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.
- 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 the following 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, which
can populate either local or intranet help. The file name has the format prod_coden.n_updateSite.zip, where prod_code is
the product code and n.n is the version number.
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.
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 that you need, 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 provide the link
to the intranet server.
To use intranet help, users must perform the following
steps:
- Install and start the product.
- Change the method for accessing help. See Changing from remote help to intranet help or Changing from local help to intranet help.
- 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.
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.