Newbie Question

Kay C Lan lan.kc.macmail at gmail.com
Thu Mar 29 21:33:45 EDT 2007


On 3/28/07, Simon HARPER <simon.harper at manchester.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> Regarding the online dictionary, it seems to be different on the mac
> - the tutorials suggest you can use a drill down approach looking for
> say messages or commands and then locating the one you want
> (serendipitous browse) however on my mac I seem to only be presented
> with just a huge list and expected to know the name of the command I
> want (targeted search). Is there anyway to get the browse facility?


Just to point a couple of things out about the A-Z dictionary you may not
know.

When first opened you are given all the keywords in alphabetical order,
which as you say for a new user can be a next to useless. As with any good
table, if you click on the column headers the list will be sorted, so by
clicking on Type you can get all the Commands or Functions listed together.
Clicking again will sort in reverse order. Additionally you can change which
columns are displayed by (on Mac) clicking on any column header with the
'ctrl' key pressed - note, unlike most contextual menus in this case you
need to release the mouse so a mouseUp message is sent. Columns I find
useful are Type, Syntax, Synonyms and Library. Library is good because you
can get all the Database, XML etc commands/functions/properties listed
together.

Lastly, remember to look at the "See Also:" for each entry. These are
hyperlinked to their appropriate entry so when you do a 'basic' search for
'sort' or 'repeat' you may get an See Also link that refers more
specifically with what you had in mind.

HTH



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