User Manuals locally accessible.

I would like them installed locally and linked to in the help menu like before.

I have downloaded them to my desktop and I saw a thread about modifying the .xml file but I shouldn’t have to do all that.

+1 – I was disappointed that the “help” was only on-line or via the PDF. I liked having the document opened from the documentation choices on the mention within the program. I don’t know why that was removed and I’d like it restored. I’m only a year and half into Cubase and still need refer to the Operation Manual and Plug-In Reference.

+1

I’ve been a Cubase user since C5 and I still FREQUENTLY refer to the manual. Between chord tracks, note expression, the automation/CC paradigm, and plenty of other powerful and great features that are complex, I don’t imagine I will ever reach the point where I don’t need to refer to the manual at least occasionally.

+1

Regards :sunglasses:

Thanks, that is very encouraging. I’d even like a document viewer window for the lower 3rd so I could have the Operation Manual opened right there.

+1000
I ended up downloading the manual and having it on my desktop

+1k too. :exclamation:

In 9.0.1 F1 led to the pdf manual when it was copied to the …/Documentation folder.
But 9.0.10 leads to the web. My DAW has not access to the internet.

Can’t understand why the pdf manuals are not accessible via help menu.

The two redirects before you get to the actual page is pretty annoying too.

I found a workaround. I hit F1 and Cubase Pro 9 told me it couldn’t find the file “Operation Manual” in (windows) Program Files\Steinberg\documentation

I created a new directory at that location and copied my PDF version of the Pro 9 manual there. Now, when I hit F1 the Operation Manual opens. :slight_smile:

Please note, that none of help documentation was transferred during my update. All the old files were still in the Cubase Pro 8 folder.

Parhaps I found a new workaround which works in Cubase 9.0.10. It enables you to open the pdf manual locally in the internet browser. Honestly, I’d like to use the pdf reader app but I don’t know how to do that. And so, simply creating a shortcut in the Desktop is still the best way for me :frowning:

1, Download the pdf manual from “https://steinberg.help/”.
2, Open “C:\Program Files\Steinberg\Cubase 9”, create a folder named “Documentation” and unzip the pdf manual there.
3, Open “C:\Program Files\Steinberg\Cubase 9\Help”.
4, Copy “help-urls.xml” and paste it in the Desktop.
5, Rename the original one “help-urls.xml.old” for backup.
6, Rename the copied one “help-urls.txt” and open it in the text editor.
7, Find your Cubase system language and edit the url like this. The location is the same but the file name is up to your language so please refer to the pdf manual’s name you downloaded.
BEFORE

Cubase ヘルプ file://help/help-redirect/help-redirect-JP.html

AFTER

Cubase ヘルプ file://Documentation/Operation_Manual_jp.pdf

8, Save and exit.
9, Rename it “help-urls.xml” and move it to “C:\Program Files\Steinberg\Cubase 9\Help”.
10, Start Cubase and press F1. Now you can access User Manuals locally in the browser.

*If something bad happens, please delete the “help-urls.xml” you’ve edited and rename the “help-urls.xml.old” as it was before.

I would prefer it to be local also. If they are going to put it online, it should also be available as a download!

Documentation for download → https://steinberg.help/

Once you have the operations manual downloaded, place in the Documentation folder and use F1 to call it up.

Good luck

Ok… I got it to work… … Thanks nia_y27 !!! Now I also discovered that if you know your basic XML… its easy enough to add other documents … whatever you want … as long as the entry in help_url.xml is pointing to the right location:

Here is a snippet of additional help menu items I added… All of which open the appropriate manual on my MAC. I should mention that its probably a good idea to save a copy of this file in an alternative location… along with your documentation… because the next time you run an update to Cubase … The help_url.xml and all additional folders will be removed and replaced with the default directory… and if you saved your docs under “documentation” folder within the Cubase installation folder… All those Docs go bye bye! ( I belatedly discovered this when I updated to Cubase 9.0.20!)

In the future, I’d like to see Steinberg put in a script that will search for a documentation folder and just add the entries to the Help menu. It wouldn’t be a very difficult script!

