Using the Help
The STK Desktop Help is comprised of HTML topic files and a tripane framework, all of which support the HTML5 specification. Help buttons found throughout STK's user interface link directly to relevant Help topics, while a well-organized table of contents and thorough search feature enable you to locate the information that you need with ease.
The STK Desktop Help opens in a web browser window for whichever application that you have selected as your default web browser. In addition to the web browser user interface, the Help is comprised of a search bar, toolbar, topic display area, and navigation pane, which contains the table of contents. If you have selected the online help option, then you will be using the edition of the Help that is hosted on AGI's website; otherwise, the Help that you will be using is a locally installed edition.
Searching the Help
The search bar and its underlying engine are very similar to those of the major internet search engines.
Enter terms in the space labeled Search and click the magnifying glass to search the STK Desktop Help for those terms.
Filters
By default, searches are conducted across all topics in the STK Desktop Help. You can refine the search by selecting a filter category. Click Search All Topics and select a filter from the drop-down menu that appears. The selected filter is displayed in the search bar as a reminder. You can only apply one filter at a time, but you can change the filter that is applied to the current search by selecting a different filter from the drop-down menu without reentering the search terms.
Results
Search results are displayed in the topic display area in order of relevance. The title and first 300 characters of the topic are displayed for each result, as well as the file path to that topic. You can click the title of a search result to display that Help topic. Matched search terms in the topic will be highlighted, with each term shaded in a unique color for easier identification. Your browser's back button will return you to the search results.
Rules
The table below lists the rules that are applied to searches performed in the STK Desktop Help.
Search Rules
| Rule | Description |
|---|---|
| Case-Insensitive Terms | Search terms are not case sensitive. |
| Partial Words | The search engine is capable of matching partial words as small as three characters. If you are uncertain of the spelling of a term, you can enter a portion of the word rather than guess at the correct spelling. This capability also means that alternate forms of search terms (e.g., pluralized, possessive) will be matched automatically. |
| Phrases | You can enclose two or more search terms in quotation marks to instruct the search engine to match only instances in which all of the enclosed terms are present and in that exact order. |
| Boolean Operators |
You can use the following Boolean operators to modify how your search terms are considered:
|
Help toolbar
The STK Desktop Help toolbar is located above the topic display area. The toolbar buttons are described in the table below.
STK Desktop Help Toolbar
| Button | Description |
|---|---|
 or  |
Expand or collapse all collapsible content in the displayed Help topic. |
|
Print the displayed Help topic. All content will be expanded when the print job is created. |
|
Remove highlighting from all search terms in the displayed Help topic. |
|
|
Display the previous or next topic in the table of contents. |
or 
Topic display area
Help topics are displayed on the right side of the Help window. The topic display area and navigation pane can be re-sized horizontally relative to each other within the window by clicking and dragging the narrow border between them.
Topics that are larger than the current window size will be displayed with vertical or horizontal scroll bars on the bottom and right margins. You can also scroll up and down in a Help topic using a mouse scroll wheel. You will need to click anywhere within the topic display area to begin scrolling. You can copy some or all of the content in a topic to the clipboard using the standard Microsoft Windows editing methods, including keyboard shortcuts and mouse functions.
The bottom of each topic contains a footer with product and version information
Toggles
Some sections of Help content, particularly tables and figures, are collapsed out of view by default. These sections are indicated by a label in gray text and a toggle button (
). Click the toggle to expand the content beneath, and click the toggle again (
) to collapse it.
Searching Toggled Content
If you open a Help topic from a search results list, any toggled section that contains matched search terms will be expanded automatically when the topic is first displayed.
Printing Toggled Content
If you print a topic that has toggled content, the content will be expanded when the print job is created and then collapsed.
Navigation pane
The navigation pane is displayed on the left side of the Help window and contains the table of contents. The table of contents presents the Help topics available in the STK Desktop Help in a format suitable for browsing. Topics are arranged in layers of subject groups of increasing specificity. There are two icons used in the table of contents: pages (
) and folders (
). Pages represent individual Help topics, while folders represent topics that have subordinate topics.
Click any folder or page to view that Help topic in the topic display area and to expand the subordinate Help topics of a folder. You can scroll up or down in the navigation pane using a mouse scroll wheel. You will need to click anywhere within the navigation pane to begin scrolling.