Easy

[TomBascom]

This is one of the most useful tips that I ever received. Thanks Mike!

Years ago a very smart person pointed out to me that if you have Progress installed on Windows then you also have the online help.

It is very useful. And quite easy to use.

Look for the "?" icon on the Progress or OpenEdge menu in Start -> All Programs.

I find it very simple to add a shortcut to this documentation to either my desktop or to the quick access part of the task bar. I have it constantly open to the "Index" tab. Then all you need to do is type in a keyword or a command and you will get all sorts of interesting information about syntax and usage.

 

[KnutHandsome]

Useful advice. It may seem blindingly obvious to some, but it took me a long time to think of it.

I also have a folder on my desktop with the shortcut you have just described, in addition to shortcuts to the main menus of the manuals in pdf and html format.

As I use it much more, I also have a shortcut to the downloadable knowledgebase on my very cool* RocketDock.


*Stuff like this may be part of Apple/Vista, I don't know, but I'm on XP.

 

[katiecat]

I'd love to be able to do this, but we're only licensed for Progress in UNIX. It sure would be nice to have, though.

Additionally, I'd love to be able to use the Windows version of the procedure editor. The UNIX version is hard for me to get used to, but Progress wants to charge us full boat for an entire Windows development environment just so I can use the procedure editor (either that or they don't understand what I'm asking for, which is possible). So I set up PSPad with color coding and just edit programs across a Samba share. Not ideal, but good *enough*.

I'm a new programmer as well as a new Progress programmer. I only just discovered that this is the place we go to post to the PEG! (and I found this by accident) Good thing I'm tenacious.

Lovely day.
katie at Epson Portland Inc.

 

[TomBascom]

The downloadable kbase and PDF files are all freely available. No license required. You should have received a CD/DVD with the documentation on it along with Progress.

 

[enoon]

Am I missing the point but isn't this the same help as Help -> OpenEdge Master Help from AppBuilder or highlighting a keyword (double-click) and pressing F1?

 

[KnutHandsome]

Am I missing the point but isn't this the same help as Help -> OpenEdge Master Help from AppBuilder or highlighting a keyword (double-click) and pressing F1?

It is. You can also right-click on a keyword and select Keyword Help.

I find the additional shortcut useful because I occasionally want access to the help when I am not in the development environment, or when I have a program running from the appbuilder, and I don't want to close it down to check something.

It's also quicker just to double click something always to hand (eg. on the desktop) rather than going through a couple of menu options. Though, this could quite easily be done by sticking a button on (say) ProTools just as well.

 

[KnutHandsome]

I'd love to be able to do this, but we're only licensed for Progress in UNIX. It sure would be nice to have, though.
Additionally, I'd love to be able to use the Windows version of the procedure editor.

In addition to Tom's suggestion, you can download the trial Windows version of OpenEdge which will give you the full help files, and various IDE options. You won't be able to develop anything (legally) though.

There is also Piew, a useful Progress-specific procedure editor. Mentioned on ProgressTalk here, and available here.

I'm a new programmer as well as a new Progress programmer.

Welcome to both KatieCat. Both are dubious careers these days, but still (just) a nice way of making a living at times.

I only just discovered that this is the place we go to post to the PEG! (and I found this by accident)

It isn't. But it kind of is, too.

Lovely day.
katie

It certainly is here.

 

[tamhas]

Actually "PEG" is www.peg.com and is an e-mail list with no connection to this forum.

 

[schaapie]

We use UltraEdit as an editor in which you can add extra helpfiles.
So I have added [progress-install-dir]\prohelp\lgrfeng.chm to the help-files and now when I press F1 when I have a keyword highlighted, I can go directly (1 extra enter) to the Progress-help on the keyword.