While in the EXPERT or the NO form of unguided dialog, it is possible to switch to temporarily guided dialog for entering a particular command or statement. The user prompting of this dialog level is equivalent in scope to that of the minimum guidance level (see "Levels of user guidance ").Once the entry has been made, the user returns to the original form of unguided dialog.
While in command mode in unguided dialog, the user can request an application domain menu by entering “?” and select the application domain in which he wishes to work. SDF then displays the command menu for this application domain.
While in the program mode of unguided dialog, entering “?” normally causes SDF to display a statement menu. If no more than one statement is meaningful at the time of entering “?”, SDF displays the operand form for that statement instead of the statement menu.
The operand form for the given <command> or <statement> is called up by entering “<command>?[<operand>,...]” or “<statement>?[<operand>,...]”.
The form is preset with any operand values which may have been specified and with the default values of the optional operands. If the user presses the [ K1 ] key in Old mode or the [ F3 ] key in Styleguide mode, or enters *EXIT in the NEXT line of the form, SDF displays the application domain menu (or, in program mode, the statement menu).
If <command> is a command in ISP format, SDF has three possible responses:
The command is entered in the form <command>? and corresponds exactly to one command in SDF format. SDF displays the operand form of the corresponding command in SDF format.
The command is entered in the form <command>? and corresponds to a number of commands in SDF format. SDF displays a menu with the corresponding commands.
The command is entered in the form <command>?<operand>,... . SDF displays the operand form for the ISP command entered. This form comprises only the OPERANDS operand, which is preset with the operand string already entered. Further keyword or positional operands may be specified in the input field. For ISP commands, only one operand is defined, which permits the enumeration of all ISP operands (defined as <command-rest>). SDF does not analyze the input on the operand level, i.e. syntax errors are not discovered until the executing module rejects them.
While in the NO form of unguided dialog, any error in the input causes SDF to display the faulty operand and to request the user to correct the error. If the user reacts by entering “?”, SDF displays the operand form for the command (or statement) which is to be corrected.
It is possible to terminate temporarily guided dialog and return to unguided dialog by pressing either the 
key (Old mode) or the 
key (Styleguide mode) or entering *EXIT-ALL in the NEXT line of the menu or form.
The last input can be redisplayed using the RESTORE-SDF-INPUT command or statement or by pressing the 
key (in Styleguide mode).