# Where is julia specific documentation for Jupyter notebook?
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/where-is-julia-specific-documentation-for-jupyter-notebook/40749
**Category:** General Usage
**Created:** [June 4, 2020, 5:36pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/where-is-julia-specific-documentation-for-jupyter-notebook/40749 "2020-06-04T17:36:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@devel-chm](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/devel-chm)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2020, 5:36pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/where-is-julia-specific-documentation-for-jupyter-notebook/40749/1 "2020-06-04T17:36:13Z")
I have been using the Jupyter notebook interface to learn Julia and to document what I have learned and done/fixed. I had started with the julia REPL from a mintty terminal (cygwin) on win7 but was not able to iterate as I worked.
When I started with the Jupyter notebook, I searched for documentation on usage and found lots of information based on IPython and not much luck with Julia-specific docs. By taking the notebook Help-\>User Interface Tour and browsing the keyboard shortcuts I was able to run julia commands. However, I couldn’t find a way to show the julia help documentation as in the julia REPL ? mode.
I eventually found a site (at [Stanford](https://scpo-compecon.github.io/CoursePack/Html/getting_started)) on configuring and using the Jupyter interface which showed that the ; could be used for shell commands, and that the ] could be used for package mode commands. After those successes, I tried using ? as a prefix and was delighted to see that it (finally) showed me the help information I had been missing.
Am I missing something that would have made this more “discoverable”?
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### Author:  [@tbeason](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/tbeason)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2020, 6:36pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/where-is-julia-specific-documentation-for-jupyter-notebook/40749/2 "2020-06-04T18:36:04Z")
I think the cells in Jupyter notebooks accept any REPL commands. So you would just need to look at the regular Julia documentation.
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### Author:  [@mzaffalon](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mzaffalon)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2020, 7:04pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/where-is-julia-specific-documentation-for-jupyter-notebook/40749/3 "2020-06-04T19:04:26Z")
Just type question mark (“?”) followed by the command for which you want to display the documentation and evaluate the cell. There is no need for any configuration, as `@tbeason` said.
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### Author:  [@devel-chm](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/devel-chm)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2020, 7:43pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/where-is-julia-specific-documentation-for-jupyter-notebook/40749/4 "2020-06-04T19:43:33Z")
Where is this documented? As I mentioned, I found lots about IPython but nothing for IJulia (that I could tell). It may be that I don’t know the keywords for a search…
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### Author:  [@devel-chm](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/devel-chm)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2020, 7:46pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/where-is-julia-specific-documentation-for-jupyter-notebook/40749/5 "2020-06-04T19:46:30Z")
Thanks. As a julia ecosystem beginner, I was looking for where the julia-specific notebook information was. I hope it won’t be “duh, how did I miss that” but if there isn’t something obvious, I would like to contribute to making things more “discoverable”.
I am well aware of just how difficult it is to write intro docs for beginners once you become an expert (in pretty much anything). 🙂
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### Author:  [@mzaffalon](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mzaffalon)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2020, 8:07pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/where-is-julia-specific-documentation-for-jupyter-notebook/40749/6 "2020-06-04T20:07:01Z")
No specific place in particular, but there are [great tutorials](https://julialang.org/learning/): here is a [recent one](https://youtu.be/qLO-yaUkLKE) that I enjoyed particularly. [Here](https://youtu.be/qLO-yaUkLKE?t=1394) the speaker shows how to access Julia’s documentation with “?”.
Intermediate documentation is available at the [IJulia.jl](https://github.com/JuliaLang/IJulia.jl) package page.
Moreover, if you have further questions, this is the place to ask them!
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### Author:  [@devel-chm](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/devel-chm)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2020, 9:22pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/where-is-julia-specific-documentation-for-jupyter-notebook/40749/7 "2020-06-04T21:22:30Z")
It seems that this information is not in julia/jupyter documentation at a discoverable location. (I’m not counting 3rd party sites and videos as official documentation).
I guess the question then is where should this information be placed in julia/jupyter documentation to avoid other beginners having this problem?
It is possible that after I understand the julia ecosystems better, I can clarify the question statement or submit a PR appropriately at that time.
Thanks to all who responded!
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### Author:  [@mzaffalon](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mzaffalon)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2020, 6:34am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/where-is-julia-specific-documentation-for-jupyter-notebook/40749/8 "2020-06-05T06:34:04Z")
It is documented in the [Julia manual](https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/stdlib/REPL/) and one expects IJulia to behave like the REPL, which is why it is not documented in IJulia. For instance you can check that the package prompt “]” also works within IJulia.
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### Author:  [@devel-chm](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/devel-chm)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2020, 2:37pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/where-is-julia-specific-documentation-for-jupyter-notebook/40749/9 "2020-06-05T14:37:49Z")
> [@mzaffalon](#):
>
> one expects IJulia to behave like the REPL
I started with the julia REPL and was happily using it. I didn’t see anything in the julia REPL documentation addressing IJulia/Jupyter notebooks interaction.
As I started to work with jupyter notebooks I could not find documentation for **IJulia** or **Jupyter notebooks** that said that it worked this way. Admittedly, this is obvious once you know it but I think it would be valuable to be stated explicitly. I’m still not sure where the sentence should be added.
BTW: I’m really enjoying using notebooks as I learn Julia! Editing and revising the notebook allows me to resume sessions and log the working code versionns with outputs and notes.
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### Author:  [@mzaffalon](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mzaffalon)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2020, 2:46pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/where-is-julia-specific-documentation-for-jupyter-notebook/40749/10 "2020-06-05T14:46:39Z")
It is written in the first sentence of the [IJulia](https://github.com/JuliaLang/IJulia.jl) `README.md`
> **IJulia** is a [Julia-language](http://julialang.org/) backend combined with the [Jupyter](http://jupyter.org/) interactive environment (also used by [IPython](http://ipython.org/)). This combination allows you to interact with the Julia language…
I agree, it is obscure if one is not used to this technical language.
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### Author:  [@devel-chm](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/devel-chm)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2020, 3:41pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/where-is-julia-specific-documentation-for-jupyter-notebook/40749/11 "2020-06-05T15:41:49Z")
**IJulia** is a [Julia-language](http://julialang.org/) backend combined with the [Jupyter](http://jupyter.org/) interactive environment (also used by [IPython](http://ipython.org/)).
There is nothing in the introductory sentence that indicates that you can enter key sequences from the juila REPL in the jupyter notebook to get the same effect as the _shell_, _package_, or _help_ modes.
On re-reading the IJulia README.md I think the explicit statement regarding this feature probably would fit well in some of the later material on this document. I’ll see if I can come up with a PR and proposed wording.
Thanks for continuing to follow up.
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### Author:  [@stevengj](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/stevengj)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2020, 4:12pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/where-is-julia-specific-documentation-for-jupyter-notebook/40749/12 "2020-06-05T16:12:23Z")
Yes, it would be good to note in the IJulia README that `?` (help) and `]` (pkg) and `;` (shell) are supported similar to the REPL (although they don’t switch to a different prompt), as well as `ans` (or `Out[]` for the result of the last-executed cell.
You can also get pop-up help (similar to `?`) by typing shift-tab after any symbol (this is a Jupyter feature, not specific to IJulia).
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