Help!

Windows and QuickBooks have good help XE "help" systems. Two methods generally work for getting into Help. The obvious way is to click Help, and then click Help in the dropped menu. Tabs (the things marked Contents, Index, and Find ) or buttons (marked Clear,Options , etc.) will give you choices.

Another display may appear with a text listing. This display should be accessible by clicking a button for Search, Index, or Contents. The first time a Find tab is selected, Help will want to generate an index file for the related Help file. Picking Maximize search capabilities takes a minute or two, but the time is well spent. The description of how to bring back the Welcome box (above) the access seemed vary arcane. On the Help Topics window the Rebuild button can be selected to do something about this. The Help file can be rebuilt. Choosing the maximum size Help file and rebuilding, this process then found Welcome, as it should.

These are basic instructions on using the Help system. Unfortunately, getting help is all too often contingent on guessing, or stumbling across, the right word. (Who am I to complain? That helps the market for my book !)

The Help program is part of Windows, but displays content provided by an application, such as QuickBooks. In the progress from QuickBooks 2.0 to QuickBooks 5.0, Intuit’s content has gone from good to excellent. You can expect to find a good deal of help there. A common shortcut for Help is the function key F1.