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A
Anonymous
May 4, 2008
Answered

Deleted text in search and "wrong" version of topic displayed

  • May 4, 2008
  • 1 reply
  • 622 views
I'm having some very odd search problems with HTML Help.

I have a project which uses conditional text to control which text/topics appears in which output. It was created in RoboHelp 5 and recently upgraded to 7. I have made a few minor changes to text in a couple of topics and regenerated the CHM files.

When I look at the corrected topic from the TOC all is fine. However, when you search for the "old" or deleted text, then it is found and when you display the topic the previous version of the topic is displayed. Not only that but I also find that by searching I can display versions of topics which have none of the conditional text hidden. I have no idea what's going on but it's not what I expected.

Any ideas on what's happening and how I can force the search to find "real" topics only?
This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Pete_Lees
Hi, Help_searcher,

It sounds like some detritus from earlier compilations is lying around your hard drive and being pulled into the help file when you compile. The HTML Help compiler tries to pull into the help file all local files to which there is a link in one or more of these locations:

* An HTML topic file
* The FILES section of the project (.hhp) file
* The contents (.hhc) file
* The index (.hhk) file

So, for example, if one of your HTML topic files contains a hyperlink to another local HTML file, this second file will be compiled into the help file — even if there is no reference to it in the .hhp, .hhc, or .hhk file.

If you display an unwanted topic in the help viewer, right-click the topic pane and then click Properties, you can get the file name of the topic from the Address (URL) field. That may help you to locate the file, which you can then delete (but make a backup copy first).

Is this a standalone help file or is it merged into a modular, multi-CHM help system? If the latter, it's possible that the full-text search is operating not on the latest version of the help file but on an older version, which is residing somewhere on your hard drive.

Pete

1 reply

P
Pete_LeesCorrect answer
Participating Frequently
May 5, 2008
Hi, Help_searcher,

It sounds like some detritus from earlier compilations is lying around your hard drive and being pulled into the help file when you compile. The HTML Help compiler tries to pull into the help file all local files to which there is a link in one or more of these locations:

* An HTML topic file
* The FILES section of the project (.hhp) file
* The contents (.hhc) file
* The index (.hhk) file

So, for example, if one of your HTML topic files contains a hyperlink to another local HTML file, this second file will be compiled into the help file — even if there is no reference to it in the .hhp, .hhc, or .hhk file.

If you display an unwanted topic in the help viewer, right-click the topic pane and then click Properties, you can get the file name of the topic from the Address (URL) field. That may help you to locate the file, which you can then delete (but make a backup copy first).

Is this a standalone help file or is it merged into a modular, multi-CHM help system? If the latter, it's possible that the full-text search is operating not on the latest version of the help file but on an older version, which is residing somewhere on your hard drive.

Pete
A
Anonymous
May 5, 2008
Thank you so much for your suggestion. I checked the properties of the topics that were incorrectly being displayed and discovered that they belonged to old, unconnected CHM files. Why they were pulled in I don't know, this didn't happen in RoboHelp 5. However, now that I have deleted these CHM files it seems to be working OK. I'm so glad to find an answer, I was begining to think that I was going mad - delete the text, rebuild the file and the text is still there!

Many thanks and best wishes.
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