I changed genpropdoc.m to output a header line at the top of the list of graphics properties which includes a cross-reference to the function (such as figure(), axes()) that is being documented.  See https://hg.savannah.gnu.org/hgweb/octave/rev/83774c2a1b92.

Marking as fixed and closing report.

Is the only thing remaining on this bug report to add a xref from the properties sections to the functions for each control type?

For example something like this

--- a/doc/interpreter/plot.txi
+++ b/doc/interpreter/plot.txi
@@ -1596,7 +1596,7 @@ The @code{uimenu} properties are:
 @subsubsection Uibuttongroup Properties
 @prindex @sortas{@ Uibuttongroup Properties} Uibuttongroup Properties

-The @code{uibuttongroup} properties are:
+The @xref{XREFuibuttongroup,,uibuttongroup} properties are:

 @include plot-uibuttongroupproperties.texi

Should we do the same for all plot objects (e.g. figure, axes, line), not just UI types?

Pushed refs to properties in default branch - http://hg.savannah.gnu.org/hgweb/octave/rev/93d96da9ff3e

I needed to merge stable to default for another serious bug so I did that today.

Ok so I pushed the patch on default:

http://hg.savannah.gnu.org/hgweb/octave/rev/3af34e1ef330

If it's  going to be painful then just document it on default.

It's documentation, so if you can do it on stable everyone will benefit much earlier when there is a point release of 4.0.1.  The release of 4.2 is probably a year away.

Thanks John, I'll look into introducing uixxx help strings and properties in the manual this week end.

I might take a look at QT assistant at some stage

In the mean time, thanks Rik for the @ref hints - I will use them.

@John: To make a hyperclick link that points off to another portion of the manual you can use @ref, @xref, or @pxref.  The @xref variants automatically add "See " to the front of the reference and are used most often in Octave.

For an example, look at plot.txi.

The documentation about a specific graphics object can be displayed
using @code{doc} function, e.g., @code{doc ("axes properties")} will show
@ref{Axes Properties}.

which in the pdf is translated to

The documentation about a specific graphics object can be displayed using doc function, e.g., doc ("axes properties") will show Section 15.3.3.3 [Axes Properties], page 371.

The reference needs to point to an @node entry.  For the Axes Properties example, the reference points to

@node Axes Properties
@subsubsection Axes Properties
@cindex axes properties

@John: In --no-gui mode, where the "doc" function directly calls "info" program, the following lets you look at e.g. axes properties:

doc ("axes properties")
## or point to a specific property
doc ("axes deletefcn")

Unfortunately, AFAICS in the GUI the "doc" function calls the doc browser which in turn only looks for function names in the info file, not sections and anchors.
So basically the doc browser doesn't do much more than the "help" function in those cases (Except being able to look at the manual for what purpose I still prefer to use a pdf viewer).

I looked at this once but got lost too fast :-).

@Rik: There once was a discussion on the eventuality to turn our html doc into Qt Help format so that we could use Qt assistant capabilities to search through the manual, and replace the current doc browser. Did you get a chance to look at this (between the huge amount of tasks you do for Octave :-))?

@John: there is a central place, genpropdocs.m, where we currently document the properties like "deletefcn" that any graphics object features. It would be easy to add "uicontextmenu" ("uimenu" and "uipanel" also) to the list of "base" graphics objects that are handled by genpropdoc.m. For the case of "uicontrol" it is another story as there is no 0 argument (default) interface, and this is actually what genpropdoc.m relies on.
So to be clear I think that the help string should only mention important properties that are specific to each uixxx object, and leave details for the manual.

If you agree with this approach I'll look into modifying genpropdoc.m to include uixxx objects.

The uiXXX family of functions in scripts/gui/ are almost entirely undocumented.  It would be nice if someone who uses these functions regularly could add some text to the m-files there to help out the rest of us.  It appears that most of the core developers don't do GUI development and therefore are unable to perform this task.