Tools and Utilities

This section describes some tools and utilities in the MATE Desktop.

Running Applications

The Run Application dialog gives you access to the command line. When you run a command in the Run Application dialog, you cannot receive output from the command.

To run a command from the command line perform the following steps:

1. Open the Run Application dialog in any of the following ways:

   From a panel

   You can add the Run Application button to any panel. See ???. Click on the Run Application panel button to open the Run Application dialog.

   Using shortcut keys

   Press Alt+F2. You can change the shortcut keys that display the Run Application dialog in the ??? tool.

   The Run Application dialog is displayed.

2. Enter the command that you want to run in the blank field, or choose from the list of known applications.

   If you enter only the location of a file, an appropriate application will launch to open it. If you enter a web page address, your default web browser will open the page. Prefix the web page address with https://, as in https://mate-desktop.org.

   To choose a command that you ran previously, click the down arrow button beside the command field, then choose the command to run.

   You can also use the Run with file button to choose a file to append to the command line. For example, you can enter emacs as the command, then choose a file to edit.

   Select the Run in terminal option to run the application or command in a terminal window. Choose this option for an application or command that does not create a window in which to run.

3. Click on the Run button on the Run Application dialog.

Taking Screenshots

You can take a screenshot in any of the following ways:

• From any panel

  You can add a Take Screenshot button to any panel. For instructions on how to do this, see ???. Click on the Take Screenshot button to take a screenshot of the entire screen.

• Use shortcut keys

  To take a screenshot, use the following shortcut keys:

  Default Shortcut Keys	Function
  Print Screen	Takes a screenshot of the entire screen.
  Alt+Print Screen	Takes a screenshot of the window which is active.

  You can use the ??? tool to modify the default shortcut keys.

• From the Menubar

  Choose Applications > Accessories > Take Screenshot.

• From the Terminal

  You can use the mate-screenshot command to take a screenshot. The mate-screenshot command takes a screenshot of the entire screen, and displays the Save Screenshot dialog. Use the Save Screenshot dialog to save the screenshot.

  You can also use options on the mate-screenshot command as follows:

  Option	Function
  --window	Takes a screenshot of the window that has focus.
  --delay=seconds	Takes a screenshot after the specified number of seconds, and displays the Save Screenshot dialog. Use the Save Screenshot dialog to save the screenshot.
  --include-border	Takes a screenshot including the border of the window.
  --remove-border	Takes a screenshot without the border of the window.
  --border-effect=shadow	Takes a screenshot and adds a shadow bevel effect around it.
  --border-effect=border	Takes a screenshot and adds a border effect around it.
  --interactive	Opens a window that lets you set options before taking the screenshot.
  --help	Displays the options for the command.

When you take a screenshot, the Save Screenshot dialog opens. To save the screenshot as an image file, enter the filename for the screenshot, choose a location from the drop-down list and click the Save button. You can also use the Copy to Clipboard button to copy the image to the clipboard or transfer it to another application by drag-and-drop.

Yelp Help Browser

Introduction

The Yelp Help Browser application allows you to view documentation regarding MATE and other components through a variety of formats. These formats include docbook files, HTML help pages, man pages and info pages (support for man pages and info pages may optionally be compiled in). Despite the different formats supported, Yelp does its best to provide a unified look and feel regardless of the original document format.

Yelp Help Browser is internationalized, meaning that it has support to view documents in different languages. The documents must be localized or translated for each language and installed properly for Yelp Help Browser to be able to view them.

Starting Yelp

To Start Yelp Help Browser

You can start Yelp Help Browser in the following ways:

System Menu

Choose Help

Command Line

Execute the following command: yelp

Interface

When you start Yelp Help Browser, you will see the following window appear.

Yelp Help Browser contains the following elements in figure_title

Menubar

File

Use this menu to Open a New Window, view the About this Document page, Print the current document, or Close the window.

Edit

Use this menu to Copy, Select all, Find..., or to set your Preferences.

Go

Use this menu to navigate Back, Forward, to the Help Topics page. When viewing a DocBook document, use this menu to navigate to the Next Section, Previous Section or to the Contents.

Bookmarks

Use this menu to Add Bookmark(s), or Edit Bookmark(s).

Help

View information about Yelp Help Browser and contributors to the project through the About menuitem. Open this document with the Contents menuitem or by pressing F1.

Toolbar

Back

Use this button to navigate back in your document history.

Forward

Use this button to navigate forward in your document history.

Help Topics

Use this button to return to the main table of contents (shown in figure_title).

Browser Pane

The browser pane is where you will be presented with the table of contents or the documentation. Use the table of contents to navigate to the documentation you need.

Using Yelp

Open a Document

To open a document in Yelp Help Browser:

• In an application, click Help > Contents

• Use the Table of Contents to navigate to the desired document.

• You can drag a Docbook XML file from Caja to the Yelp window or launcher.

• Press the F1 key.

Alternatively, you may view a particular document by invoking Yelp Help Browser from the command line or dragging files to Yelp. See Opening Specific Documents for more on this.

