How to use the On-line Documentation

The Reality documentation can be viewed in a web browser (see Release Information for details of supported browsers).

Notes:

It is recommended that you install the documentation on a Web Server, though it can also be installed on a file server (accessed via a mapped networked drive) or on individual PCs. In all cases, the file system must support long file names. You can also view the documentation directly from the Reality Installation CD (refer to the Reality on Windows, Installation Guide for details).
PDF topics are displayed in a separate browser window. To view these topics you may need to configure your browser's popup blocker feature to allow popups from the location where you have installed the Reality documentation.

Features of the on-line documentation include:

Expanding contents list for each section or group of sections, with links to the text.
Global keyword index, with links to the text.
Full text search with a choice of searching just one section or group of sections, or the whole of the Reality documentation.
Links within the text to related topics.

You select the contents list, index and search facilities by means of links underneath the Northgate logo at the top left of the browser window.

Using the Contents List

The documentation is divided into sections, selected from the top level of the contents list. When you select a section, it expands automatically to show any subsections.

To view a topic, click the corresponding contents entry.
To read a long contents entry, hover over the entry concerned with the mouse.
To expand/contract part of the contents list, click the plus/minus sign (+/-) beside the entry.

The position of the current topic in the contents list is shown in "breadcrumb" hyperlinks above the topic.

Using the Index

To display a topic using the index, double-click the required entry from the list. You can also select an index entry with the cursor keys and then press return. The associated topic will be displayed in the right-hand pane of the browser window. If the entry you have selected has more than one associated topic, a list will be displayed, from which you can select.

You can quickly jump to a particular part of the index by typing the first few letters of a keyword in the box above the list. Alternatively, use the scroll bar to browse the list.

Search

Use the search form to search for topics containing specific words. The search results consist of a list of links to topics that contain the word or words you specified.

You can choose to search the whole of the Reality documentation or just one section – select using the option buttons and drop down list at the top of the search pane. The default is the whole of the documentation; the section containing the topic that is currently displayed is preselected as an alternative.

You can also narrow the search by selecting Match any word, Match all words or Match exact phrase, and by checking either or both of the Match case and/or Match whole word boxes.

Notes

You can also select Match exact phrase by enclosing your search text in single or double quotes. Match exact phrase is selected automatically if your search text contains any punctuation characters.
Match exact phrase takes longer than the other options, but its results are more targeted and include the number of matches found in each topic.

Click Search or press return at the end of the word(s) to start the search. A running total indicates the progress of the search.
Click Stop if you want to stop the search.
Click Clear to clear the search criteria box so as to enter new search criteria, or just overtype the text shown.

The search results are presented as a list of links to the topics containing text that matches your search criteria. Click any link to open the topic concerned; the first match in that topic will be selected. To find subsequent matches in that topic, use your browser's Find command (in most browsers, press CTRL+F).

The Next and Previous buttons at the bottom of the search form allow you to step through the search results. To redisplay the results, click the Redisplay button.

Browse Sequences

In some cases, a group of related topics is arranged in a suggested order, or "browse sequence". A topic that is part of a browse sequence will include groups of buttons at the beginning and end of the topic, that provide links to all the topics in the sequence and show the position of the current topic within that sequence. For example:

The orange button shows the position of the currently selected topic within the sequence. Click Next to display the next topic, or Previous to go back to the previous one. You can also select a particular topic by clicking the associated button – if you hover over the button, the title of the topic is displayed.

PDF Files

Some topics in the Reality documentation are in PDF format (for example, the Release Information and those in the Other Documents section) and these will open in a separate browser window or tab (depending on your browser and browser settings).

Note: PDF topics are displayed in a separate browser window. To view these topics you must configure your browser's popup blocker feature to allow popups from the location where you have installed the Reality documentation.

Printing the Documentation

Your web browser will provide a way to print the currently displayed topic or PDF file. Make sure that you click somewhere in the topic so that you print the correct text. You can also print just part of a topic by selecting the text required and selecting "Selection" as the page or print range.

If you don't know where to start

Start in the Index. When you find what you want, one or more links will take you to the appropriate part of the documentation.

Alternatively, browse using the contents list or use the Document Directory. The latter lists the sections that make up the documentation and gives overviews of their contents.

If you can't find what you are looking for

Tell us! Every topic in this documentation includes a link that allows you send us your comments. Say what you were looking for and what you tried. We can help you both immediately and by improving the next version of the documentation. You can download the latest version from http://www.northgate-is.com/reality/.