Creating index entries

[WebbJ]

(Flare 2.5; projects converted from RoboHelp 2002r2)

Yesterday I created an Index for the first time as follows:

\"To create index entries for a topic, using the the Index Entry window:
place the cursor at the relevant place in the topic (or copy the required text), then type or paste the text of the index entry into the empty box in its ‘Terms’ section. Press Enter to open the next empty box.\"

(That's tedious! - i.e. no add-to-Index button, no drag-&-drop in either direction, no right-click menu...
I'm ignoring the single-word features: Tools.Index.Insert Index Keyword & Index Entry Mode.)

Is there a Windows-y way of creating Index entries, please?

[Richard Ferrell]

Please see this part of the help file on how had index entries to your topics Features > Indexes > Inserting Index Keywords


How to insert an index keyword using the drag-and-drop method:

Open the topic.
Open the Index Explorer (View>Index Explorer).

In the Index Explorer, click the index keyword and drag it to the location in the topic where you want to insert it. As you drag the keyword into the topic, a vertical red bar acts as a guide to help you place the keyword in the topic.


The index keyword is displayed within a marker in front of the word where you added it (as long as markers are turned on).




Click to save your work.


When you build your final output, the keyword is included in the index that end users see. If an end user selects the keyword in the index, he or she is pointed to any topic(s) where that keyword was inserted.

[WebbJ]

Richard,

Thanks for your prompt reply. I wrongly regarded the Index Explorer as a passive viewer.
That will be a useful feature for re-using entries in an index is in progress or well populated.

What I was mainly looking for was a way of indicating to Flare that it should put a selected piece of text directly into the index
- rather than via the copy-and-paste method - impractical

[KevinDAmery]

The other thing you can do is go into Index Entry mode. When in this mode, anything you type is automatically made into an index entry instead of standard text. Also, it remembers what you have in the index already, so if you have already entered a word you can type 2 or 3 letters and then select from a list of candidates.

You can use this in conjunction with the Index Explorer to be even faster.

[WebbJ]

Thanks KevinDAmery,

That will make Index maintenance a lot easier.

[AlanFisk]

I tried Index Entry Mode. I entered a term in one topic, and then opened another topic to add a different index term. As soon as I clicked inside the new topic, Flare inserted the index term that I had created in the first topic. It also showed the Condition applied to the topic (in this case, "Completed Topic") as an index entry as well! Isn't there an easy way of adding a term to an Index, as there was in RoboHelp, and as there still is in AuthorIT?

[AlanFisk]

What's more, upon opening Index Explorer, I find a list of index entries that I never created. Some are topic names, and others are individual words or phrases. Upon opening the topic, I find that there are indeed index markers. I suppose I've now got to go through them all, individually deleting the spurious index entry markers. Whose idea was it that Flare shouldn't have an index editor?

[WebbJ]

Perhaps a 'top-down' designer supposed that the Index comes into being fully-formed before the mere topics, so its entries can easily be dragged into the topics in due course!

Anyway, Flare's rag-bag of Index-related features, plus lack of Browse Sequences & Glossary worthy of the name, have all detracted from my use of Flare. Don't get me wrong - the Flare development was a stunning success, just not carried through to a fully usable product.

Unless anyone can tell me the omissions have been fixed since version 1.5...!

[KevinDAmery]

Unless anyone can tell me the omissions have been fixed since version 1.5...!

Didn't think there was a version 1.5

[LTinker68]

Unless anyone can tell me the omissions have been fixed since version 1.5...!

There is no "browse sequence" with next/previous buttons, if that's what you mean. Don't know what you mean about the Glossary. How is not "worthy of the name"?

Didn't think there was a version 1.5

Stopped at 1.1.2, I believe.

[Richard Ferrell]

Robohelp Used Speicall DLL's to have the and Browse Sequence appear in the HTML Help Viewer, . We have decided that we do not want to modify the CHM with these special DLL, and keep our CHM's back to the Microsoft Standards. So we place our Browse Sequence in the Table of Contents in HTML Help, If you are using WebHelp then you will have a seperate accordian items for the browse Sequence

[WebbJ]

Thanks for your comments, Richard & all.

I only produce HTML Help (CHM format) so I missed the Browse Sequence and Glossary features of RoboHelp.
In practice the 'client' (our parent company) never commented on them and seems not to have noticed their absence.
Where a Glossary is needed for Getting Started manuals & training materials, I put it manually in a Glossary topic.
Likewise I could insert 'Breadcrumbs' in such projects, in memory of Browse Sequences.
----
Returning to this thread's topic:

The lack of an Index Editor in Flare is quite a different matter, at least for the way I work on our product the Help material.
Ideally I would be able to select a phrase in a topic, right-click and pick Add_to_Index and it would be added to the index - perhaps offering similar terms while so doing.
Although the absence of usable Index creation tool is inconvenient and error-prone, I put up with that since Flare does a good job in other areas. (After all, nobody could seriously claim that it is easy or intuitive to use, but it is comprehensive & versatile!)

[KevinDAmery]

Where a Glossary is needed for Getting Started manuals & training materials, I put it manually in a Glossary topic.

I do that for print output, but I've never really seen the point for online output. Why would you want to direct viewers away from the task at hand just to look up the meaning of a term? If the viewer isn't very knowledgable, they may not know how to get back to the relevant topic. And I have a very hard time believing anyone wants to read all the definitions at once....

For online, I prefer to make glossary terms expanding text--if the viewer needs a definition, they can expand it, read the meaning, then carry on with the rest of the topic.

----
Ideally I would be able to select a phrase in a topic, right-click and pick Add_to_Index and it would be added to the index

Index entry mode lets you just type in a term and have it automatically add the key word. Once it's present, you can drag it from the index explorer into the topic. I've done these two in five help systems so far (one of 400+ topics the others of 120+ topics each) and not had any trouble with it. (For example, I haven't seen the issues Alan mentioned earlier in the thread.)

- perhaps offering similar terms while so doing.

Dunno about everyone else, but I really don't trust things like auto-suggestions, especially for indexing. Best case scenario, auto-suggestions would end up alot like running a search. The entire point of an index in an online document is to provide a more selective and more carefully thought out list of topics than the "include everything" results that a search provides. For example, I have numerous topics where the term "Report" appears in the text but I have deliberately NOT included the index keyword for it: the reason for that is that the topic isn't ABOUT reports, so I don't want someone who's looking for information on reports going to that topic and getting frustrated because it isn't relevant.

[NorthEast]

For your glossary, when you say you manually put in a glossary topic, you do know that you can use a glossary proxy?
Stick it in a topic (for your print output) and it will generate the glossary for you from your glossary file.
For the online output, you could then use the same glossary file for popup or expanding glossary terms.

[WebbJ]

Thanks, KevinDAmery & Dave Lee. I'll bear in mind the use of a proxy when I next need to include a dynamic Glossary.

Back on the Indexing topic

My basic point was just that I found the Index creation unsuited to my way of working. We apply rules for index entries to keep the indexes sparse (HMI: dialog & tab names, menus & commands, file names; programming: instructions, objects, properties etc.). That way the entries are usually unique, so ease of re-use is not that useful.

Of course authors with other materials, conventions & ways of indexing will have different experiences...

[NorthEast]

Have you looked at the different methods of working with index entries?
Earlier you said that you wanted to select a term and add it to the index - you can, highlight a term and press F10.