The Help Window and Topic-Based Help
The Help window is useful as it is connected to many of the features in the COMSOL Desktop. This concept is called topic-based help or context help. You can also search and access all the HTML documentation content from this window.
The Help system automatically starts a web server using port 8090 on the computer where COMSOL Multiphysics is installed. Depending on the security settings, you might be asked to allow that port to be used the first time the Help system is started.
The operating system might also issue a firewall security warning. To use Help, allow COMSOL Multiphysics access through the firewall.
To learn more about a node in the Model Builder, or a window on the Desktop, click to highlight a node or window, then press F1. The Help window opens and displays the topic information about the selected feature.
Opening the Help Window and the Topic-Based Help
There are several ways to open the Help window, listed below with an indication if a way to open the Help window is specific to the Windows version or the Linux and macOS (cross-platform) version:
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Press F1.
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In the main toolbar, click Help () (Linux and macOS).
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In the upper-right corner of the COMSOL Desktop, click the () button (Windows).
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From the main menu, select File>Help (Windows) Help>Help (Linux and macOS).
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Right-click any node in the Model Builder and select Help.
About Using the F1 key to access Context Help
To display topic-based (context) information in the Help window, on the COMSOL Desktop:
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Click to highlight a node in the Model Builder tree. For example, the Component or Geometry node.
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Click a window tab, for example, Model Builder, Add Study, or Messages.
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For Windows users, hover over ribbon buttons or menu items to display a tooltip. While the tooltip is showing, press F1 to display more detailed information.
At the top of the Help window you find the tools and search functionality listed in the table below. Also, above the help text, a clickable breadcrumb trail shows the location of the displayed contents in the COMSOL documentation set. Click any part of the trail to move to that level in the COMSOL documentation.
In some cases you need to refocus the context help on its target before pressing F1. Try clicking to highlight a node, a window, or the button or click to focus on the Help window, hover over a toolbar button (Windows only) and press F1.
Table 1-1: The Help and Documentation Toolbars
Button
Name
Description
Click the Home button or select the COMSOL Documentation top node in the table of contents tree to return to the COMSOL Documentation window home page. Not available when showing context help in the Help window.
Show Table of Contents/Show Topic
When a help topic page is shown in the Help window, click Show Table of Contents to open a tree-based menu of the COMSOL documentation. When you select a node in the table of contents tree the corresponding topic is shown on the topic page. Alternatively, click again (Show Topic) to return to the topic page.
Search
On the Help window, click to open the search engine to look for contents in the COMSOL documentation. Search results are shown sorted by product.
On the Documentation window, enter search terms in the field and choose the Search scope — All documents, Selected only, or Application libraries.
See Searching Help and Documentation Content for more information about search terms you can use.
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Back
Navigates backward to the previous page in the Help or Documentation window’s browser history.
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Forward
Navigates forward in the browser history, but only to the end of the current list.
Sticky Help
On the Help window, click the Sticky Help button to lock the current help window (the icon is highlighted ), which can be useful to keep some help topic or model instruction active, or to release the window and view topic-based (context) help when a node or window is clicked.
Show in External Browser
On the Help window, click the Show in External Browser button to show the current help topic in an external web browser.
Navigates backward to the previous section in the documentation.
Navigates forward to the next section in the documentation.
Changing the Default Documentation and Help Settings
To edit the following settings, open The Preferences Dialog Box and click Help.
Locate the Target area and choose Documentation window (the default) from the Show documentation in list to show the help contents in the Documentation window that is included in the COMSOL Desktop environment (default), or select External browser to display the help contents in a separate web browser. For further details on how to access and use the documentation, see the section The Documentation Window below. Similarly, using the Show help in list, you can choose between Help window (default) and External browser to show topic-based help in the Help window inside the COMSOL Desktop or in an external web browser, respectively. When showing topic-based help in an external browser, you need to press F1, choose Help>Help, or select the Help context menu item (when applicable) to trigger an update of the browser’s contents. The PDF-file target setting controls what happens when you click a PDF link on the COMSOL Documentation entry page. Choose In place to display PDF documents using the native browser’s PDF display settings, or choose New window to launch them in the default system application for PDF-files. On Windows, the native browser is always Microsoft Edge or Internet Explorer.
In the Source area, set the Location to Local to display help using locally installed help files or to Online to access help from the COMSOL website. For the Local option, edit the Documentation root directory file path as required. The default file paths are based on the platform:
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On Windows C:\Program Files\COMSOL\COMSOL61\Multiphysics\doc.
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For macOS and Linux, under the main COMSOL installation directory: COMSOL61/Multiphysics/doc.
Proxy Server Settings
If you connect to the internet through a web proxy, you can use the controls in the Proxy server settings area to specify the proxy server settings to use when communicating with the COMSOL website for displaying online help in integrated mode as well as for performing updates of the COMSOL Application Library and the COMSOL Part Library (see The Application Library Update Window and The Part Library Update Window for further details about these services).
The Configuration list has the following options:
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 No proxy server: Connect to the update server directly, bypassing any proxies. This is the default setting.
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 Use system settings: Use the system-wide proxy server settings defined on your computer.
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 Manual: Choose this alternative if you want to specify a proxy server by entering the name (or IP address) and port number in the Server and Port number fields. The default port number is 443, which is the default for HTTP Secure (HTTPS).
Selecting a Web Browser
On the User Interface page of the Preferences dialog box, under Web browser (Windows and Linux only), you can choose which browser the COMSOL Multiphysics software should use to show pages on the COMSOL website and documentation when using the web browser mode. The following settings are available:
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On Windows: Choose the Program setting System default to use the default system web browser. Alternatively, choose Custom and then give the path to an Executable location for a different browser installed on your computer.
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On Linux: Type the path to the web browser directly in the Executable field, or click the Browse button and then point to the executable file on the file system.
On macOS, this setting is not available, and COMSOL Multiphysics always uses the system’s default web browser.