for accessing help content: remote
help, local help, and intranet help.
By default, your product connects to the web and accesses
help content directly from an information center. If you must access
the help when you are not connected to the Internet, you can download
the help to your computer and access it locally. Alternatively, you
can connect to an information center that your system administrator
hosts on an intranet server.
To summarize, you can use the following
methods to access help content:
- Remote help: You access or download help content from the ibm.com website The help content is
not installed on your computer.
- Local help: You download help content from the web and
install it on your local computer.
- Intranet help: You access help on an intranet server that
hosts help content that was downloaded from the web.
You use these items to download and update the help:
- The local help updater: When
you use local or intranet help, you use this utility to download the
initial content or to update content from the web.
- The help updater site: This ibm.com site
hosts the information center for your product. You can access this
site with a browser or from the product help system. This site is
also the source for the local help updater.
- The help download site: The
website http://download.boulder.ibm.com/ibmdl/pub/software/rationalsdp/documentation/updatesites/ contains
compressed files of the help content for your product. These compressed
files can populate either local or intranet help. The file name has this format: prod_coden.n_updateSite.zip,
where prod_code is the product code and n.n is
the version number.
- The watched folder: If you put a compressed update site
file in the watched folder, as defined in the Watcher folder field,
the help content in the file is installed locally at start up with
local help updater. To specify the folder to watch, click or , depending on your version of the help. In the left
pane, expand Help, and then click Local
Help Updater. Browse to the folder to watch.
- Enable automatic updates: When Enable automatic
updates is selected, the preference tells the help system
to automatically update content that is installed locally when the
help is started. To set this preference, click or . In the left pane, click Help,
and then clickLocal Help Updater. In the right
pane, click Enable automatic updates.
Remote help
You can access help content
from the web by using remote help. This method has the smallest installation
and ensures that you have the most current information. This access
method is selected by default during installation.
If you select
this option, the help is provided in the product information center
on an ibm.com website.
You can access the web-based help for the product only when you are
connected to the Internet. When you are disconnected, you have access
to a limited number of help topics that are installed with the product.
For more information, see the "Help contents" topic under Reference
in the information center.
Note: You must have an Internet connection to use
remote help.
To use remote help:
- Install and open the product.
- Click . The content is always the latest
available information.
Local help
To access help on your local
computer, you must first download the help content to your computer.
After you download the information center content, the content is
available when you are disconnected from the Internet. You can update
the content when changes are available.
Important: If you select this method, you must use the Internet
to connect to an update site from which you choose the help content
and features to download. The help is not downloaded automatically
when you install the product.
Intranet help (Enterprise solution)
Your
company might be able to host help content on an internal intranet
server. This method assumes that your system administrator set up
a link to an intranet server behind your firewall on which the help
is installed. If you select this option, you must specify the link
to the intranet server.
To use intranet help, users must complete these steps:
- Install and start the product.
- Change the method for accessing help. See Changing the location of help content .
- To update the help, the intranet server must connect to the Internet.
If the intranet server is connected to the Internet, the content is
updated automatically when the help starts, but not more than once
a day.
Regardless of whether you access web-based
help, download and use help locally, or connect to an intranet server
to access help, you click to open help topics
and find solutions.