Getting Started

Help Browser

Use the Help browser to search and view documentation and demos for all your MathWorks products. The Help browser is a Web browser integrated into the MATLAB desktop that displays HTML documents.

To open the Help browser, click the help button in the toolbar, or type helpbrowser in the Command Window.

The Help browser consists of two panes, the Help Navigator, which you use to find information, and the display pane, where you view the information.

Help Navigator

Use the Help Navigator to find information. It includes

• Product filter--Set the filter to show documentation only for the products you specify.
• Contents tab--View the titles and tables of contents of documentation for your products.
• Index tab--Find specific index entries (selected keywords) in the MathWorks documentation for your products.
• Demos tab--View and run demonstrations for your MathWorks products.
• Search tab--Look for a specific word or phrase in the documentation. To get help for a specific function, set the Search type to Function Name.
• Favorites tab--View a list of links to documents you previously designated as favorites.

Display Pane

After finding documentation using the Help Navigator, view it in the display pane. While viewing the documentation, you can

• Browse to other pages--Use the arrows at the tops and bottoms of the pages to move through the document, or use the back and forward buttons in the toolbar to go to previously viewed pages.
• Bookmark pages--Click the Add to Favorites button in the toolbar.
• Print pages--Click the print button in the toolbar.
• Find a term in the page--Type a term in the Find in page field in the toolbar and click Go.

Other features available in the display pane are copying information, evaluating a selection, and viewing Web pages.

For More Help

In addition to the Help browser, you can use help functions. To get help for a specific function, use doc. For example, doc format displays documentation for the format function in the Help browser. If you type help followed by the function name, a briefer form of the documentation appears in the Command Window. Other means for getting help include contacting Technical Support (http://www.mathworks.com/support) and participating in the newsgroup for MATLAB users, comp.soft-sys.matlab.

Start Button and Launch Pad

Current Directory Browser