Domino Designer now uses Eclipse help which is a bit different than the old NSF help. Probably the best access mechanism is search. Drilling down through the Contents is useful when you know where you're going. The index is inconsistent and should be avoided. F1 can prove useful.

Click Help > Help Contents to bring up help in its own window. Notice that the help is for Lotus Domino Designer, Lotus Notes, and numerous other products depending on what's installed. Look for the following Domino Designer "books": Lotus Domino Designer Basic User Guide and Reference, Lotus Domino Designer XPages and Eclipse User Guide, and Lotus Domino Designer XPages Reference.

Tip 1 Use exact words or wildcards

The Search window is at the top left. Enter complete words. Enter the words precisely. By default you don't have to worry about case. Click Go or (8.5.1 or later) hit Return.

Suppose you are looking for the createFTIndex method. Entering createftindex gives you a nice list of hits.



But createft fails, as does creatftindex. Eclipse does not ask you, "Do you really mean createftindex?"

You can use wildcards so createft* brings up that nice list of hits.

One way to ensure accuracy is to copy and paste from the UI, for example, the script editor.

Tip 2 Hover or click to distinguish duplicates

The list of hits often shows the same or similar topic names especially for programming reference topics. For example, the first six hits for createftindex are for various topics in LotusScript, Java, and JavaScript. Sometimes you can tell from the abstract which one you want but sometimes the information is insufficient.

Hover over a hit to see which book it is in. The hover information also appears on the status line at the bottom. For example, if the hover information shows that a createftindex hit is in the Domino Designer XPages Reference, you know it is a JavaScript method. If the hit is in the Basic User Guide and Reference, it is LotusScript or Java.



Finally you can click on hits to see what comes up. Look at the breadcrumbs at the top of the page to see exactly where you are in the help hierarchy. For example, Lotus Domino XPages Reference > Domino > NotesDatabase shows that you this method is in the NotesDatabase class of XPages Domino library. You can click on a breadcrumb to navigate up in the help hierarchy.

Tip 3 Limit the search scope

This is especially useful if you are only interested in part of help, for example, the LotusScript class reference. It takes a slight amount of setup but then your hit list will contain only the subject matter of interest. Here are the steps:
1. At the top of help, to the right of the search window, click Search scope.
2. In the dialog, click Search only the following topics.
3. Click New.
4. In the next dialog, provide a name for this search scope, for example, "LotusScript classes."
5. Check the part or parts of help that you want to include in the search. You can drill down a level. For example, you might expand  Lotus Domino Designer Basic User Guide and Reference" then check "LotusScript/COM/OLE Classes."
6. Click OK to go back to the first dialog. You can repeat the previous step to create additional search scopes including one for "Search all topics."
7. Make sure the search scope you want is selected then click OK.

Tip 4 F1 opens help as the right pane of the main window

F1 brings up a complementary help system in the right pane. You can adjust the size of the window and close it when you're done.



In some cases, the documentation is the same as in the old F1, that is, a specific topic. In particular, if you use F1 in the formula editor, the old LotusScript editor, or the old Java editor, it brings up the specific programming reference topic.

In many cases, especially when in the XPages, F1 brings up material that is summary in nature. You can navigate to fuller documentation by using the links or by clicking Search or All Topics at the bottom of the page. As you navigate, you remain in the F1-style help pane on the right side of the window.

Tip 5 Hover help in the Eclipse LotusScript editor is cool

The new LotusScript editor provides hover help that taps into the regular help. When you put focus on a keyword, the help topic for that keyword appears in its own box which can be resized and scrolled. In addition, you can use the breadcrumbs and other links to navigate elsewhere in help.

Tip 6 Interpolate for the XPages Domino Objects reference

The help for the Domino Objects in the Domino Designer XPages Reference is a work in progress. Its content and formatting is off in places and most of the examples have yet to be supplied. However you can go to the same Java or LotusScript topic, for example, to obtain an example. You will have to interpolate of course, but in general JavaScript is simpler than the other languages.

Tip 7 NSF help is still there

The NSF help is also available but contains only the legacy (non-XPages) documentation and is not available through the menu. From Notes (not Designer), click File > Open > Lotus Notes Application or type Ctrl+O. Scroll down and double-click the Help directory. Double-click Lotus Domino Designer 8.5.1 Help (help85_designer.nsf).

Tip 8 The information center is the same help as installed with the product

The information center at http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/domhelp/v8r0/index.jsp has the same information as the help installed with Domino Designer. This is handy if you:
* prefer to run help out of a browser
* don't want to install the help
* want to get help when Domino Designer is not running