Help System

Blender has a range of built-in and web-based help options.

Tooltips

When hovering the mouse cursor over a button or setting, after a few instants a tooltip appears.

Elements

The context-sensitive Tooltip might contain some of these elements:

Short Description

Related details depending on the control.

Shortcut

A keyboard or mouse shortcut associated to the tool.

Value

The value of the property.

Hovering over a color property will display a large swatch preview of the color and the color’s hexadecimal, RGBA, and HSVA values.

Library

Source file of the active object. See also Linked Libraries.

Disabled (red)

The reason why the value is not editable.

Python

When Python Tooltips are enabled, a Python expression is displayed for scripting (usually an operator or property).

Context-Sensitive Manual Access

Reference

Mode:

All modes

Menu:

Context menu ‣ Online Manual

Shortcut:

F1

You may want to access help for a tool or area from within Blender.

To do so; hover the cursor over the tool or button you need help with and use the keyboard shortcut or context menu item to visit pages of this reference manual from within Blender. This opens a web page relating to the button under the cursor, supporting both tool and value buttons.

Note

We do not currently have 100% coverage. You may see an alert in the info header if a tool does not have a link to the manual.

Other times, buttons may link to more general sections of the documentation.

Help Menu

Web Links

The first options of this menu provide direct links to Blender-related websites. The same links can also be found in the Splash Screen.

Manual

This is a link to the Official Blender Manual (which you are now reading).

Release Notes

Link to the release notes for the current Blender version.

Tutorials

Multiple tutorials to help you learn to use Blender.

Support

Links to various sites, providing both community and professional support.

User Communities

Lists of many different community sites and support venues.

Report a Bug

The Blender Bug Tracker (registration needed).

Save System Info

This extracts system information which can be useful for including in bug reports, inspecting the configuration, or diagnosing problems.

You will be prompted to save a text file called system-info.txt.

It contains the following sections:

Blender

This section shows you the Blender version, details about the build configuration, and the path in which Blender is running.

Python

The version and path of your Python installation.

Directories

Paths used for scripts, data files, presets and temporary files.

Those directories are configured using the Preferences Editor.

GPU

Shows the GPU vendor, version and the capabilities of your hardware and driver.

Enabled Add-Ons

Lists add-ons currently in use.