#### Tooltips

If you hover the mouse cursor over certain parts of the Xcas window, a temporary window will appear with information about the part. For example, if you move the mouse cursor over the status line, you will get a message saying Current CAS status. Click to modify.

If you type a function name in the Xcas command line, a similar temporary window will appear with information about the function.

#### HTML help

If you press the F12 key, you will get a window which you can use to search the html version of the manual. You can also open this window with the menu entry Help▸Find word in HTML help.

The HTML help window has a search area; if you type a string in that area you will be given a list of help topics that contain that string. If you choose a topic and click View, your web browser will show the appropriate page of the manual.

#### The help index

If you click on the ? button on the status line you will get the help index. You can also get the help index with the menu item Help▸Index.

The help index is a list of the giac function and variable names.

You can scroll through the help index items and click on the word that you want. There is also a line in the help index window that you can use to search the index; you can enter some text and be taken to the part of the index with the words that begin with that text. The ? button next to this search line will open the HTML help window.

If you select a function or variable name, a list of related words (names of functions or variables) and a list of synonymous words will appear in regions to the right.

Below the search line, there will be an area which will have a brief description of the chosen term as well as how to call it. If the term is a command name, the calling sequence will be given as the command name with the arguments within parentheses separated by commas. Any optional arguments will be shown within brackets. In the above example, the first argument to plotfunc is an expression, representing the function to be graphed. There is an optional second argument, which is either a variable name (which defaults to x) or a vector of variable names for multivariable functions. Finally, there is an optional third argument which can be used to specify a color for the graph.

Below the brief description will be some entry fields that you can use to enter the arguments. If you fill them out and press the enter key, the command with the arguments filled out will be put on the command line.

Below the entry fields for the arguments will be a list of examples of the command being used. If you click on one of these examples, it will be put on the command line.

A more thorough description of the function and its arguments is available with the Details button at the top of the help index, which will open the relevant part of the manual in your browser. Alternatively, if you click on the ? button next to the search line, you will be taken to the HTML help window.

You can also open the help index in the following ways:

- You can press the tab key while at the Xcas command line.
  If you have entered part of a command name, you will be at the part of the index with words that begin with the text that you entered.
- You can select a command from one of the menus. If Auto index help is chosen (see Section 2.5.9), then the help index will open with the command chosen.

#### findhelp

You can get help from Xcas by using the findhelp function. If you enter findhelp(function) (or equivalently ?function) at the command input, where function is the name of a giac function, then some notes on function will appear in the answer portion and the appropriate page of the manual will appear in your web browser.