Development Environment

Navigating in the Contents Listing

In the Contents listing, you can

• Click the + to the left of an item to show the first page of that document or section in the display pane and expand the listing for that item in the Navigator pane.
• Click the - to the left of an item, or double-click the item, or press the left arrow key to collapse the listings for that item.
• Select an item to show the first page of that document or section in the display pane.
• Double-click an item or press the right arrow key to expand the listing for that item and show the first page of that document or section in the display pane.
• Use the down and up arrow keys to move through the list of items.

The Contents listing shows documentation for all products installed on your system, or only shows documentation for specified products if you have the Product filter set to Selected.

Icons in the Contents Listing

Icons for entries in the top levels of the Contents listing represent what type of documentation it is. This lets you quickly find the kind of information you need for a product. See the legend for icons in Types of Documentation.

Product Roadmap

When you select a product in the Contents pane (any entry with a book icon ), such as MATLAB or the Communications Toolbox, a roadmap of the documentation for that product appears in the display pane. Some examples of what the roadmap might contain are links to

• The key documentation
• An index of major documentation examples
• The PDF version of the documentation, which is suitable for printing
• Related products

Product Pages

After expanding the listing for a product in the Contents pane, the last entry is Product Page (Web). This allows you to link to the MathWorks Web site for the latest information about that product.

Synchronize Contents Listing with Display Pane

By default, the topic highlighted in the Contents pane matches the title of the page appearing in the display pane. The Contents listing is said to be synchronized with the displayed document. This feature is useful if you access documentation with a method other than the Contents pane, for example, using a link in a page in the display pane. With synchronization, you know what book and section the displayed page is part of. Note that synchronization only applies to the major headings in a document. For pages that begin with lower level headings, the Contents listing does not synchronize.

You can turn off synchronization. To do so, use preferences--see General--Synchronizing the Contents Pane with the Displayed Page.

Note that synchronization only applies to the Contents pane. The page shown in the display pane does not necessarily correspond to the selection in the Search, Index, Demos, or Favorites tabs. However, if you use the Search, Index, or Favorites page to display a page and then return to the Contents pane, the Contents pane synchronizes with the displayed page.

Viewing the Contents Listing in the Help Browser

Finding Documentation Using the Index