Help

Extensive help is available for Chimera; the User's Guide and Programmer's Guide are written in HTML and can be displayed using the web browser of choice. This HTML documentation is bundled with a Chimera download and can be accessed from the Chimera Help menu. Use of the bundled documentation is recommended because it is synchronized with the locally installed version of Chimera. (The development version of the User's Guide is available online for viewing, but may describe features that have not yet been released.)

Help menu contents:

Search Documentation... search the local (bundled) Chimera documentation
User's Guide - open the Chimera User's Guide
Commands Index - open the Chimera Commands Index
Tutorials - open the Tutorials section of the Chimera User's Guide
Context Help - describe the feature that is clicked next (avoid clicking the top bar of a dialog, since that will fail to bring up a help page)
Check for Updates (requires internet connectivity) - see if any production releases are newer than the version in use, and if so, provide links to download them
Contact Us - show e-mail addresses for asking questions or making suggestions
Report a Bug... open a form for bug submission
Citation Info - show how to cite usage of Chimera
Registration... open a form for registration as a Chimera user
About UCSF Chimera - report what version of Chimera is being used and show copyright information

To call up the manual page for a specific command, type into the Command Line:

help command

whereas the following will show the entire Commands Index:

help commands

The help command without any arguments calls up the documentation search dialog.

Many of the tools and interfaces have Help buttons that open their respective manual pages. Some tools and interfaces also supply balloon help, explanatory text that pops up when the cursor is left in certain positions. When the cursor is left over an atom or bond in the graphics window, an atomspec balloon appears. Atomspec balloons contain information such as atom name, residue number, and (for bonds) length. Their style is controlled in the General preferences. Balloon help and atomspec balloons are on by default, but can be turned off in the General preferences.

UCSF Computer Graphics Laboratory / March 2010