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Accessing Online Help and Documentation

The SAS System for OS/2 provides comprehensive HTML-based online documentation. You can access several different levels of Help information, depending on the context and the type of information that you need. Help information appears in the Web browser that is specified in the Preferences dialog box Web page. For information about defining a preferred browser, see Web Preferences.

Getting Help from the Command Bar

You can get help for SAS language elements and SAS products by using the HELP command in the command bar. When you issue the HELP command, the SAS System Help displays Help for either the active window or for the type of Help that you specify in the HELP command argument. Types of Help Available by Using the Command Bar lists the HELP command arguments and the resulting display in the SAS online Help.

Types of Help Available by Using the Command Bar

Help Argument	The SAS System Help Display	Example
none	Help for the active window	HELP
language element	Help on the specified language element	HELP FILENAME
language element type	a list of links to all language elements within the language element type	HELP DSOPTIONS
product name	product Help	HELP SAS/CONNECT
HELP	how to use the HELP command	HELP HELP

The HELP arguments for language element types include these strings:

commands	lists SAS commands
dsoptions or datasetoptions	lists SAS data set options
formats	lists SAS formats
functions	lists SAS functions
informats	lists SAS informats
procedures	lists SAS procedures
statements	lists SAS statements
systemoptions	lists SAS system options

Getting Help in the Dialog Boxes

To access Help in a dialog box, click on the [Help] button in the dialog box or press F1. A Help window opens that describes each item in the dialog box.

Getting Help for a SAS Product

To access Help information about the SAS product that is associated with the currently active window, click on the Help toolbar button (the book with the question mark), press the F1 function key, or select Using This Window from the Help menu. (For example, if you click on the Help toolbar button and the active window is a SAS/GRAPH window, the SAS online Help displays information about SAS/GRAPH software.)

You can also get Help for a SAS product by issuing using the HELP command in the command bar. When you use the product name as an argument to the HELP command, the SAS Online Help displays the product help. For example, if you typed help SAS/GRAPH in the command bar, the SAS System Help will open to the SAS/GRAPH help.

Getting Help from the Help Menu

The Help menu is always available within your SAS session. Here are descriptions of the topics that are available from the Help menu:

SAS System Help

comprehensive SAS language and option information, including information that is specific to OS/2.

Using This Window

information that is relevant to the currently active window. This is the same as clicking on the [Help] toolbar button or pressing the F1 key.

Books and Training

can provide access to SAS HTML-based books and tutorials that are available on CD-ROM. The SAS Online Tutor is a separately licensed SAS product. In order to use this menu selection to access the SAS online documentation and SAS OnlineTutor, modify the DOCLOC and TRAINLOC system options in the SAS configuration file to reflect the location of their respective folders.

Getting Started with SAS Software

provides a link to a tutorial on the SAS Web site that will help you get started with SAS.

SAS on the Web

provides links to useful areas on the SAS Web site, including technical support, frequently asked questions, sending feedback to SAS, and sample code.

Getting to the SAS Web Pages (and Others) from within the SAS System

The SAS System is configured to launch your local Web browser to view HTML files. You can invoke your Web browser in either of the following ways:

• Type a URL (uniform resource locator) in the command bar. The SAS System will launch the browser that you specified in the Preferences dialog box Web page.

• Issue the WBROWSE command, which will launch the browser with the SAS Web site or another default URL that you can specify in the Preferences dialog box Web page. For more information, see WBROWSE.

Note that you can access Web pages on the Internet (such as the SAS Web site) only if your workstation is connected to a network that allows such access.

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Copyright 1999 by SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA. All rights reserved.