5.15.1 Help Install

Simplified Install

If Casual is installed using package-install, then you can use casual-init to setup support for Help.

By default, casual-init will setup support for Help via the hook function casual-help-init which is included in the customizable variable casual-init-hook.

Use the command customize-variable on casual-init-hook to control inclusion of casual-help-init via a checkbox interface.

Refer to the Simplified Install (Install) section for more detail on customizing casual-init.

Casual makes opinionated decisions on the keybindings used in its menus. Such opinions are extended from said menus to the keymap(s) of a particular mode. For Help, this can be controlled via the customizable variable casual-help-add-extra-keybindings (default t).

Hook Install

Users who want a more granular install of Casual modules can invoke the hook function of interest in their Emacs initialization file.

(casual-help-init)

Manual Install

For users who have manually installed Casual outside of package-install, the following guidance is offered.

The primary interface for Casual Help is the Transient menu casual-help-tmenu. It is autoloaded ((elisp)Autoload) so if Casual is installed via package-install ((emacs)Package Installation) then casual-help-tmenu can be invoked via execute-extended-command (M-x) without need for modifying your Emacs initialization file.

That said, Casual is designed with the intent of using a common (key)binding across multiple modes to lower cognitive load. This document uses the binding C-o for this purpose, but can be changed to user preference.

There are many ways to configure this binding. Shown below is a straightforward implementation:

(require 'casual-help) ; load all dependencies including `help'
(keymap-set help-mode-map "C-o" #'casual-help-tmenu)

If lazy loading of the help package is desired then try using eval-after-load:

(eval-after-load 'help
  (keymap-set help-mode-map "C-o" #'casual-help-tmenu))

Additional Bindings

casual-help-tmenu deviates from the default bindings of help-mode-map as shown in the table below.

Default BindingCasual BindingCommandNotes
lM-[help-go-backMake consistent with Casual Info behavior.
rM-]help-go-forwardMake consistent with Casual Info behavior.
nNhelp-goto-next-pageUse to navigate to next page.
pPhelp-goto-previous-pageUse to navigate to previous page.
ncasual-lib-browser-forward-paragraphUse to navigate paragraph forward.
pcasual-lib-browser-backward-paragraphUse to navigate paragraph backward.

The following keybindings are recommended to support consistent behavior between help-mode and casual-help-tmenu.

(keymap-set help-mode-map "M-[" #'help-go-back)
(keymap-set help-mode-map "M-]" #'help-go-forward)
(keymap-set help-mode-map "p" #'casual-lib-browse-backward-paragraph)
(keymap-set help-mode-map "n" #'casual-lib-browse-forward-paragraph)
(keymap-set help-mode-map "P" #'help-goto-previous-page)
(keymap-set help-mode-map "N" #'help-goto-next-page)
(keymap-set help-mode-map "j" #'forward-button)
(keymap-set help-mode-map "k" #'backward-button)