Indexing multiple manuals (Flare TOCS)

[CATERAF]

Hi,

I've been creating an index for one of my manuals at the moment (i.e., for one TOC) but I'm not clear on how I'm supposed to index multiple manuals in one project (i.e., lots of different TOCs).

For example, you use one index pane and that contains all the entries. Does Flare only take the index entries that are applicable for the topics in the TOC (thereby meaning all terms are put in one index and flare grabs what is appropriate for the manual i produce)? Or, does Flare stick the same index in all the manuals? If so, perhaps I need to condition the index?

Really not sure what I should do and my index is huge for one manual so hopefully the way I've done it so far is on the right track!

Thanks,
Avril

[Nita Beck]

Does Flare only take the index entries that are applicable for the topics in the TOC (thereby meaning all terms are put in one index and flare grabs what is appropriate for the manual i produce)?

Short answer: Yes.

Although you can indeed view a list of index entries in the Index window, that window is being populated with the index keywords from all topics in your project. (There isn't is index file somewhere that lists all the index keywords.) When you generate your manual target, Flare assembles the index on-the-fly based on the topics that are included in that manual target, as controlled by its associated TOC.

If you create a second manual target and have a second TOC associated with it, Flare will build the index for that manual based on the topics included in it. (And even if you have a single TOC but have entries on it conditioned for one target or the other target, Flare will build a target's index only based on the topics included in that target.)

It's really that straightforward. You don't need to condition index keywords at all.

[LTinker68]

You don't need to condition index keywords at all.

Well, there could be situations where you want to. If your heading in the topic is using a variable and you have the value of that variable modified in each target so that it's specific to that output, then you might want to create index terms for each of those situations. I don't know as though I've ever tried creating an index term that includes a variable tag in it and if that would even work to modify the index term at build-time. If it doesn't, then you'd have to create the index terms and condition them as appropriate for each output. The possible exception would be if you used the feature to auto-generate index terms -- that should in theory pick up the different values in the variables.

Has anyone tried using variables in index terms? I don't think you can enter them in the Index Entry window, but you could manually compose one in the topic code. I just don't know if it works.

[Nita Beck]

Lisa, you're completely right, and I've conditioned index keywords in topics myself. I was thinking about the Index window.... about how one doesn't need to condition anything there (if that's even possible).

[CATERAF]

Brilliant answers - thank you.
I like that this is so very straightforward. I do have a few conditions in my topic because I have snippet conditions and I only want it indexing those particular conditions in a snippet. I'm assuming that would work even though I haven't tried it yet!

I also found that when I produced another TOC it had lots of 'errors' for my index keywords -- is that because I haven't actually put in an index yet? It didn't put an error for all my index terms, just a select few (perhaps 20? our of the few hundred entries I have).

Thanks so much for your replies -- much appreciated!

[Nita Beck]

Has anyone tried using variables in index terms? I don't think you can enter them in the Index Entry window, but you could manually compose one in the topic code. I just don't know if it works.

Yes, I've used variables in index keywords. You're right that one has to type them in manually either directly in the code or in the Index window. It's akin to using variables in a TOC. I've submitted feature requests to enhance the UI to make it easier to insert variable in the index and TOC.

[LTinker68]

[quote="Nita Beck"I've submitted feature requests to enhance the UI to make it easier to insert variable in the index and TOC.[/quote]
And glossary! Last time I tried manually typing a variable in the glossary it didn't work, but I can't remember if I've tried that in v9.