OS/2 online information is accessible through the "Master Help Index" and "Glossary" Workplace Shell objects. Users can access alphabetized lists of index entries simply by double clicking on the icons for these objects.

As an author who wants to create or modify Help Indexes and Glossaries, you need to understand that the Master Help Index object and Glossary object that are installed by default with the OS/2 operating system are the same class of object. In other words, they are the exact same kind of object. Like the rest of the Workplace Shell user objects, they can be created, shadowed, copied, and so on. This also means that they can be modified through the "Settings Notebook". To look at the Settings Notebook for the Master Help Index, simply do the following:

• Select the Master Help Index user object by single-clicking on its icon with mouse button 1.

• Press mouse button 2 for the object's pop-up menu.

• Select "Open" with mouse button 1, then select "Settings" from the pop-up menu that appears.

The "Properties" page of the Master Help Index object's Settings Notebook can be modified. On this page, the "Files/Environment name(s):" setting can be modified. This setting specifies where online helps (.HLP files) containing Master Help Index entries are located. The Master Help Index object's default setting is defined in the file CONFIG.SYS by the "HELP" environment variable.

The global attribute of the :i1. and :i2. tags identifies index entries as candidates for the Master Help Index or Glossary. Good candidates are pointers to procedural and conceptual topics. For example, a simple Master Help Index entry for conceptual information about batch files might look like this:

:i1 global.batch files, creating

:i1 id=copy global.copying
:i2 refid=copy global.help topics
:i2 refid=copy global.document topics

As an author, you can create product-specific indexes and glossaries, add entries to the Master Help Index or Glossary (or customized, renamed copies of either user object), change their Notebook "Files/Environment name(s):" Settings to match online helps with global index entries, and so on. However, it requires programming skills to enable applications to do these tasks at installation or run time (see Creating Master Indexes and Glossaries with Applications).