ipython/ipython — Issue #1163: Button or keyboard shortcut for getting help on the symbol under the cursor (htmlnotebook)
Author: szhorvat
Created: 2011-12-16 11:25:39+00:00
State: open

This is a feature request.

It is possible to get help on a symbol by entering "?symbolname" in a cell and running it. The help text appears in a separate pane, and not as standard output.

It would be very convenient to have a button/keyboard shortcut (F1 maybe?) which will display help for the symbol under the cursor (or for the selected text) *without* the need to create a new cell, re-type the symbol name there, run it, then delete the cell as unnecessary.

This is one instance where a notebook interface differs from a traditional command line: the notebook will be saved and re-used later, and it's undesirable to have otherwise pointless cells in it which only print help messages. Therefore I believe it would be better to make it possible to get help through the GUI somehow (or better: keyboard shortcut)