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Index Help

Guest
Jan 30, 2008 Jan 30, 2008

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Hello Everyone,

I recently deleted all entries for the index and manually recreated all new entries for the index. However, when I generate the CHM file, the index contains entries that are not listed in the new index. These new entries are from a previous guide that no longer exists. Since I cannot see these index entries in my default index I cannot remove them. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thank you in advance,
Amanda

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

Enthusiast , Feb 01, 2008 Feb 01, 2008
Amanda,

If there are any hyperlinks from the topics in the new CHM to those in the old CHM then, when you compile the new CHM, the help compiler tries to pull those old topics into it. But because those topics are "above" the root of the current help project, they'll get stored in the wrong place within the CHM. This means that they will show up in the results of a search, and if they contain any embedded index keywords then those will also show up in the index. Yet all links to the topics will...

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Guest
Jan 30, 2008 Jan 30, 2008

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Hi, Amanda, and welcome to the forum.

Are you storing your index in an .hhk file? If so, you may have old index terms that are stored in the topics themselves.

How to find them: Run the Topic References report. For each topic, it shows Topic Keywords (stored in the topic) and Index Keywords (stored in the .hhk file).

If you save the report as .rtf, you can open it in Word and search for 'Topic Keywords' to find the topics to fix. You will probably have to fix each topic individually in its Topic Properties>Index window, but at least you can find them.

HTH,
Elisa

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Guest
Jan 31, 2008 Jan 31, 2008

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Thank you Elisa. Unfortunately that did not work for me but I did learn some new things.

I found out a few things. The topics that are being referenced in the index are old topics that aren't even in the guide. They are part of a guide that is four years old. I cannot find these old topics to view their properties to manually fix the index. How do I find these old topics that are no longer in the guide?

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LEGEND ,
Jan 31, 2008 Jan 31, 2008

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Hello Amanda and I too welcome you to our community

Umm, when you run the help and actually click the index entries, what happens? Do you see topics or do you get some error?

If you actually see topics, this tells me that maybe you aren't really seeing the .CHM you think you are. Perhaps an old copy is lurking about and you are actually viewing that?

Just a thought... Rick

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Guest
Jan 31, 2008 Jan 31, 2008

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I am viewing the .CHM file by viewing it directly from my RoboHelp project (without generating the .CHM file). When I click the index entry I get no error and it displays the old topic. Any other thoughts?

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Guest
Jan 31, 2008 Jan 31, 2008

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I generated the CHM file and the index used is the default (the one with my project name). The generated .CHM file still has those old index entries.

Amanda

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LEGEND ,
Jan 31, 2008 Jan 31, 2008

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Does your window use an alternate index file? Open your window, click Advanced Properties. In the Index field does it mention a hhk file that is different to your project's. Your project's HHK is called projectname.HHK.

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LEGEND ,
Jan 31, 2008 Jan 31, 2008

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If you haven't generated the CHM you will be looking at an old version. Generate the file and see if the problem still exists.

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LEGEND ,
Jan 31, 2008 Jan 31, 2008

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Hi Amanda. If you are sure that these old topics are no where to be seen in your project, there maybe some old reference to them. If you close your project and locate the projectname.hhp file. Open up the file in Notepad and you'll find a [FILES] section. Are the old topics listed there? If they are, use a find tool (RH's inbuilt one isn't too bad) and search for the files. Come back with the results you find.

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Guest
Jan 31, 2008 Jan 31, 2008

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I opened the .hhp file in notepad and searched for several topics that are being displayed in the index. I did not find these topics in my .hhp file. The .hhp file only contained only the new topics. I also searched the old guides that I thought might contain these old topics that are being referenced and displayed in my index. I did find them (I believe) in an old guide.

This old guide is before my time and I am not sure how the current guide is refencing entries from this old guide. They are in completely seperate folders and have their own .xpj files. We recently updated to source control 3 and RoboHelp 7. The old guide wasn't even upgraded.

I upgraded the old guide and when I open it in RoboHelp all the topics have red X in the topic icon and I cannot open them to view it. If I open the .htm file in the folder then I can view it in internet explorer.

FYI: I have been working with RoboHelp for 6 months and have never opened this old guide.

Anything else to try?

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LEGEND ,
Jan 31, 2008 Jan 31, 2008

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So the old and the new guides are complelely separate. No merged CHMs. No alternate index files. How was the new guide created? Did you copy the old guide to a new directory and work on that or create a brand new project and add to it.
The red Xs indicate that someone has moved/deleted/renamed the original file name outside of RH so therefore it no longer knows where they are. Is this old guide still in your version control software?
You could also try searching for one of the old guide keywords using the find tool.

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Guest
Feb 01, 2008 Feb 01, 2008

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To clarify: The current guide was the first guide created. The old guide was created after the current guide. Then in the current guide new topics and books were created and text was copied from the old guide into the current guide. After all text was copied into the current guide, the old guide was discontinued and no longer used. However, it is still in verison control.

In the current guide, the generated index has entries that are not visible or can be found in the RoboHelp guide's index, which display topics from 2004 in the old guide from above. These old topics that are being displayed are not in the current guide or in the folder for the current guide but in the old guide folder.

I have opened the old guide in RoboHelp, and deleted a index key that was being displayed in my new guide thinking that it might remove it from the current guide index (it did not).

Thank you all for you help! Any other ideas?

Amanda

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Enthusiast ,
Feb 01, 2008 Feb 01, 2008

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Amanda,

If there are any hyperlinks from the topics in the new CHM to those in the old CHM then, when you compile the new CHM, the help compiler tries to pull those old topics into it. But because those topics are "above" the root of the current help project, they'll get stored in the wrong place within the CHM. This means that they will show up in the results of a search, and if they contain any embedded index keywords then those will also show up in the index. Yet all links to the topics will be broken.

You should be able to verify this by using a tool like KeyTools ( http://www.keyworks.net/keytools.htm) to peek inside the CHM. You may find that some of the old topics are visible using KeyTools' Examine CHM feature.

I'd recommend removing from your hard drive anything that isn't needed to compile the new CHM, as this will ensure that the compiler can't drag unwanted content into it.

Pete

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Guest
Feb 04, 2008 Feb 04, 2008

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LATEST
Thank you so much! The Key Tools program allowed me to find the old guide buried within my project! I removed the embedded CHM file and now all those old index entries are gone!

Thanks to everyone for their help!

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