Index seen in RoboHelp does not match CHM

[Guest]

I have a project which has conditional text and topics to enable me to create different CHM Help files for four variations of an application. I haven't noticed any problems with the indexes in previous versions of the Help files that I've generated but am having real problems this time.

The index looks fine in RoboHelp. It's designed so that parent keywords which have associated sub-keywords do not have links to help topics. It uses some re-direct topics to avoid keywords appearing in an index for the wrong product.

When I generate the CHM files the indexes omit some parent keywords. The sub-keywords for the missing parent keywords are inserted under other (inappropriate) parent keywords. I've been struggling with this for days without finding anything obvious that might be causing the problem. In the end I deleted the index and re-entered all index entries manually again. Unfortunately, this didn't fix the problem.

In the end, to enable me to release the Help files I had to use the following, unsatisfactory workaround. I went through slowly identifying each missing parent keyword and gave each of them a link to a topic that was displayed in all versions of the Help. So I've ended up linking to some topics that are not particularly appropriate, and having an index which is not consistent (some parent keywords have links and most don't).

Any suggestions on what's going on here?

[mgud]

I realize that this topic is a bit old, but I've just experienced the same problem.

I didn't notice a problem with my index until I managed to merge two projects. I fooled around with the index and seemed to get it to work. But then I realized that the index wasn't including entries from one of the projects. So it seems that merging the indexes might be causing the problem, at least in my case.

My keywords are stored in the .hhk file. I tried changing the keywords and adding them to topics, but that made things even worst. I also tried viewing the .hhk file in HTML Help Workshop, but the index was already messed up.

Does anyone have any ideas on this? Can anyone explain how .hhk files work? This isn't pressing; I have a workaround. But I'm curious to know how the index works.

[M-C_Hammer]

Ressucitating this topic as I have a similar issue but I am not working on a merged project....

I am using RH for HTML X5 and generating HTML Help. I was working on the index (adding keywords) when RH crashed on me (CPD issue). I restored my CPD file and for some reason now, the index from the RH project does not match the index of the compiled CHM file! I tried opening the project.hhk file and the rhkkeyword.apj file in a text editor and tried to find the keywords that are in the compiled help but not in the project. Both files looked like my index from within the RH project, i.e. they did not have these extra keywords. Basically, I have got a few keywords stored somewhere, but not in my hhk or apj files, that I cannot edit.
Any ideas of where these could be stored (CPD?). How can I get to them? I need to edit the topics linked to one of these keywords and cannot do this. I tried re-adding the keyword to my index in RH but the software tells me it already exists (and I cannot see it)...
Thanks in advance for any assistance,

[Peter Grainge]

Sounds like you may have some topic stored index entries. Create a copy to do some testing. Change where index entries are stored and see if the others come back. Then change back. Experiment like that.

Also create a topic stored index entry and see how it is stored. Then do some searching using something like FAR to find out which topics have entries stored in this way.

Not sure that is the cause but a possibility.

[M-C_Hammer]

Hi Peter
I am not sure I understand what you mean (I must be having a "thick" day) but I am going to investigate this. I have made a copy of my CPD and in the kkeywordList table, I can see my extra keywords. They have been assigned a negative keyword ID (dunno if this is normal, I know very little about databases...). However I cannot see where the related topics are stored. A bit more investigation is required, methinks.
Thank you for your reply.

[Peter Grainge]

Go to Project Settings and you will see two radio buttons which determine where index entries are held.

[M-C_Hammer]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh, new keywords are added to topics in my project...
1. Does that mean that I need to open the 2 topics that keyword relates to, find where the keyword is being held, and delete the reference to it?
2. Can I click the hhk radio-button (are there going to be some side-effects) to have keywords added to my hhk file (I suppose keywords added before this will remain in the topics)?
Sorry for the flow of questions, just trying to save the boat from sinking at the moment

[Peter Grainge]

Go to the properties of these two topics and you should see the topic stored keywords there. Delete them. Then reset your project and enter the keywords again. They will go to the HHK file and all should be well.

[M-C_Hammer]

I will try that & am currently investigating the pros and cons of topic keywords vs index keywords. Thanks for your advice Peter.

[Peter Grainge]

Take a look at snippets. I think is at least one problem there using topic keywords.