Accessibility in Help

The following keyboard shortcuts can be used for navigation in the HTML Help Viewer.

For more information about accessibility features and services, visit the Microsoft Accessibility and Disabilities Web site.

For the Help Viewer

Shortcut	Description
Alt+f4	Close the Help viewer.
Alt+tab	Switch between the Help viewer and other open windows.
Alt+o	Display the option menu.
alt+o then I	Change Microsoft Internet Explorer settings. The Internet Options window contains accessibility settings. To change these settings click the General tab, then click Accessibility.
alt+O, then T	Hide or show the Navigation pane.
alt+o, then P	Print a topic
alt+left arrow	Move back to the previous topic.
alt+right arrow	Move forward to the next topic.
alt+o, then o	Turn on or off search highlighting.
F5	Refresh the current topic (useful if you have linked to a web page).
F6	Switch between the Navigation pane and the reading pane.
up arrow and down arrow	In the reading pane, this will scroll through the page when the scroll bar is visible.
page up and page down	In the reading pane, this will scroll very quickly through the page when the scroll bar is visible.
Tab	Moves to the next item on page. You can repeatedly use this button to move around the links and expanding links in the reading pane.
shift+tab	This works the same way as the tab button but cycles backwards through the links.

For the Contents tab

Shortcut	Description
alt+c	Display the contents tab
plus sign and minus sign, or left arrow and right arrow	Open and close a book or folder.
Down arrow and up arrow	Select a topic
Enter	Display the selected topic

For the Index tab

Shortcut	Description
alt+N	Display the Index tab
alt+w, then type the word	Type a keyword to search for.
Up arrow and down arrow	Select a keyword in the list.
Alt+D	Display the associated topic.

For the Search tab

Shortcut	Description
Alt+s	Display the search tab.
Alt+W, then type the word	Type a keyword to search for.
Alt+L	Start a search.
Alt+T, then UP ARROW and DOWN ARROW	Select a topic in the results list.
Alt+D	Display the selected topic
The following options are only available if full-text search is enabled
Alt+U	Search for a keyword in the result list of a prior search.
Alt+M	Search for words similar to the keyword. For example, to find words like "running" and "runs" for the keyword "run".
Alt+R	Only search through topic titles.

For the Favorites tab

Shortcut	Description
Alt+I	Display the favorites tab.
alt+a	Add the currently displayed topic to the Favorties list.
Alt+P, then Up arrow and down arrow	Select a topic in the Favorites list.
Alt+D	Display the selected topic.
Alt+R	Remove the selected topic from the list.

Using expanding links

There are many topics where we've used expanding links to include additional information. We do this so you don't need to jump to another topic to look up something before returning to your original topic. By hiding the additional information until it's clicked, the flow of the topic isn't disturbed by numerous asides.

An expanding link is typically represented by a list with arrows as bullet points. Expanding links outside of these bulleted lists may be green or blue but the words themselves will signpost the link. These will be the words 'Tip', 'More' or less commonly 'How?'

Use the TAB key to move between items in the Help reading pane. When you have selected an expanding link, press the ENTER key to expand the text.

Screen readers require that you expand all the links in a topic.

Changing how the Help topics look

The Help topics are presented as HTML and their look can be changed by changing your internet options that govern how the websites you visit look.

1. If you are using Windows XP, click Start > Control Panel. Click Network and Internet Connections, and then click Internet Options.
2. If you are using Windows 2000, click Start > Settings > Control Panel, and then click Internet Options.
3. On the General tab, click accessibility. The Accessibility window appears.
4. Select Ignore colours specified on web pages.
5. Select Ignore fonts specified on web pages.
6. Click OK.
7. In the Internet Options you can change the font used in the Help by clicking Fonts, or you can change the colours by clicking colours.
8. Click OK to close the Internet Options window when you've finished making changes.

Note: The changes you make here will affect your internet browser so web pages will look different.

 

Notes:

There are also shortcut menu commands that can be accessed through the keyboard. Shortcut keys also work in secondary and pop-up windows.

Every time you use a shortcut key in the Navigation pane, you lose focus in the Topic pane. To return to the Topic pane, press F6.

The Match similar words check box, on the Search tab, will be selected if you used it for your last search.