Re: help on help files indexing, please?

["David M. Brown" <dmbrown -at- brown-inc -dot- com>]

Becca Price wrote:
> 
> could someone remind me of the basics of winhelp
> searching and indexing?  thanks!
> 
> the problem we're having is that if you search on
> "error messages" in the index tab, you get one set of
> results, and if you search on the same thing in the
> Find tab, you get a different set, and I need to make
> the two match.

The Find tab shows you every topic in which the phrase "error messages" appears anywhere in the text of the topic.  It's a full-text search results listing, created by a computer with little input from (or control by) a human.

The Index tab shows every topic specifically associated with a keyword (by means of the keyword's inclusion in a "K" footnote near the beginning of the topic).  It's the real index. 

To make the two match, you'd have to include the phrase "error messages" in the "K" footnote of every topic in which that phrase appears.

This may add little value, though.  Full-text search more appropriately provides back-up access through terms either missed by the indexer or remembered (by the user) from a previous reading of the topic.

You'd probably be better off simply indexing the topics on their own merits, and let full-text serve as a "fail-safe."

--David

=============================
 David M. Brown - Brown Inc.
    dmbrown -at- brown-inc -dot- com
=============================

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