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Setting Preferences for Help

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Filter by Product — Specifying Products Used in the Help Browser PDF Reader — Specifying Its Location Help on Selection and More Help — Specifying Where the Help Displays Setting the Fonts and Colors for the Help Browser

Filter by Product — Specifying Products Used in the Help Browser

By default, the Help browser and Function Browser use the documentation and demos for all installed MathWorks products. To find relevant information more quickly, limit the products that the Help browser and Function Browser use:

1. Select File > Preferences > Help.

2. For Filter by Product, select the products to include from the list of installed products.

3. Click OK.

Note   The Release Notes entry refers to the general Release Notes overview document for all products in a release. It does not apply to the product-specific release notes, which are part of the documentation for a product.

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PDF Reader — Specifying Its Location

To display the PDF version of the documentation, the Help browser requires the location of the PDF reader on your system. For example, the Adobe^® Acrobat^® product is a PDF reader.

On Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh platforms, MATLAB obtains the PDF reader location from the operating system.

On UNIX^[1] platforms, the default PDF reader is Acrobat^® and MATLAB automatically determines its location, if it exists. To use a different PDF reader:

1. Select File > Preferences > Help.

2. For PDF reader, enter the full path to the application.

3. Click OK.

Note   The PDF reader preference is only for UNIX platforms. It does not appear in the Help Preferences pane for other platforms.

See also Accessing and Printing PDF Documentation.

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Help on Selection and More Help — Specifying Where the Help Displays

By default, MATLAB displays the reference page in a small window when you:

• Get help on a selection from the Command Window or Editor.

• Click More Help from the Function Browser or function hints pop-up windows.

To display the reference page in the Help browser:

1. Select File > Preferences > Help.

2. For Help on Selection and More Help, select In Help browser.

This preference does not apply when you get help for a selected function from the Current Folder browser or Help browser. The reference page opens in the Help browser.

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Setting the Fonts and Colors for the Help Browser

Set fonts and colors for the Help browser the same way you do for other desktop tools, with the exceptions described in the following sections.

Specifying the Font Name, Style, and Size for the Help Browser

You specify fonts for the Help browser Contents and Search Results panes separately from the fonts for the display pane.

By default, the Contents and Search Results panes use the desktop text font. You can change the font family, style (bold or italic), and size.

The Help browser display pane and all tools that display HTML are HTML Proportional Text tools in MATLAB. By default, HTML Proportional Text tools use a custom font (Sans Serif, 10 pt.). However, not all changes to the font characteristics for HTML Proportional Text tools affect the display pane in the Help browser:

• Changing the font size applies to all text and code in the display pane.

• Changing the font family applies to text, but not code in the display pane.

• Changing the font style to bold or italic does not apply to the display pane.

See also Setting Fonts Preferences for Desktop Tools.

Example — Specifying Fonts for the Help Browser.   Specify Microsoft Comic Sans^® MS, italic, 14 pt. font for the Help browser display pane:

1. Select File > Preferences > Fonts > Custom.

2. From the Desktop tools list, select HTML Proportional Text.

3. For Font to Use, select Custom, and specify the characteristics:

   • Family — Comic Sans MS

   • Size in points — 14

   • Style — bold

4. Click OK.

The font in the right pane uses the new settings. The font in other HTML Proportional Text tools, like the MATLAB Web Browser also use the new settings.

The change to the bold style has no effect.

Code in the page does not use the HTML Proportional Text font. The change to Comic Sans MS does not affect it.

Specifying Colors for the Help Browser

Specify the background and text color used in the left of the Help browser the same way you do for other desktop tools. See Setting Colors Preferences for Desktop Tools.

You cannot specify colors for the Help browser display pane.

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^[1] UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries.

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Adjusting the Help Browser Layout

Using Printed Documentation

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