Advantages of Using the Online Help

The online version of the help system offer distinct advantages over the offline or built-in version of the help.

  • It is always up-to-date for the release version
  • The search function is more robust, using an engine called "ElasticSearch"

About ElasticSearch

ElasticSearch is a powerful search engine that provides numerous unique options, including:

  • "fuzzy matching” (i.e., matching similar words)
  • predictive search
  • auto-completion

Figure 1-2: Example of auto-completion being used to find a function


  • The response time of auto-completion can be a little slow the first time you open the help with a browser instance. Unfortunately this is unavoidable due to server communication. Subsequent searches will be quick.