# Way to expand all cells of a help doc page at once?

If I wish to look through a long documentation page (e.g., that for Integrate or Plot), I find it helpful to first expand all the cells. I can then search for what I seek with either a visual scan or a word search. However, expanding all the cells manually is tedious—I have to individually click on each of the separate down-arrows, sub-down-arrows, and sub-sub-down-arrows (the page for Plot has a total of 50 of these!).

Is there a way to do this complete (i.e., recursive) expansion with a single command? On a Mac, in a notebook, you can highlight all the cells with Cmd+A and then toggle back and forth between open and closed with Cmd+'. But this doesn't work in the help docs.

• I should probably note that I had modified the stylesheet for doc pages using this answer; I don't actually know if the "Details and Options" in the default stylesheet will expand in the manner I described. – J. M.'s discontentment Mar 29 '18 at 3:56
• Yes, it all gets expanded on Linux. And, having tried now, it works on Windows too. – J. M.'s discontentment Mar 29 '18 at 4:24
• Cmd+A followed by Cmd+Shift+[ works on OSX for me. – Carl Woll Mar 29 '18 at 4:33
• Thanks for all your help! I figured out the problem. I've long used cmd + ' to toggle back and forth between expanded and collapsed cells in notebooks (less typing than cmd + shift + [ and cmd + shift + ], plus I don't need to remember that you use a L bracket to open and a R bracket to close). The problem is that cmd + ' doesn't work in the help docs; you have to use cmd + shift + [ . Sorry to take up your time! Should I put the correction in the original question, add it as an answer, or delete the question? [I'll do the first in the meantime.] – theorist Mar 29 '18 at 5:01
• @theorist just self-answer. Better than having it in the question. – b3m2a1 Mar 29 '18 at 5:02

While (on a Mac) Cmd+' works to toggle cell groups open and closed in notebooks, it doesn't work in the help documentation. There you have to instead use Cmd+Shift+[ (or, in Windows or Linux, Ctrl+Shift+[ ).

So to get it to work on all of the groups use Cmd/Ctrl+A then Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+[

• This should be the accepted answer. It's superior to mine and more direct. If you mark it as such it'll percolate up higher and people won't see mine first. – b3m2a1 Mar 29 '18 at 5:49
• Thanks; since it's a self-answer, the system won't allow me to accept it for two days. – theorist Mar 29 '18 at 5:56
• @b3m2a1 Also, as it's a self-answer, it won't be sent to the top if accepted. – wizzwizz4 Mar 29 '18 at 12:56

Here's a way to do it programmatically in case that's ever useful:

FrontEndExecute@{FrontEndToken[InputNotebook[], "SelectAll"],
FrontEndToken[InputNotebook[], "SelectionOpenAllGroups"]}


Or you can bind it to a button:

Button["Open Groups",
FrontEndExecute@{FrontEndToken[InputNotebook[], "SelectAll"],
FrontEndToken[InputNotebook[], "SelectionOpenAllGroups"]}
]


You could also bind it to the basic Cmd+' event:

{

Attach that to the NotebookEventActions at the stylesheet level for the "Wolfram/Reference.nb" stylesheet (making sure to make a copy in your \$UserBaseDirectory to edit).