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Re: Searchable HTML Help with Index

Subject: Re: Searchable HTML Help with Index
From: dmbrown -at- brown-inc -dot- com
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2004 09:35:03 -0800


> ...Unless you're authoring in HTML directly, tools like HTML Indexer
> and Deva Tools probably wouldn't be a good choice.

Goldstein, Dan wrote:


Why not? If Deva Tools is a Dreamweaver plug-in (as it claims), then
no direct HTML coding should be required.

I'm not talking about hand-coding the HTML, but about HTML being the original authoring *format*.

When you author in Word or Framemaker and export to HTML, you overwrite the HTML on which the follow-on tool's output is based.

For example, your index entries point to particular NAMEd anchors. Because they are created automatically for you in Framemaker or Word, those anchors might not have the same names from one output version to the next. If they don't, your index entries point to nonexistent targets or, worse, to the wrong targets.

Getting around that, by remapping old targets to new targets, is possible in HTML Indexer, but it would inject a very complex step into the process of maintaining your index. For that reason, we have always recommended not using HTML Indexer for documents that are *maintained* in a non-HTML format like Word or Framemaker. (A one-off conversion from non-HTML to HTML may be worth the effort, given the benefits of a dedicated tool like HTML Indexer or Deva Tools.)

Perhaps I'm mistaken about this also being a problem in Deva Tools, although my impression was that it was similar in this regard to HTML Indexer.

If I am, I hope my friend Ben Weisner will accept my sincere apology and set the record straight! <:)

--David

=========================================================================

A V A I L A B L E N O W ! http://www.html-indexer.com

HTML Indexer is still the easiest way to create and maintain real indexes
for web sites, intranets, HTML Help, JavaHelp, and other HTML documents.





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References:
RE: Searchable HTML Help with Index: From: Goldstein, Dan

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