Hi there,
I'm converting my Flare project to use Top Nav help, and we've been having a bit of trouble with the search.
In the process of converting to Top Nav, we've been incorporating a lot drop-down text to replace smaller topics. This enables us to have fewer levels in the TOC hierarchy, which works better with our top nav menu structure.
Our problem? When you navigate to one of these topics from the search results, the drop-down text auto-expands For some of our topics, this gets pretty ugly. When you navigate to these topics directly or through the menus, the drop-down text is collapsed it is much easier to find the appropriate content.
Does anybody know if there is a way to tell madcap search NOT to expand the drop-down text? I know that the rational behind expanding it is probably because when the text is hidden you can't ctrl-f to find things... so maybe expanding the text is necessary...
Maybe I need to rethink our use of expanding text, or maybe there is some sort of workaround so that the search results are easier to navigate. Has anybody else had experience with this sort of problem? We really like the drop-down text but it is not playing nicely with search. I'm wondering if replacing the Flare search with a google custom search might help, or if other widgets like togglers might be better suited for this sort of thing.
(and on a side note -- is it possible to put the search highlight button in the TopNav output? I figured out how to turn the highlighting back on so search results are highlighted, but can't figure out how to put the button back on the screen so a user can turn highlighting off).
Top Nav searches - clinking results expand drop-down text
Re: Top Nav searches - clinking results expand drop-down tex
I don't think there's a setting to stop this.
I think it does make sense though - and bear in mind that only those dropdowns (or togglers) that contain the search text will be expanded.
Mind, for our own help, I have wondered about the benefits of short topics over long topics, as we expect readers are more likely to use search than browse the TOC.
Generally, long topics are likely to have more a more generic title ("About stuff") since they cover a range of things/tasks.
Whilst a short topic is likely to have a much more specific title ("How to do XXX with stuff").
When the reader searches for something, both the short and long topic would appear in the results; but as the title of shorter topics is more specific, it'll be more obvious that that's the topic they're looking for.
I think it does make sense though - and bear in mind that only those dropdowns (or togglers) that contain the search text will be expanded.
Mind, for our own help, I have wondered about the benefits of short topics over long topics, as we expect readers are more likely to use search than browse the TOC.
Generally, long topics are likely to have more a more generic title ("About stuff") since they cover a range of things/tasks.
Whilst a short topic is likely to have a much more specific title ("How to do XXX with stuff").
When the reader searches for something, both the short and long topic would appear in the results; but as the title of shorter topics is more specific, it'll be more obvious that that's the topic they're looking for.
Re: Top Nav searches - clinking results expand drop-down tex
I just realized now that Flare is only expanding the text that contains the search results, which is what I was hoping for in the first place 
I didn't notice that was the case because my Top Nav help has search highlighting turned off, and the search terms we were using were littered all over the page, so it really did expand everything on the pages I was looking at.
That's a good point about whether to have shorter topics or combined topics -- the approach that we are trying right now is to have lots of separate super-short topics but to contain them, collapsed, on a single page. We'll ask for some user feedback to see how that goes over with our users - depending on how it works with search it may or may not be the way to go. The collapsing text within a topic is really working for us though - you can see so much more of the topic on a single page.
I didn't notice that was the case because my Top Nav help has search highlighting turned off, and the search terms we were using were littered all over the page, so it really did expand everything on the pages I was looking at.
That's a good point about whether to have shorter topics or combined topics -- the approach that we are trying right now is to have lots of separate super-short topics but to contain them, collapsed, on a single page. We'll ask for some user feedback to see how that goes over with our users - depending on how it works with search it may or may not be the way to go. The collapsing text within a topic is really working for us though - you can see so much more of the topic on a single page.
Re: Top Nav searches - clinking results expand drop-down tex
Yeah, I find long topics are good for showing a lot of related content, and means you have less fragmented help.
My concern was more about the 'findability' of topics.
For example, say I wanted to know how to sync the TOC in my output, but didn't have a clue how to do it.
If I search for "synchronize TOC" in Flare's help, I get results including:
* Synchronizing the TOC with Open Topics
* Editing Skin Settings
So this is a great example of a short targeted topic "Synchronizing the TOC with Open Topics" - which means the reader can easily spot the information they want from the results.
The same feature is also included in "Editing Skin Settings", but that's not immediately apparent from the topic title and description in the search results.
My concern was more about the 'findability' of topics.
For example, say I wanted to know how to sync the TOC in my output, but didn't have a clue how to do it.
If I search for "synchronize TOC" in Flare's help, I get results including:
* Synchronizing the TOC with Open Topics
* Editing Skin Settings
So this is a great example of a short targeted topic "Synchronizing the TOC with Open Topics" - which means the reader can easily spot the information they want from the results.
The same feature is also included in "Editing Skin Settings", but that's not immediately apparent from the topic title and description in the search results.
Re: Top Nav searches - clinking results expand drop-down tex
Because this article is a year old, i thought i would see if there is any way to stop the drop down text expanding.
I have long step by step topics (say 12 steps) that have just a few lines containing the basic info needed for each step, but then you can expand each step for more information - some of these drop downs are over a page long.
The problem is when these topics are located via search. 1 page with 12 summarised steps expands to 20 pages, meaning the aim of making it easy for the user to only drill down into detail when needed, is lost.
Any help or suggestions welcomed. Even if it's that i should consider submitting a feature request.
I have long step by step topics (say 12 steps) that have just a few lines containing the basic info needed for each step, but then you can expand each step for more information - some of these drop downs are over a page long.
The problem is when these topics are located via search. 1 page with 12 summarised steps expands to 20 pages, meaning the aim of making it easy for the user to only drill down into detail when needed, is lost.
Any help or suggestions welcomed. Even if it's that i should consider submitting a feature request.
Re: Top Nav searches - clinking results expand drop-down tex
Only the dropdowns that contain the search terms will (should) be expanded though.
If the search term happens to be in 12 separate dropdowns, then so be it.
But, if you stopped the dropdowns opening, then it would mean that the user would have to manually open up multiple dropdowns to find out where the search term is.
If the search term happens to be in 12 separate dropdowns, then so be it.
But, if you stopped the dropdowns opening, then it would mean that the user would have to manually open up multiple dropdowns to find out where the search term is.