Vashon Software

It is simple: but only if you know where to go! (Try asking a new user to do this task and they could wind up with a few dozen other approaches - most that might not work.) For those of us not so familiar with the routine it helps to have it spelled out:

1. Go to Java SE Downloads and select Java SE Development Kit Documentation 6 to download jdk-6u11-docs.zip to a special place on your hard drive.
2. In the NetBeans IDE go to Tools | Java Platforms and in the resulting dialog, select your package and select Javadoc tab in the right pane. Add the downloaded zip file (no need to expand it) and you should be done.
3. Without even restarting the IDE, you should be able to click on a known word and click ALT-F1 to automatically display the API documentation for the Java API.
4. I had to unblock this from my Windows Firewall, but I just had to click the "unblock" button on the resulting warning dialog.
5. If you have problems, you may need to ensure this official doc is ahead of other javadocs you may have installed - or even remove the others as I had to once.