RoboHelp 9 - What does WebHelp Search actually Search

[Deb_Newman]

I am using RoboHelp 9 and can't seem to find out what WebHelp Search actually searches. Will it search Word documents, PowerPoint or PDF documents that are included in the Project files?

Or does it only search for the keywords that I enter for that topic page that the file is linked to?

Deb

[Captiv8r]

Hi Deb

A fair question. But we first need to clarify exactly what you mean by Search. I say this because sometimes folks talk about the Index as if it were Search. And indeed, they are two separate things.

With the Index, the help author specifies specific keywords by either typing them in manually or by asking RoboHelp to assist (by using the Smart Index Wizard) and the experience for the end user is this. They click the Index tab, then begin typing what they are looking for. As they type, a list of keywords is attempted to dynamically match what is being typed. Often, before they completely type the keyword it appears in the list and off they go.

On the other hand, with Search, the user types the search term in full, then clicks a Go button. At that point the search is performed and candidate files are returned. And yes, typically, Microsoft Word documents, Adobe PDF documents, Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and I believe even Microsoft PowerPoint documents will also be searched.

Hope this helps... Rick

[Deb_Newman]

That is exactly what I needed to know. Thanks for such a full description of what Index Search does versus the Search in top right navigation.

[Captiv8r]

As an FYI, I was a bit descriptive because more than once I've encountered folks that seem to speak about the Index and Search interchangably as if they are the same thing. I wanted to ensure that we were on the same page.

Cheers... Rick

[Deb_Newman]

When I do a Search (not Index), if I use two words, I get the results of two words. How can I tell people to search for a phrase... for example... I do a search for GAD-7... I get results for the GAD-7 but I also get results for (7)...

What can I tell people to do to avoid that?

[Jenny_13341334]

Put double quotes around a multiple-word search term to return matches on those words together. For example, enter "totally awesome" to list all topics that have these two words in this order in the topic.