Skip to main content
Inspiring
January 11, 2022
Question

Add special characters for search - Comprehensive List?

  • January 11, 2022
  • 4 replies
  • 326 views

RoboHelp 2020.5 (Win).

Responsive HTML5 and Frameless outputs.

 

Looking for a complete list of ALL special characters supported - and those not supported - for RoboHelp output search (via the RoboHelp output "Add special characters for search" setting).

 

Specifically, which of the following characters are supported, and which are not:

~!@#$%^&*()_+`1234567890-={}|[]\:";'<>?,./

 

This topic has been closed for replies.

4 replies

RoboFanAuthor
Inspiring
January 11, 2022

Further testing for period, forward slash, and en dash characters (all character that returned no results in standalone search - see above).

  • Changed . instance to I.O
  • Changed / instance to I/O
  • Changed - instance to 4444-0122

 

In the output:

  • A string search value of "I.O" (included the quotes), returned the desired/targeted test topic.
  • Likewise, a string search value of "I/O" returned the desired/targeted test topic.
  • And as expected at this point, a string search value of "4444-0122" returned the desired/targed test topic.
  • Note that for all three of these tests, the entire search value was highlighted when I opened the target from the results - that includes the special character and text after it.
  • As an additional test, I performed searches on unsupported special characters with only the character enclosed in quotes, for example, "/"; the output did not return any results.

 

RoboFanAuthor
Inspiring
January 11, 2022

No response from Adobe yet, but here are the results from my personal testing.

  • This was performed against a single (i.e., not merged) Frameless output in 2020.5.
  • Not sure if the results would be the same for Responsive HTML5 and merged.
  • I listed all of these special characters in the "Add special characters for search" field.
  • I listed all of these special characters in the same topic (each inside its own dedicated open and close paragraph tag)
  • I applied H1 style to each character (to move the topic to the top of the results in case there were multiples)
  • I searched ONLY on the special character.
  • I have did NOT test string search (enclosed by quotes); that'll be my next test. 

 

no = No Results Found (the message returned)
yes = one or more results returned


~  no
!  no

@  yes
#  yes
$  yes
%  yes
^  yes
&  yes
*  no
(  no
)  no
_  yes
+  no
`  yes
1  yes
2  yes
3  yes
4  yes
5  yes
6  yes
7  yes
8  yes
9  yes
0  yes
-  no
=  yes
{  no
}  no
|  no
[  no
]  no
\  no
:  no
"  no
;  no
'  no
<  no
>  no
?  no
,  no
.  no
/  no

 

RoboFanAuthor
Inspiring
January 11, 2022

Thank you for the recommendation. I emailed Support via their guidelines. I'll update this post - hopefully with the requested info - with their response.

Peter Grainge
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 11, 2022

I am not aware of any such list so I think this will be one for Support. See https://helpx.adobe.com/contact/enterprise-support.other.html#robohelp for your Adobe Support options. The email link tcssup@adobe.com is recommended as it reaches a team dedicated to Technical Communication Suite products including RoboHelp. 

________________________________________________________
My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

Use the menu (bottom right) to mark the Best Answer or Highlight particularly useful replies. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here.