Synoptic Designer includes contextual help surfaces for tools and panels. Help is local to the editor and does not require a network request for core workflow explanations.
Tool Visual Guides
Hover a toolbar tool for about two seconds to open a floating Visual Guide. The guide shows a compact animated example, the tool name, a short description, and the primary shortcut when a real shortcut exists.
Opening a Visual Guide from toolbar hover does not activate that tool. The toolbar remains usable and keeps its active state, disabled states, menus, active tool options, and Keep after Use state.
You can also open the guide for the current tool from the active-tool status area at the bottom of the workspace.
Grouped Tools
For grouped toolbar tools, hover the desired tool or submenu item to preview its guide. The guide changes to the hovered tool without changing the active canvas tool.
Data and Binding Help
The Data section can open a Visual Guide for local CSV, JSON, and XLSX import.
The selected-area Data Point control can open a Visual Guide that explains binding an area ID to imported datapoints.
These guides are meant to explain the workflow; they do not import data or change binding state by themselves.
Tracing Image Help
The Tracing Image panel can open a Visual Guide focused on using a bitmap as a tracing reference. It reuses the same guide style as toolbar tools and points users toward Magic Wand and manual tracing workflows.
Documentation Entry Point
The project start dialog includes a documentation entry point so users can reach the official documentation before choosing a project source.