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LabVIEW Documentation Resources

Module by: National Instruments

Summary: In this section, you will learn about documentation resources.

LabVIEW Documentation Resources

Use the Context Help window, the LabVIEW Help, and the NI Example Finder to help you build and edit VIs. Refer to the LabVIEW Help and manuals for more information about LabVIEW.

Context Help Window

The Context Help window displays basic information about LabVIEW objects when you move the cursor over each object. The Context Help window is visible by default. To toggle display of the Context Help window, select Help>>Show Context Help, press the Ctrl-H keys, or click the Show Context Help Window button, shown in 1, on the toolbar.
When you move the cursor over front panel and block diagram objects, the Context Help window displays the icon for subVIs, functions, constants, controls, and indicators, with wires attached to each terminal. When you move the cursor over dialog box options, the Context Help window displays descriptions of those options. In the window, required connections are bold, recommended connections are plain text, and optional connections are dimmed or do not appear. Figure 1 shows an example Context Help window.
Figure 1: Context Help Window
Click the Hide Optional Terminals and Full Path button located on the lower left corner of the Context Help window to display the optional terminals of a connector pane and to display the full path to a VI. Optional terminals are shown by wire stubs, informing you that other connections exist. The detailed mode displays all terminals, as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Detailed Context Help Window
Click the Lock Context Help button to lock the current contents of the Context Help window. When the contents are locked, moving the cursor over another object does not change the contents of the window. To unlock the window, click the button again. You also can access this option from the Help menu.
If a corresponding LabVIEW Help topic exists for an object the Context Help window describes, a blue Click here for more help. link appears in the Context Help window. Also, the More Help button, shown at left, is enabled. Click the link or the button to display the LabVIEW Help for more information about the object.

LabVIEW Help

You can access the LabVIEW Help either by clicking the More Help button in the Context Help window, selecting Help>>VI, Function, & How-To Help, or clicking the blue Click here for more help. link in the Context Help window.
The LabVIEW Help contains detailed descriptions of most palettes, menus, tools, VIs, and functions. The LabVIEW Help also includes step-by-step instructions for using LabVIEW features. The LabVIEW Help includes links to the following resources:

NI Example Finder

The New dialog box contains many LabVIEW template VIs that you can use to start building VIs. However, these template VIs are only a subset of the hundreds of example VIs included with LabVIEW. You can modify any example VI to fit an application, or you can copy and paste from an example into a VI that you create.
In addition to the example VIs that ship with LabVIEW, you also can access hundreds of example VIs on the NI Developer Zone at ni.com/zone. To search all examples using LabVIEW VIs, use the NI Example Finder. The NI Example Finder is the gateway to all installed examples and the examples located on the NI Developer Zone.
To launch the NI Example Finder, select Help>>Find Examples from the front panel or block diagram menu bar. You also can launch the NI Example Finder by clicking the arrow on the Open button on the LabVIEW dialog box and selecting Examples from the shortcut menu.

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