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Help

MusicStation brings its own manual: the complete user guide in English and German is part of the application and is shown in a panel inside the window. No request leaves the machine, so the help works offline and in a live situation. The panel opens at the section of the control you asked about, or at the table of contents.

Help panel

The Help button in the header bar opens the help panel; the panel itself is the wide overlay that slides in over the right-hand side of the window. It has two halves:

  • the page list on the left with one entry per chapter of the manual (Header bar, Transport, Settings, and so on); the chapter you are reading is marked and the list scrolls when it is long;
  • the page on the right, with the manual text of the chosen chapter, rendered as it is written.

Click an entry of the page list to switch chapters; links inside a page lead to the sections and chapters they name. The panel is modal while it is open: it takes the keyboard focus (so a screen reader reads the manual and not the window behind it) and keeps Tab inside itself. Close it with Escape, with the Close help button or with a click beside the panel; the keyboard focus then returns to the control it was on before.

The panel follows the interface language: if you switch the language in the settings while the panel is open, the same section is shown in the other manual. Its header carries two buttons: Contents returns to the manual's table of contents (see Contents), and Close help closes the panel (see Close help).

Close help

The button in the header of the help panel. Click it, press Escape or click beside the panel to return to the window - all three do the same. The panel is an overlay and never changes the project or the transport: playback keeps running while you read.

Help for the control under the pointer (F1)

Opens the manual at the section of the control you are pointing at. Press F1, or ⌘? (that is ⌘⇧/, Ctrl+Shift+/ on Windows and Linux) - the same action as Help ▸ Context Help (see Context Help).

How the target is found:

  • The element under the pointer decides. Move the pointer over a control - a button, a field, a switch, a readout - and press the key: the panel opens at the section that documents exactly that control.
  • Without a pointer position (keyboard-only work) the focused element decides instead, so help also works from the keyboard alone.
  • If neither carries a help id, nothing happens: the key stays with the window and no panel opens.
  • While the help panel is already open, the key is not read again - the panel owns the keyboard until you close it with Escape or the Close help button.

One press is one gesture: a held key does not reopen the panel over and over. The help id of every control is fixed, so the same key opens the same section regardless of the language, and the panel shows the text of the language the interface is currently running in.

Workflow: get help for a control

  1. Move the pointer over the control you want to understand (see Help for the control under the pointer).
  2. Press F1. The panel opens at that control's section (see Help panel).
  3. Read on: follow a link inside the page, or pick another chapter in the page list.
  4. Press Escape or click Close help when you are done (see Close help); use Contents to return to the chapter list (see Contents).