Open a New Window

To open a new window:

• Click File > New Window

• Use the key combination Ctrl+N

About This Document

To view information about the currently open document:

• Click File > About This Document

Print a Page

To print any page that you are able to view in Yelp Help Browser:

• Click File > Print this Page

Print a Document

To print an entire document:

• Click File > Print this Document

Close a Window

To close a window in Yelp Help Browser, do the following:

• Click File > Close Window

• Use the key combination Ctrl+W

Set Preferences

To set your preferences in Yelp Help Browser:

• Click Edit > Preferences

A window will appear that looks like figure_title:

The options that are available in this dialog have the following functions:

Use system fonts

Check this option to display documentation using the default fonts used by the MATE Desktop.

To choose your own fonts to display documentation, uncheck this option and click on the buttons next to the text Variable Width or Fixed Width.

Variable Width

This is the font to use when a static or fixed width font is not required. The majority of text will be of this type.

Fixed Width

This is the font to use when all text characters need to be of the same size. This font is usually used to indicate commands, program blocks, or other text that falls under these categories.

Browse with caret

Click this option if you would like see a caret or cursor in the Yelp Browser Pane. This allows you to browse the document more easily by showing where the cursor is located in the document.

Go Back in Document History

To go back in the document history:

• Click Go > Back

• Use the key combination Alt+Left

• Use the Back button in the Toolbar

Go Forward in Document History

To go forward in the document history:

• Click Go > Forward

• Use the key combination Alt+Right

• Use the Forward button in the Toolbar

Go to Help Topics

To go to the Help Topics:

• Click Go > Help Topics

• Use the key combination Alt+Home

• Use the Help Topics button in the Toolbar

Go to Previous Section

To go to the previous section:

• Click Go > Previous Section

• Use the key combination Alt+Up

Go to Next Section

To go to the next section:

• Click Go > Next Section

• Use the key combination Alt+Down

Go to Contents

To go to the contents for a document:

• Click Go > Contents

Add a Bookmark

To add a bookmark for a particular document:

• Click Bookmarks > Add Bookmark

• Use the key combination Ctrl+D

A window will appear that looks like figure_title.

Enter your desired bookmark title in to the Title text entry field. Then click Add to add the bookmark, or click Cancel to cancel the request.

Edit Bookmarks

To edit your collection of bookmarks:

• Click Bookmarks > Edit Bookmarks...

• Use the key combination Ctrl+B

A window will appear that looks like figure_title.

You can manage your bookmarks using this window in the following ways:

Open

Use this button to open the selected bookmark in a new window.

Rename

Use this button to rename the title of your bookmark.

Remove

Use this button to delete the bookmark from your collection.

Once you are finished managing your bookmarks, click the Close button to exit the Edit Bookmarks Window.

Get Help

To get help to use Yelp Help Browser (and see this document):

• Click Help > Contents

Advanced Features

Opening Specific Documents

Opening Documents from the File Manager

To open a document, such as an XML file, from the file manager, open the document in Caja File Manager, or drag the icon from Caja to the Yelp document pane or launcher.

Using the Command Line to Open Documents

Yelp Help Browser supports opening documents from the command line. There are a number of URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers) that can be used. These include:

file:

Use this URI when you want to access a file with yelp, for example:

yelp file:///usr/share/help/C/mate-control-center/config-mouse.xml

help:

Use this URI when you want to access MATE help documents, which are typically written in DocBook format.

yelp help:mate-terminal

If you want to open the help document at a particular section, append a slash to the end of the URI, followed by the section id.

yelp help:mate-user-guide/yelp-advanced-cmdline

man:

Use this URI when you want to access a particular man page. You can append the section of the man page you would like to view if there are multiple man pages with the same name. The section number should be enclosed in parentheses and therefore it may be necessary to escape the argument so that the shell does not interpret the parenthesis.

yelp man:mate-panel

or

yelp 'man:intro(1)'
yelp 'man:intro(2)'

info:

Use this URI when you want to access a particular GNU info page.

yelp info:make

Refreshing Content on Demand

Yelp Help Browser supports the Ctrl+R shortcut keys, which will reload the DocBook document that is currently open. This allows developers to view changes to documents as they are made.

More Information

This section details some helper applications which Yelp Help Browser uses, and provides resources where you can get more information about Yelp Help Browser.

Scrollkeeper

Yelp Help Browser uses scrollkeeper to generate the table of contents for DocBook and HTML documentation, and also keep track of translations for each document.

MATE Documentation Utilites

The documentation distributed with MATE uses this set of utilities for a variety of things:

• Ease translation of documents to different languages.

• Provide a set of tools to help package and install documentation into the correct location and register the documentation with scrollkeeper.

• Perform conversion from DocBook format to a format suitable for display.

Yelp Help Browser relies on MATE XSLT Stylesheets to perform conversion from DocBook to HTML. MATE Documentation Build Utilities are relied upon by application authors to install and register documentation within the help system.

Homepage and Mailing List

For further information on Yelp Help Browser, please visit the Documentation Project homepage, http://mate-desktop.org, or subscribe to the mailing list, http://ml.mate-desktop.org/listinfo/mate-dev.

Joining the MATE Documentation Project

If you are interested in helping produce and update documentation for the MATE project, please visit the Documentation Project homepage: http://wiki.mate-desktop.org/dev-doc:doc-team-guide?s[]=users[]=guide#mate_documentation_team