Update: forcing help viewer to appear in the dock and application switcher
We previously outlined various methods for preventing the Help Viewer application from cumbersomely staying on top of other applications and blocking access to other windows.
We previously outlined various methods for preventing the Help Viewer application from cumbersomely staying on top of other applications and blocking access to other windows. The fix involved editing the preference files for the Help Viewer to treat windows like normal application windows. While this worked, the help application would neither appear in the dock nor be in the application switcher, resulting in the help window potentially getting lost under other applications. MacFixIt reader "rahja" (http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20090201235856771#comments) writes:
"While it's nice to be able to get around the Help window, it's too bad it doesn't then operate like a "normal" app, and be selectable with apple-tab switching."
Because the help viewer is a standard Cocoa application, the presence of it in the dock and in the application switcher are determined by its "LSUIElement" setting for cocoa applications, located in a property list file within the application package. In most applications, this property list file is called "Info.plist" and can be readily edited; however, since "Help Viewer" is one of the "Core Services" applications, both it and it's supporting files have restricted "read only" permissions for standard users. Therefore users cannot directly edit the necessary files using a text editor.
Despite this, there are several methods for editing the "Info.plist" file, two of which are outlined here:
NOTE: Before editing the "Info.plist" file, back it up by going to the /System/Library/CoreServices/ folder, right-clicking on the "Help Viewer" and choosing "Show Package Contents...". Then open the "Contents" folder and copy the "Info.plist" file to a safe location such as the Desktop. This can also be done by entering the following command in the terminal:
cp /System/Library/CoreServices/Help Viewer.app/Contents/Info.plist ~/Desktop/
Method 1:
1. Open the terminal and enter the following command:
cd /System/Library/CoreServices/Help Viewer.app/Contents/
2. Open the "Info.plist" file at this location in the "nano" terminal text editor:
sudo nano Info.plist (authenticate when prompted)
3. Press the down arrow and scroll to the end of the file. Then locate the "LSUIElement" key that is about 10 lines up from the end of the document"
4. Change the string below this key from "1" to "0".
5. Save the document by pressing "ctrl-o", and press enter to confirm.
6. Exit the editor by pressing "ctrl-x".
Now when the help viewer opens it will display in the dock just like a normal applicaiton, and be selectable when users invoke "command-Tab" to switch applications.
Method 2:
Enter these three commands in sequence:
1. Edit the key using the "defaults" command
sudo defaults write /System/Library/CoreServices/Help Viewer.app/Contents/Info LSUIElement 0
2. Change the ownership and permissions properly
- sudo chown root:wheel /System/Library/CoreServices/Help Viewer.app/Contents/Info.plist
- sudo chmod 644 /System/Library/CoreServices/Help Viewer.app/Contents/Info.plist
Undoing: If this behavior of having the help viewer appear in the dock is not desired, users can reverse it by repeating one of the aforementioned methods for altering the file, and using "1" instead of "0" for the "LSUIElements" key.
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