How can I get better search results?

[Guest]

I'm working with RoboHelp 8 to produce CHM files that serve as the help guide(s) for my company's products. We've recently received some feedback that the search results our users are getting is not-so-good. So, my task is to figure out how I can fix that.

I poked through the forums a little bit, and found this thread, which talks about improving search results for Webhelp. Of particular interest to me was the following quote, showing how topics are weighted:

1. Topics with the search query words in the topic title are ranked highest
2. Topics with the search query words that have been manually added by the author in the Search Keyword dialog are strongly favored. (Topic Properties > Keywords) Think of this as a synonym at the topic level (instead of the whole project)
   
3. Topics with the search query words in headings H1, H2, H3, H4 and so on are given greater weight.
   
4. Topics with the same ranking are sorted alphabetically.

Now, my first question is: does this logic apply to CHM outputs? Because if it should, that's not what I'm seeing. Whenever we do a search in our CHMs, the results are sorted alphabetically. It would be great if we could enter the title of a topic in search string, and that topic would be the first result returned. How can I best do that?

[RoboWizard]

Hi there

I don't believe the logic applies to CHM files. Only WebHelp/FlashHelp. Sorry.

The best thing you could do is provide a nice Index. Search should really be a "last resort if all else fails" approach. Unfortunately, many users begin there.

Cheers... Rick

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