RH9 Webhelp Search function is not working properly

[Guest]

Hi,

My organization is using RH9 for a Webhelp project.  My company and our client are restricted to using IE9 for the online help I have created for this project, and our OS environment is Windows 7.  When I generate using the Webhelp layout, with the TOC, Index and Search options chosen, my resulting browser window shows two frames.  Left for the Contents/Index/Search and right for the content.  In the left panel, there are three links at the top for Contents, Index and Search.  When I click on the Search link, the only thing I see is the alphabet A-Z (which are links to filter items beginning with these letters (much like the index link) and a list of what I would say is garbage.  For example, if I click on H, I see items like "half 1 2 3" or "held" or "honor # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8", etc.  If I run my cursor down this list, I notice that maybe the word honor is a link.  If clicked it brings up one of my topic pages.  I can also click on the random numbers that appear, like clicking on 3 it brings up another topic page.  The search function does not allow me to type in a search criteria, since there is no search field as well.

Do you have any suggestions for this issue?  Is this a bug, or do I need to change settings somewhere within RH9?  The same thing is happening when using this help project that is running on our clients server.  Is there any suggestion you can give to try and make this work properly?

[Peter Grainge]

I suspect you have changed the Preferred Format in your layout from the default DHTML to Pure HTML. Change it back and it should be OK.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Guest]

Peter,  Thanks for the quick response!  Unfortunately the Preferred Format option is greyed out and I cannot access it.  But, the DHTML > Pure HTML option "is" selected.  This is one reason why I don't understand why my Search is still coming out like the index alphabet clicks.  Do you have any other suggestions?

[Peter Grainge]

Perhaps you have 508 accessibility ticked as well?

[Guest]

Petter,  Sorry I stepped on your reply to my last post.  Yes, I do have the 508 compliant option checked and I had completely forgotten about that part.  Anyway, I do have the DHTML selected and the checkbox for the search box field chosen.  However, I still never received the field box in my results.  And most of the search links that show come up with numbers all mixed in the words like "honor # 1 2 3 4 5" etc.  And the word honor can be clicked, as well as the # sign and the each of teh numbers following it.  THis is the part I don't understand.  Why are my search links showing with all these numbers and garbage data?

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

Looks like Peter may be a bit busy so I'll try and pitch in.

When you enable Section 508 you must lose some capabilities. That's the way search works when 508 is enabled. Each instance of a word is a hyperlink that allows the visually impaired user to tab to it and press Enter to activate the link. There will never be a search field to type into.

Dem's the breaks if you need 508 enabled.

Of course another option would be to generate two different WebHelp outputs. One with 508 enabled and one with a pretty skin and all the DHTML. Then provide an impaired user the ability to click a link from a skinned version that would replace it with the 508 counterpart.

Cheers... Rick

[Guest]

Rick,  Thanks for stepping in.    I assumed that was the reason why I was not receiving the search field, and that is fine for now.  We have discussed with our client the possibility of having two different help projects one for each, but that decision was kind of put on the back burner.

However, the other issue I am having is still there and I don't quite understand why.  Since I only have clickable A-Zs for the search, and it lists links much like the Index section, I'm still seeing lists of just numbers and characters (i.e., "# 1 2 3 4 5", or "%" or "& 1 2 3 4 5" sometimes all the way up to 18 or so).  And each of these characters or numbers are clickable links as well to either page that doesn't contain that number or to nothing.

Doing a bit more research, I have noticed that a lot of these links are being picked up by the PDF file we have as part of the project.  Our help project has a link to the documented version of the help in the form of a User Guide.pdf file.  So the search is listing items from that guide like the heading numbers 1.0, 1.0.1, etc.  Also each of these are clickable links that go nowhere.  But then there is still the numbers 1, 2, etc that go to pages that don't have this anywhere on the page.

Do you have any insight as to why these types of things are being listed under Search at all?  They make that selection look very messy and unorganized.  Not professional at all.  I have checked and tested the properties settings and can't seem to find what is causing this to happen.  Any idea would be most appreciated!!

[Peter Grainge]

Thanks Rick. Had a few fires to put out.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[joel_chang]

Hi I'm having the same issue (see SS below) I also included a SS of my nav and search options. I have similar options on other projects and haven't had this issue. I'm using RH11 however the project was originally created in 6 I believe then upgraded and didn't show search function issues until RH9, issues persisted in RH11. Any help is appreciated (vs. trying to rebuild the project). I appreciate all the help on this forum,

Issue - No seach box, mayham!

Search options generated

Nav options generated

Tested on ie 8, chrome

Thanks

[Peter Grainge]

Try changing Optimize to Local and try applying a skin.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[joel_chang]

Peter,

Appreciate the help, I've tried to change it to local and it doesn't generate a search function. I recreated the project from scratch as well, not importing any of the old files (cutting in information from our old .doc manual). No dice either, I just tried another blank project from scratch and it still generates the same weird search box function.

A skin does fix it however our agency is taken to the 'traditional' default.

I'll try a reinstall and see if that clarifies anything

[Guest]

On another note.... one thing I forgot to mention is that my complanies projects require us to use the 508 compliant feature.  If I'm understanding what I am reading about this option, this may be my issue.  That the search feature will not build in the same fashion whent his is chosen.  However, it's interesting that when I unselect this option, and configure the rest of the settings to what I like, I'm not seeing any TOC, Index or Search capability workiing at all.  I get a two framed window with the three tabs for thiese but nothing appears below it (which is another problem for another day).  In any event, I think my resolution is that the search will not function with 508 compliance.