Can an index entry NOT point to a topic?

[Guest]

Hi,

We have an index with main keywords and sub-keywords.  The main keywords are just used for grouping and don't point to an actual topic.  Using our previous tool, we were able to do this by setting the main keyword to cross-reference itself. This doesn't seem to work in RH; the topics don't appear in the generated index.  Is every keyword required to point to an actual topic in RH?

thanks,

Jenny

[RoboColum_n_]

Yes it can Jenny. If you right click on the keyword and select Properties, there is a Cross Reference option that will allow you to do just that.

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The RoboColum(n)

@robocolumn

Colum McAndrew

[Guest]

That's the way the main keywords are currently set up (with cross-references to themselves) - but they are not being

included in the generated index. I was thinking that's because they aren't linked to a topic, but maybe there is some other setting that I'm missing?

[RoboColum_n_]

This sounds like there are no sub-keywords or that no topics are assigned to them. RoboHelp only displays index keywords if there are topics assigned to them or they have sub-kwywords that are. Maybe I should ask why you want to cross reference them. We just leave them unreferenced and they still appear. The only minor drawback is that when a user clicks on one they are told to click on a sub-keyword.

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The RoboColum(n)

@robocolumn

Colum McAndrew

[Guest]

The RH help says this: "Unused keywords aren’t associated with topics. The

Index pod displays unused index keywords in bold. Unused keywords don’t

appear in the index."

So I (incorrectly) assumed that unused keywords with sub-keywords also would

not appear in the generated index. But after I removed the cross-references,

they are now displaying in the generated index. Thank you!