Index shows up in search

This forum is for all Flare issues related to the Microsoft HTML Help target.
This target produces "CHM" files in the output.
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amatsumoto
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Index shows up in search

Post by amatsumoto »

My boss is putting together an HTML Help project using Flare 3.1. She added the latest patch from the KB today. In her compiled help file, if she goes to the Search tab and types "index," the actual index shows up in the list as a topic. If she clicks on that listing, it opens an Index topic, which seems to sort of use the master page, but in a skewed table format. Her index is only set up through the skin and is not added as a topic to her master TOC. Here is what it looks like (areas blacked out to protect the innocent):
example1.gif
Our preference is that the Index doesn't appear in the frame at all. Does it have to? Can we turn it off? We already have the index if we select the Index tab, so whey get it again? The second preference (if the Index is going to appear in the frame no matter what we do) is that we need to figure out where the wacky formatting is coming from so we can tweak it. If I look in the source for the Index (what appears in the first example), the td markers have names like this: td class="GenIndexText1" and td class="GenIndexPageText1" (each new entry increments by one).

Somewhat related to this, to troubleshoot the Index issue I copied the entire project from the network to my PC and regenerated the HTML help output. In my output, when I type "index" in the Search tab (or type any word that I know will be in the content) I get a "No topics found" message. Why is this? My search doesn't appear to work.

Thanks,
Abby
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Abby
KevinDAmery
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Re: Index shows up in search

Post by KevinDAmery »

Not sure about the Index problem (if I search for Index I don't get a result, but if I search for other words I do get results). However, if you aren't getting results for any words at all, you should look at this topic:

http://forums.madcapsoftware.com/viewto ... f=8&t=6102

First, check for other words that you know should be there (like Segments, for example). It may be that there's something odd on your boss's system, not yours.
Until next time....
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Richard Ferrell
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Re: Index shows up in search

Post by Richard Ferrell »

Do you a topic named index in your project?
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Pete Lees
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Re: Index shows up in search

Post by Pete Lees »

Hi, Abby,

The index that you show in your screenshot is not the index for a compiled HTML Help (.chm) file, so perhaps your boss generated the help project in some other format at some point — and the resulting index file has somehow been dragged into the .chm file at compile time. This might be the case if, for example, there is a link to the index file from one of the other topic files in the help project. Or it could happen if the index file has somehow been added to the FILES list in the HTML Help project (.hhp) file.

When opened in Internet Explorer, a genuine HTML Help index (.hhk) file has no readable content:
hhk_file.gif
The fact that a search for "Index" returns no results in the version of the help file that you compiled on your computer is only a concern if one or more of the topic files contains this word. In normal circumstances, the index should never appear in the search results.

Pete
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doc_guy
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Re: Index shows up in search

Post by doc_guy »

Here is my guess: I'm thinking that you provide both PRINT and ONLINE versions of your output, and you've added an INDEX topic with and Index proxy to your TOC so that you have an index in your output. Is that the case?

If so, be sure to add a print-only condition to the Index topic in the TOC (and the glossary topic in the TOC, if you add a glossary to your printed output). You only need the Index topic for printed output, and you don't want that topic being used for any online/web output. You only want it for printed docs, so be sure to add the print only condition.

Once you've added the print only condition to the topic(s) in the TOC, be sure to open your targets and for web/online targets, go to the Variable tab and EXCLUDE the print-only condition. Then go to your print targets (Word or Frame), and go to the Variable tab and INCLUDE the print-only condition.

Re build your output, and you should be good to go.
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amatsumoto
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Re: Index shows up in search

Post by amatsumoto »

To resolve the problem with not being able to search on any terms in HTML Help, I needed to register a DLL (thanks Kevin).

I resolved the Index issue, but I'm still scratching my head about why it happened. Some background: I had created template files to use for the print version of the index, TOC, and glossary. All they were was a heading and the appropriate proxy. My boss was going to use these when she set up her master print TOC, but the files were not in use anywhere yet, nor was there an actual topic set up for the Index in her master HTML Help TOC (the Index was enabled only through the skin). The files were located in the project under \Resources\Templates. They were named SmallBookGlossary_Template.htm, SmallBookIX_Template.htm, and SmallBookTOC_Template.htm.

In the HTML Help output Search tab I searched on "index," and clicked on the Index entry in the resulting list to make the topic appear in the right pane. I right-clicked on the right pane and selected View Source. The Notepad window title bar showed SmallBookIX_Template[1] as the title! Hmmmm. It turns out if I searched for "contents" and "glossary" in the Search tab, a Contents topic and a Glossary topic showed for those too. So I deleted all three template files and regenerated the HTML Help and, surprise!, the unwanted Index (Contents, Glossary) topics are gone.

I'm happy to resolve the problem for now, but why was Flare using the template files when they weren't specified for anything? They were merely hanging out in a directory. Does this mean that if we have any files with names that sound like they might be an index, TOC, glossary (and meant only for print) that they will get used that way?

Thanks,
Abby
Abby
RamonS
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Re: Index shows up in search

Post by RamonS »

If I recall correctly, search searches on anything that it will find regardless if that topic is linked anywhere. So by just having it in the project folder and not explicitly excluding it from output the files were included in the search and generated the surprising result.
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Re: Index shows up in search

Post by doc_guy »

David (RamonS) is right.

What happens is this: when you build an online version of your project, every file THAT IS NOT EXCLUDED is included in the project. That way you can include topics as links or in search that don't necessarily appear in your TOC.

This gos along with what I said in a previous post. Any content you don't want delivered to your users needs to be marked with the PRINT-ONLY condition, and the PRINT-ONLY condition needs to be excluded in your target settings.
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amatsumoto
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Re: Index shows up in search

Post by amatsumoto »

Hi Paul,
I understand what you explained in your previous posts, but I don't see how it can hide those topics in this situation. You explained that I need to go to the topic listed in my master TOC and (I'm assuming) right-click and select Properties > Conditional text and set the condition to PrintOnly. I can see how that will cause the online help build to skip that topic. However, in our case we don't have an index, TOC, or glossary topic specified in the master TOC at all. Flare was automatically using the template files we had merely stored (but never used in a TOC) in the project \Content\Templates directory. How do I specify the files as PrintOnly when they aren't in the TOC, or can I? Maybe we need to store templates outside of project folder and only add them to the project when we have a Print TOC to set up...and mark the topics as PrintOnly then.

It's also good to know that we need to be meticulous and make sure we don't let any unused topics hang out in the project directory. Sounds like even if we don't call them in the TOC, they'll show up in Search.

Thanks,
Abby
Abby
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Re: Index shows up in search

Post by SteveS »

Hi Abby,

What Paul is saying is that you have to exclude the topics by applying a conditional tag in the content explorer as well.

Conditional tags on the master TOC stop the topic from being incuded in the output's TOC, but the topic is still included in the output (albeit without a navigation link). If you add the condition in the content explorer, the topic is completly ignored at build time.
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