There are two types of context-sensitive help: View context-sensitive help provides a
short help overview for a specific view and field context-sensitive help provides detailed help for
a specific CICS® attribute.
View context-sensitive help
To display the view context-sensitive help, press the help key from the main menu of the CICS Explorer® workbench. The help keys that are
supported for different OS are listed:
Windows: Press F1.
Linux®: Press (Ctrl+F1).
macOS: Click Help > Show Contextual Help.
The context help for a specific view (for example, Local Files view) is displayed in the Related
Topics pane of the dynamic Help view of the workbench or in an infopop window, depending on the help
preferences selected. Figure 1. The context help for the Local Files
view
A link is provided to more detailed help. If you click the link, the detailed help is displayed
in the dynamic Help view or in the Help Contents view if your preferences are set to use infopops.
The default size of the dynamic Help view is more suited for displaying context help, which is only
an overview, but when displaying detailed help topics, you probably need to increase the size of the
view or make extensive use of the view scroll bars. Figure 2. Detailed help
for the Local Files view
As an alternative, you can open the Help Contents window by pressing the help key and displaying
the topics there. Figure 3. Help Contents window
If you have not yet opened the detailed view, perform these steps:
Place your mouse cursor over the link pointing to the detailed help in the dynamic Help view and
right-click.Figure 4. A link pointing to the detailed help in the dynamic
Help view
Click Open in Help Contents. The detailed help is displayed in the Help
Contents window.Figure 5. The detailed help displayed in the Help Contents
window
If you have already opened the detailed help in the dynamic Help view, click the Show
in external window icon in the Help view. The detailed
help is displayed in the Help Contents window.Figure 6. Local Files view
displayed in the Help Contents window
If you are viewing the context-sensitive help in the dynamic Help view, an automatic help search
provides more links to other help topics that might be relevant. Click a link and use the previous
steps to display the additional help. Figure 7. An automatic help
search
Field context-sensitive help
Field context-sensitive help provides detailed help about a specific CICS attribute in the Property or Editor views. To display the field
context-sensitive help, select an attribute in the Property or Editor view and press the help key.
The help for a selected attribute is displayed in the dynamic Help view of the workbench. Figure 8. The help for a selected attribute is displayed in the dynamic Help
view
You can view the context-sensitive help for an attribute by clicking the
Help icon in the Property or Editor view.Figure 9. The context-sensitive help
in the Property or Editor view
You can detach the Help view from the workbench so that it does not take space in the workbench:
Right-click the Help tab and click Detach option. Figure 10. Working of detach option
The Help view opens in a new window and can be sized or positioned as you prefer. If CICS Explorer is configured to display help in an
infopop window, the help opens in a new window. This is because the size of the help that is
displayed is too large to fit in an infopop window.Figure 11. Sizing or
positioning of Help view
Each time when you select a different attribute, you must click the Help
icon to display the help information. Alternatively, you can click the 'Help dynamic link' icon
and dynamically link the help to a selected attribute, so that when you click a different
attribute, the help changes without having to press the Help icon. Figure 12. Dynamically linking the Help icon to a selected attribute