Topic files should not appear in output

[pleiman]

Hi,

I have topic files in my project that should not yet appear in the output. They are not linked in the TOC used in the output target.
In the output, the topic files do not appear in the TOC but they can be found with the search function. Is it possible to exclude certain topic files from the output?

Thanks for your help.

[carolynmwallace]

Yes. You can mark the files with a condition and then set your target to exclude items with that condition.

[LTinker68]

By default, HTML Help (chm) and WebHelp outputs include all topics, unless they're conditionalized out.

If you want a topic to be in the output but not be searchable -- say, if it's only used as a popup topic -- then you can set the topic to not be searchable. That's done in the Topic Properties screen.

[pleiman]

Thanks for your help, I just created a new output and it works.

[Cecily]

By default, HTML Help (chm) and WebHelp outputs include all topics, unless they're conditionalized out.

If you want a topic to be in the output but not be searchable -- say, if it's only used as a popup topic -- then you can set the topic to not be searchable. That's done in the Topic Properties screen.

Personally, I would use conditions. They are, perhaps, slightly more fiddly than changing the topic property, but conditions are more visible when editing the project.

If I set a topic to be excluded from Search, I might forget to enable Search later, so I'd need some process/list to ensure that didn't happen, in which case I might as well use conditions.

But both methods work, so each to their own.

[LTinker68]

Personally, I would use conditions. They are, perhaps, slightly more fiddly than changing the topic property, but conditions are more visible when editing the project.

The option isn't whether or not to use conditions or the search feature -- you're comparing apples to oranges. Disabling the topic from being searched does not include or exclude the topic from the output. It merely indicates that if the topic is included in the output, then it won't be searchable. If a topic is excluded, then of course it can't be searched, but if a topic is included, then it can be searched or not searched, depending on whether or not that field in the Properties screen is searchable.

As an example, I have an image map in a topic (it's a process flow diagram). When the user clicks on a block in the diagram, a small popup window appears with text describing that block. That text is in a topic. That topic's design is different from all the other topics and is intended to only appear as a popup. So I disabled the search feature on those popup topics, but the topics themselves are still included in the (online) output.

[Cecily]

Very true - even if a topic is not on the TOC and is set as not searchable, a user may still find it if there are hyperlinks to it.

Nevertheless, my concern about disabling search being a relatively invisible property (and thus easily forgotten) still stands - I think (I didn't explain myself very well)!

[LTinker68]

Nevertheless, my concern about disabling search being a relatively invisible property (and thus easily forgotten) still stands - I think (I didn't explain myself very well)!

True, you can't tell the status of the search property from the Content Explorer, but there is a column for it in the File List view, and you can sort the table to list the non-searchable topics first so that you can verify that those topics shouldn't be searchable. And you can drag the column to the beginning of the line so that you don't have to scroll so far to see it.

[JupiterJones]

I have one topic in my HTML Help project (description for a service dialog) which should only be accessable via a CSH link from within the software (so that only the service engineer can see it, not the customer). I want to avoid that the topic is found by the HTML Help search function (which needs to remain enabled though).

Is there a way to do this? If I set the "searchable/unsearchable" tag for topics is in the Content Explorer, this seems to be ignored by the HTML Help viewer.