10 Minute Guide to Outlook 97 - 4 - Getting Help In this lesson, you learn to use the Office Assistant, to search for help on specific topics, and to use other Help features. Using the Office Assistant You've probably noticed the Office Assistant: he's the paper clip in a window all his own. You can use the Office Assistant to help you with procedures, explanations, and tasks you perform in Outlook. To use the Office Assistant, do one of the following: Click the Assistant's window. Choose Help, Microsoft Outlook Help. Press F1. The Assistant displays the help box shown in Figure 4.1. Office Assistant's help is context-sensitive; thus, depending on where you are in the program, the Assistant tries to offer help on related topics. If you need help on one of the suggested topics, click one of the blue option buttons. Plain English: Context-Sensitive A help feature that senses where you are in the program--in the Inbox, using the Calendar, or creating a message, for example--and offers help on topics that are related to your current task. If you need help on another topic, you can enter the topic in the text box and click Search. You might, for example, enter the word "Print" (or "File" or any other topic for which you need help). When the Office Assistant box appears, it contains options about the related topics. Figure 4.1 Use the Office Assistant to get context-sensitive help in Outlook. To close the Office Assistant, click the Close button or click outside of the help box. Timesaver Tip: Tricks of the Trade Click the light bulb in the Assistant's window to see a tip; click the Next button to view another tip; click the Close button to close the tip box. You can right-click the Office Assistant and choose Hide the Assistant from the shortcut menu; you can also change the animated icon that represents the Assistant by right-clicking and choosing Choose Assistant from the shortcut menu. In the Office Assistant dialog box, you can choose the Assistant character you like. You also can choose options for the Assistant, including the type of tips displayed, the type of help you get with the Assistant, and so on. Using the Contents Feature Use the Contents help to view Outlook's Help Topics. The Help Topics function as a sort of on-screen user manual, providing a series of "books" with "chapters" you can read. You can find out how to print, use the calendar, format text, share information, and more. To use the Contents feature, follow these steps: 1. Choose Help, Contents and Index. The Help Topics window appears (see Figure 4.2). Figure 4.2 Find general information about tasks and procedures in the Contents section of Help. 2. Double-click a topic in the list, or click the topic and click the Open button. A more detailed list of topics appears, from which you can choose the document you want to view. 3. Double-click any topic, and another Help window appears with the procedure or explanation of the topic you selected. Figure 4.3 shows the Help window that results from choosing "Printing," "Print," and then "Print an Item." Figure 4.3 Let Help guide you through various processes in Outlook. 4. (Optional) To view the definition of any underlined word in a Help window, click the underlined word. Click the word a second time to close the definition box. Timesaver Tip: Help While You Work By default, the Help window stays on top of your work so you can refer to it as you follow the steps. If you'd prefer that the Help window not stay on top, open the Options menu, choose Keep Help on Top, and then select Not on Top. 5. (Optional) To find out more information, choose any of the gray buttons displayed in the Help text (see Figure 4.3). 6. When you're finished with Help, you can do any of the following: Print the topic by choosing Options, Print Topic. Click the Back button to view the previous Help window. Click the Help Topics button to go back to the Help Topics window. Click the Close (X) button to close Help. Searching with the Index Using the Help index, you can view or search through an alphabetical list for tasks and topics. Topics include Outlook features (usually in the form of nouns) such as Bulleted lists, Modem, or OLE. Tasks are actions you can perform in Outlook (in the form of verbs) such as Copying, Inserting, or Linking. After you find the general task or topic you want in the Help Index, you can select a more specific topic or any of the related topics listed below it (see Figure 4.4). Figure 4.4 When you look up a task such as Copying, you can choose from several related topics (files, tasks, messages, etc.). To search for specific help using the Index, follow these steps: 1. In Outlook, choose Help, Contents and Index. The Help Topics window appears. 2. Click the Index tab. 3. In the text box, enter as many letters of the topic as necessary to narrow the search; as you type, the topic list jumps to the available listings that match what you type. 4. To view a specific topic, double-click it. Sometimes a dialog box appears listing more related topics; double-click the topic you want to view. 5. The Help window that appears is similar to the Help window that appears when you use the Contents help. You can print or close the Help window, or you can return to the Index Help window when you're done. Using the Find Tab in Help The Find tab lets you look for help in a different way. Find provides a method for narrowing a search of topics. For example, you might want information about printing. If you type the word "print" in the text box, a list of related words (such as printer, printing, prints, and so on) appears. You can let Outlook search for all of those topics, or you can narrow the search by typing more specific text such as "printed" or "prints." To use the Find tab, follow these steps: 1. Choose Help, Contents and Index. The Help window appears. 2. Click the Find tab. Timesaver Tip: Setting Up Find The first time you use the Find tab, Outlook displays a dialog box asking if you want to set up the Find Help. Click the Next button, and a second dialog box appears. Click the Finish button, and Outlook sets up the Help database for you. 3. In the 1 Type the Word(s) You Want to Find text box, enter a word, topic, or phrase. 4. In the 2 Select Some Matching Words to Narrow Your Search list, click the topic you want to search for (see Figure 4.5). (To select multiple words listed next to each other, hold down the Shift key and click the first and last words. To select multiple items that are not adjacent, hold the Ctrl key and click each one.) Figure 4.5 Find enables you to search for phrases as well as one-word topics. 5. Choose the topic you want from the 3 Click a Topic list box. Then click the Display button, and Outlook displays the Help window containing information related to the selected topic. 6. When you finish, click the Close (X) button to close the Help window or return to the Help Topics. What's This? In most of its dialog boxes, Outlook includes a handy tool called a What's This button. This is the question mark button that appears at the right end of the title bar next to the Close (X) button. You can click the What's This button and then click on any item in the dialog box to see an explanation or definition of the selected element. Click again to hide the help box. Another way to use this feature is to open the Help menu and choose the What's This command. When the mouse pointer changes to a pointer with a question mark, click on anything in the Outlook window about which you have a question, and a Help box explaining the item appears. In this lesson, you learned to use the Office Assistant, to search for help on specific topics, and to use other Help features. In the next lesson, you will learn to work with incoming mail.

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