RH 6 Index Question

[V_Jordan]

Good morning!
I'm creating an index in RoboHelp 6. I've created indexes in FrameMaker and Word, but this is a first for me in RoboHelp. Certainly there are general principles for a good index that apply regardless of the tool.

Are any best practices, pitfalls, and/or limitations associated with RoboHelp?

Thanks,
Veronica

[Tom_J_]

There is one pitfall: if you output to print, RoboHelp groups all the index words with your topic's title. So if your topic spans 5 pages, your keywords for all 5 of those pages will be stacked where the title appears.

Here's a tip: To make subkeywords as you enter index words, type a backslash, like this:

dogs\hounds

When you enter another word combo, like this:

dogs\yorkshire

the index will automatically put both subkeywords under "dogs."

[V_Jordan]

Thanks for the tip Tom.
Does this mean where I've entered subkeywords with a comma that I should redo those with the backslash?

[Tom_J_]

only if you have multiple subkeywords for the keywords you've used commas with. in other words, if your index says dogs,hounds and dogs, yorkshire, your index won't stack the subkeywords under dogs unless you go back and enter them as dogs\hounds and dogs\yorkshire. but if you don't want to put subkeywords under a main keywords, use commas. generate the help and see.

[V_Jordan]

I generated the FlashHelp and the subkeywords stack under the main keywords as they should. However, when I generated the printed documentation (which included the index and glossary), the index and glossary do not show up.
Previously, I've generated the glossary for print (to be reviewed) and had no problems. Other than including the index and glossary as sections to be generated, is there some other trick to generate these in print?

[HKabaker]

Howerver, the Index Wizard needs to go back to Hogwarts.
If you let it add keywords, don't use the "automatically add" feature.

Harvey

[Peter Grainge]

Have you tried creating a new print layout?

[V_Jordan]

Here are the steps that I’ve taken to generate printed documentation for the index.

From the Printed Documentation screen, these options were selected:
• Output format – Generate Word Doc
• Enter name – Index
• Specify path – C:\Documents and Settings\vjordan\Desktop\AIM+\!SSL!\Printed Documentation\Index
Generate individual documents - selected
Create master document – selected
• Images – Embed in documents selected
• Conditional Build Expression – Not Future Release, Not In Review, and Not Online (conditional tags excluded from output)
Included tags – HTML links, Index, Print
• Start each topic on a new page - selected
• Advanced options
o Include expanding text – selected
o Start new chapters on odd pages – selected
o Include drop-down text - selected
o Include glossary text – selected

From the second Printed Documentation screen, these options were selected:
• Two topics selected for chapter layout

From the third Printed Documentation screen, these options were selected:
• Section layout – selected Default Title Page, TOC, Chapter Layout, Glossary, and Index

From the fourth Printed Documentation screen, the default (None – Use the Project’s CSS styles) option was selected.

Hope this may be useful to determine what’s going on.

Thanks for your time and help.
Veronica

[Peter Grainge]

Generate a single document without Master selected. See what happens there.

[V_Jordan]

Tried that...still no printed index. Anything else you might recommend?

[Peter Grainge]

Did you try the new layout that I suggested?

You are generating locally and not working / generating across a network?

[V_Jordan]

Yes, I tried what you recommended by selecting the single document without the master. It still did not generate a printed index.
And yes, I'm generating from my local drive not across a network.

[Peter Grainge]

Let me try this again. Have you created a NEW single source layout to see if that is any different? I am wondering if there is something corrupt in the existing layout.

[V_Jordan]

Can you be a little more specific when you say creating a NEW single source layout?

[V_Jordan]

OK, I deleted the old copy of the printed index. And then regenerated using the options you recommended (single document sans master).
This action still did not generate a printed index.

Is that what you mean by creating a new layout?

[Peter Grainge]

Right click on the Single Source Layouts folder in Project Manager. You can create a new layout of any type. Select Printed Documentation. Do not use the Copy option.

Go through the wizard leaving all the default settings.

If that fails, go through this new layout again but select the Style Mapping template on the last page.

Then post back how you have got on with those tests.

[V_Jordan]

You know how you enter the glossary items from a separate tab and can generate a printed glossary. I was thinking that the Index worked similarly.

I created a new layout as you recommended and add a chapter that had index entries. And lo and behold it worked. My bad as a newbie. Sorry.

[Peter Grainge]

We've all done worse.