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Setting Assistance preferences

The Assistance category of the Max Preferences window shows the settings associated with using the Assistance features of Max that allow you to get hints about what kinds of messages or data the inlets and outlets of an object will receive or send.


Setting your Assistance preference

  • Choose Preferences from the Max menu (Macintosh) or the Options menu (Windows) to show the Preferences Window. Scroll to the Assistance category of the preferences listings, and click in the Show Assistance checkbox to enable or disable Show Assistance. When Show Assistance is enabled, they will appear in the Patcher Window.

The Max application keeps track of whether or not assistance has been enabled or disabled - if assistance is enabled the last time you quit the program, it will be enabled when you launch Max again.


By default, Max help files are only available when a patcher window is unlocked. You can set Max to let you access help files from a patcher window when it is locked.

Enabling help files in locked Patcher windows

  • Choose Preferences from the Max menu (Macintosh) or the Options menu (Windows) to show the Preferences Window. Scroll to the Assistance category of the preferences listings, and click in the Help in Locked Patchers checkbox in the Preferences window. When this option is checked, you will be able to use Assistance even when a Patcher window is locked. The Max application keeps track of this setting, and it will be enabled or disabled depending on its state the last time you quit the program.

Enabling/Disabling layout bubbles

  • Choose Preferences from the Max menu (Macintosh) or the Options menu (Windows) to show the Preferences Window. Scroll to the Assistance category of the preferences listings, and click in the Layout Bubbles checkbox to enable or disable Layout bubbles.
    The Max application keeps track of this setting, and it will be enabled or disabled depending on its state the last time you quit the program.

You can choose both the background color of the Layout bubble and the color of the text displayed in the bubble.


See Also

Name Description
The Max Environment The Max Environment