<entry id="Groove_Agent_SE">
		<us>
			<title>Groove Agent SE</title>
			<url>file://documentation/Groove_Agent_SE.pdf</url>
		</us>
	</entry>
	<entry id="HALion_Sonic_SE">
		<us>
			<title>Halion Sonic SE</title>
			<url>file://documentation/HALion_Sonic_SE.pdf</url>
		</us>
	</entry>
	<entry id="MIDI Devices">
		<us>
			<title>MIDI Devices</title>
			<url>file://documentation/MIDI_Devices.pdf</url>
		</us>
	</entry>
	<entry id="Plug-IN References">
		<us>
			<title>Plug-in References</title>
			<url>file://documentation/Plug-in_Reference.pdf</url>
		</us>
	</entry>
</LinkCollection>

Thank you for the tip. I also wanted to keep online help link but separate it from the rest, like this:

Here is my help-urls.xml which accomplishes it (don’t forget to download pdf files to C:\Program Files\Steinberg\Cubase 9\Documentation):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- TEMPLATE
	<entry id="">
		<us>
			<title></title>
			<url></url>
			<category></category>
		</us>
		<de>
			<title></title>
			<url></url>
			<category></category>
		</de>
		<fr>
			<title></title>
			<url></url>
			<category></category>
		</fr>
		<it>
			<title></title>
			<url></url>
			<category></category>
		</it>
		<es>
			<title></title>
			<url></url>
			<category></category>
		</es>
		<jp>
			<title></title>
			<url></url>
			<category></category>
		</jp>
		<pt>
			<title></title>
			<url></url>
			<category></category>
		</pt>
		<zh>
			<title></title>
			<url></url>
			<category></category>
		</zh>
	</entry>
-->
<LinkCollection>
	<languages>
		<us/>
		<de/>
		<fr/>
		<it/>
		<es/>
		<jp/>
		<pt/>
		<zh/>
		<ru/>
	</languages>
	<entry id="Help">
		<us>
			<title>Operation Manual</title>
			<url>file://Documentation/Cubase_Pro_Artist_9_Operation_Manual_english.pdf</url>
		</us>
		<us>
			<title>Quick Start Guide</title>
			<url>file://Documentation/Cubase_Pro_Artist_9_Quick_Start_Guide_english.pdf</url>
		</us>
		<us>
			<title>Remote Control Devices</title>
			<url>file://Documentation/Cubase_Pro_Artist_9_Remote_Control_Devices_english.pdf</url>
		</us>
		<us>
			<title>Plug-in Reference</title>
			<url>file://Documentation/Cubase_Pro_Artist_9_Plug-in_Reference_english.pdf</url>
		</us>
		<us>
			<title>HALion Sonic SE</title>
			<url>file://Documentation/Cubase_Pro_Artist_9_HALion_Sonic_SE_english.pdf</url>
		</us>
		<us>
			<title>Groove Agent SE</title>
			<url>file://Documentation/Cubase_Pro_Artist_9_Groove_Agent_SE_english.pdf</url>
		</us>
		<us>
			<title>Retrologue</title>
			<url>file://Documentation/Cubase_Pro_Artist_9_Retrologue_english.pdf</url>
		</us>
			<us>
			<title>MIDI Devices</title>
			<url>file://Documentation/Cubase_Pro_Artist_9_MIDI_Devices_english.pdf</url>
		</us>
	</entry>
	<entry id="Separator">
		<all>
		</all>
	</entry>
	<entry id="Help">
		<us>
			<title>Cubase Online Help</title>
			<url>file://help/help-redirect/help-redirect-EN.html</url>
		</us>
		<de>
			<title>Cubase Hilfe</title>
			<url>file://help/help-redirect/help-redirect-DE.html</url>
		</de>
		<fr>
			<title>Aide de Cubase</title>
			<url>file://help/help-redirect/help-redirect-FR.html</url>
		</fr>
		<it>
			<title>Aiuto di Cubase</title>
			<url>file://help/help-redirect/help-redirect-IT.html</url>
		</it>
		<es>
			<title>Ayuda de Cubase</title>
			<url>file://help/help-redirect/help-redirect-ES.html</url>
		</es>
		<jp>
			<title>Cubase ヘルプ</title>
			<url>file://help/help-redirect/help-redirect-JP.html</url>
		</jp>
		<pt>
			<title>Ajuda do Cubase</title>
			<url>file://help/help-redirect/help-redirect-PT.html</url>
		</pt>
		<zh>
			<title>Cubase 帮助</title>
			<url>file://help/help-redirect/help-redirect-ZH.html</url>
		</zh>
		<ru>
			<title>Справка по Cubase</title>
			<url>file://help/help-redirect/help-redirect-RU.html</url>
		</ru>
	</entry>
</LinkCollection>

Because it’s not easy to modify files in Program Files, create empty text document on the desktop, rename it to help-urls.xml, paste upper code into it, save and copy to C:\Program Files\Steinberg\Cubase 9\Help. You might want to rename the old help-urls.xml to something else instead of deleting so you keep a backup copy just in case.



