How do I prevent Search pulling from Project Files

[Heavy_B]

So, I have a bunch of Project Files to pull from. Great...a library of content.

I made two TOCs...one TOC to pull from some of the files in Project Files....and the other TOC to pull from other Project Files.

Ditto for the index. Two different indexes...pulling from select Project Files.

When I output, the TOC and Index reference the correct Project Files. However, the Search pulls from Project Files that are not in the TOC nor the Index.

How can I prevent Search from pulling from ALL Project Files?

[Peter Grainge · Accepted solution]

That ain't the way it works.

RH starts by including ALL topics in a build. The fact that a topic is not in the TOC does not necessarily mean the author does not want it in the project, so RH includes it. In the same way, a topic that is not indexed gets included. I want all my topics in but I don't want them all indexed.

To exclude topics you use Conditional Build Tags and Build Expressions. So say you have Output A and Output B and the two are mutually exclusive. Apply Output A and Output B tags and when you generate the help, you create an expression such as NOT Output B. That will exclude the Output B topics so you get the topics for Output A.

[Heavy_B]

Thanks for responding.

So I'd have to go through a couple thousand files and apply tags or expressions to the ones I want to not be in the search for each build...and then maintain that? That sounds like a recipe for disaster. But I probably don't completely understand.

Certainly, a single RoboHelp project can have content that is findable in some builds and not others. I'll play with your 'Not Output B' concept. Do you create Project File folders by build...and have some folders for multi-use...to help keep track of them all?

Also, let me bounce this off of you. Can you have multiple Projects that access the same HTML files? So that you can edit the HTML files, affecting all Projects, and avoid all the tagging before building?

[Heavy_B]

Also, is there a "best practices" or something for creating projects for multiple builds?

Thanks again!

[Heavy_B]

Aha! Project structure guidelines:

Via yer grainge site: http://www.grainge.org/pages/various_rh_projects/cedar_procedures/rh_cedar_procedures.htm

Thanks again.

I've been in the technical 'authoring' biz for nearly 16 years. I know enough to know that I don't know it all...and thus seek out working examples of tools that I'm new to. It vastly decreases the learning curve of working with a tool. Although I've used RoboHelp for Word in the last century, RoboHelp for HTML is another beast in itself.

[Peter Grainge]

You can select multiple topics in the Topic List using normal Windows techniques and then apply a tag.

The build will be whatever topics you don't exclude so with three tags, you can exclude any one or two of them. You can exclude all three if you want. :-)

Topics you never want to exclude, leave untagged.

Use multiple layouts to save keep changing the expression. So if you are building webhelp, create copies of the current layout and in the copies select the expression you want for that layout. Use names that indicate the expression such as WebHelp A for the help where the expression is Not A and Not B.