#356 Package documentation / shortcut for texdoc

[White Owl]

Right now, if I want to see documentation for some package I am using in my document, I need to switch to console and run:
texdoc package_name
I'd like to have a more convenient way to use texdoc. Something like, adding a "Packages help" submenu into Help menu. This submenu should be populated with names of pachages listed in the current document in \usepackage{}. Choosing the item from such submenu will run texdoc for specified package.
The texdoc works perfectly in both Windows (MikTex distributive) and in Linux (tex-live), so I do not think there would be any cross-platform issues. Do not know about Mac, though.

[Tim Hoffmann]

You can already access package help via
a) context menu of \usepackage command
b) link overlay: Pressing Ctrl turns package names into links when the mouse moves over it

[White Owl]

Well... it is very nice that such functionality already exists, but...
a) You have to scroll your document to the very top before you can find the relevant \usepackage
b) This is not a very intuitive. Apparently I missed the description of such functionality in whatsnew, and I doubt new users will be able to find it by themselves. Submenu in Help is much more obvious.

[Tim Hoffmann]

I'm aware that most users won't know all functionalities. Link overlays are briefly mentioned in the whatsnew section. However, documentation and tutorials is definitively something that should be improved to help the user making full use of the capabilities of TXS. But there has just not been any time for it.

Anyway, an additional "Packages Help" entry sounds reasonable. I will include it some time later.

[Anonymous]

This feature does not work if one uses \usepackage in more than a single line like

\usepackage[%

per-mode=symbol,

quotient-mode=fraction

]{siunitx}

While including packages with this syntax it's easy to add new options.

[Tim Hoffmann]

For the time being there will not be multi-line support for such things. It would additionally complicate parsing and slow it down (when to stop?).
This might change if we switch to QCE3 (when it's ready someday) because there its easier to obtain contextual information.

[Tim Hoffmann]

implemented "Packages Help" menu entry (rev. 3489)

• status: open --> closed
• milestone: -->