Edit: With Cubase 9.5 things changed a bit :slight_smile:
Download manuals from here: Cubase Pro 9.5 Documentation
And here’s the code for 9.5 version of help-urls.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- TEMPLATE
	<entry id="">
		<us>
			<title></title>
			<url></url>
			<category></category>
		</us>
		<de>
			<title></title>
			<url></url>
			<category></category>
		</de>
		<fr>
			<title></title>
			<url></url>
			<category></category>
		</fr>
		<it>
			<title></title>
			<url></url>
			<category></category>
		</it>
		<es>
			<title></title>
			<url></url>
			<category></category>
		</es>
		<jp>
			<title></title>
			<url></url>
			<category></category>
		</jp>
		<pt>
			<title></title>
			<url></url>
			<category></category>
		</pt>
		<zh>
			<title></title>
			<url></url>
			<category></category>
		</zh>
	</entry>
-->
<LinkCollection>
	<languages>
		<us/>
		<de/>
		<fr/>
		<it/>
		<es/>
		<jp/>
		<pt/>
		<zh/>
		<ru/>
	</languages>
	<entry id="Help">
		<us>
			<title>Operation Manual</title>
			<url>file://Documentation/Cubase_Pro_Artist_9_5_Operation_Manual_en.pdf</url>
		</us>
		<us>
		<title>Score Layout and Printing </title>
			<url>file://Documentation/Cubase_Pro_Artist_9_5_Score_Layout_and_Printing_en.pdf</url>
		</us>
		<us>
			<title>Plug-in Reference</title>
			<url>file://Documentation/Cubase_9_5_Plug_in_Reference_en.pdf</url>
		</us>
		<us>
			<title>HALion Sonic SE</title>
			<url>file://Documentation/HALion_Sonic_SE_3_Operation_Manual_en.pdf</url>
		</us>
		<us>
			<title>Groove Agent SE</title>
			<url>file://Documentation/Groove_Agent_SE_4_Operation_Manual_english.pdf</url>
		</us>
		<us>
			<title>Retrologue</title>
			<url>file://Documentation/Retrologue_2_Operation_Manual_en.pdf</url>
		</us>
		<us>
			<title>MIDI Devices</title>
			<url>file://Documentation/MIDI_Devices_english.pdf</url>
		</us>
		<us>
			<title>Remote Control Devices</title>
			<url>file://Documentation/Remote_Control_Devices.pdf</url>
		</us>
	</entry>
	<entry id="Separator">
		<all>
		</all>
	</entry>
	<entry id="Help">
		<us>
			<title>Cubase Online Help</title>
			<url>file://help/help-redirect/help-redirect-EN.html</url>
		</us>
		<de>
			<title>Cubase Hilfe</title>
			<url>file://help/help-redirect/help-redirect-DE.html</url>
		</de>
		<fr>
			<title>Aide de Cubase</title>
			<url>file://help/help-redirect/help-redirect-FR.html</url>
		</fr>
		<it>
			<title>Aiuto di Cubase</title>
			<url>file://help/help-redirect/help-redirect-IT.html</url>
		</it>
		<es>
			<title>Ayuda de Cubase</title>
			<url>file://help/help-redirect/help-redirect-ES.html</url>
		</es>
		<jp>
			<title>Cubase ヘルプ</title>
			<url>file://help/help-redirect/help-redirect-JP.html</url>
		</jp>
		<pt>
			<title>Ajuda do Cubase</title>
			<url>file://help/help-redirect/help-redirect-PT.html</url>
		</pt>
		<zh>
			<title>Cubase 帮助</title>
			<url>file://help/help-redirect/help-redirect-ZH.html</url>
		</zh>
		<ru>
			<title>Справка по Cubase</title>
			<url>file://help/help-redirect/help-redirect-RU.html</url>
		</ru>
	</entry>
</LinkCollection>

New help.png

Ditto. In fact, one thing I -wish- was part of the VST standard would be that ALL plugs would all have their PDFs in the same place -and- had a standard ‘Help’ button.

I do a LOT of studying -away- from the DAW and it’s often a right PITA to -find- the docs for various plugs and apps.

Sufficient to keep me from buying 9.5 might be lack of a proper .pdf manual. I find the online one in 9.0.20 to be far inferior to the.pdf one, almost to the point of unusable in the comparison.

Trust me, Cubase 9.5 is Well worth the $60 updrade!!! and I downloaded the 9.5 manual. It looks fine!

Jeff

Ok… Wow! how bizarre! This all works fine on OSX … but I have now discovered that the above XML scripts do NOT work anymore on Windows 10!!! I had Chrome as my default browser, which means it will either open a local PDF file in the browser (chrome will not interact with Adobe now) , or make you download it (which makes absolutely NO sense!). I tried switching default browser to Edge… Your ONLY option is to open it in a browser. PDF on Windows is quirky! I can’t figure out any way to get Edge (or Chrome) to open the document in Adobe! Since the XML tags are . Anyone know of a different XML tag that might fix this? Not Steinberg’s problem… It’s an old fight between Google, Microsoft and Adobe.

Also you can reprogram the F1 shot cut to the local PDF Offline Help file