Different forms of user assistance helps users at different levels of expertise learn about the tool’s features and quickly and successfully complete required tasks.
If you are using this tool for the first time, explore the product Welcome (Help > Welcome) to learn about major features in the product and relevant technologies, and to receive guidance for performing your first steps.
To get started using the product or a specific feature of the product, review the collection of product tutorials and samples. You can access early learning tutorials and samples from the Welcome, or look at the complete collection in the Tutorials Gallery and Samples Gallery. To open the galleries, click Help > Tutorials Gallery and Help > Samples Gallery.
Three different types of tutorials can help you get started and advance your knowledge. Some tutorials are multimedia, some are interactive, and some are text-based, so you can choose the type that best suits your learning style.
There are also three different types of samples, from smaller technology-specific samples that focus on a particular aspect of your model or code, to large cross-component samples that demonstrate a complete application implemented using the platform tools. When you open a sample, you see a short description of what the sample does and a link for importing the sample into your workspace.
While you are using the tool, you might need assistance to perform various tasks. The first level of assistance that is available to you is contextual help, which you can be access by any of the following mechanisms:
The next level of assistance is in the product’s information center, which provides help topics with the additional details that you might need to understand specific features of the product and use them to complete a task. The overview topic you are reading now is located in the information center.
Information in the information center does not document the underlying technologies, such as the Unified Modeling Language, but assumes that you have at least a beginner-level understanding of the relevant technologies. The help topics discuss the concepts behind these technologies at a high-level and describe how the tool supports them. It provides instructions on how to use the tool to achieve high-level goals or perform specific tasks based on these technologies.
You can navigate in the infocenter by using three standard mechanisms: the table of contents, topic-to-topic linking, and searching. Use the table of contents to learn how to use the product to achieve you major design and development goals. Use topic-to-topic linking to explore related information on topics of interest. Use the search feature to find concepts and instructions that are relevant to a task you are performing or to a functional area of the tool.
Search for additional support materials on the Web, or find out how to contact IBM support, by using the IBM Support Assistant (Help > IBM Support Assistant).
Parent topic: Product overview