Help Menu

The Help menu contains commands that you can use to get help on using Sketchpad. The Sketchpad help system is an electronic version of the Reference Manual, including information on all of Sketchpad’s commands and tools, contains a myriad of useful tips and techniques, and provides a table of contents and index to make it easy for you to find the information you’re looking for.

Windows users can press F1 while pointing to a menu command to get help on that command, even if the command is disabled. Windows users can also press F1 when a dialog box is open to get help on that dialog box.

Contents takes you to the first page of the help system, from which you can get an overview of Sketchpad’s help system, access the various help topics, and look up specific terms and phrases.

What’s New gives you a summary of the differences between Sketchpad Version 3 and Sketchpad Version 4, and also provides information about any new features or late-breaking news which is not in the printed documentation.

Elements describes the windows, pages, and tools of Sketchpad documents; the various kinds of objects you can create; and the Motion Controller, Text Palette, and Calculator.

Toolbox provides information on using the tools in Sketchpad’s toolbox.

Sketchpad’s help system is only available on computers that have a web browser installed.

Menus allows you to quickly find information about using any of Sketchpad’s menu commands.

Keyboard describes the various keyboard shortcuts available in Sketchpad, and the special features you can take advantage of by using the keyboard.

Advanced Topics describes several advanced features of Sketchpad that are of particular interest to experienced Sketchpad users.

About Sketchpad appears here in the Windows version only; it appears on the Apple menu in the Macintosh version. This command displays a dialog box identifying the registered user name, the specific version number of the program, and assorted program information and credits.

In addition to the Help menu, most of Sketchpad’s dialog boxes have Help buttons that you can click to get specific information about using that dialog box.