Current Status of Natural Language Search in RoboHelp 2019 (New or Classic?)

Report · Sep 30, 2019

Most of the posts I've found in the forum related to natural language search (NLS) date back to 2008 or earlier. Can anyone fill me in on the current status of NLS and RoboHelp?

A client has a requirement to support (NLS) in online help output. During development, we have been delivering Responsive HTML5 help from RH Classic (2019) version. The client tests by searching on a phrase, for example, "What is xxxx?" and either gets no results or doesn't find the results acceptable.

I've seen some posts that RoboHelp Server supports natural language search, but others that say it was removed at some point (2008?). The Adobe Features page for Server 10 doesn't mention NLS, but mentions "extensive search features" that seem to be the same as RH Classic and RH 2019 (New). As far as I can tell, NLS isn't offered by any help authoring tools I've researched so for.

I'm supposed to talk to a client representative on Wednesday about this, and need to know what options might be available.

Thanks!

Report · Sep 30, 2019

Whilst the search has improved in the core product it doesn't support "what is! type searching. I don't use server so I can't speak for that. In any case, I would have thought if you are speaking to a client, you will want an official answer from Adobe rather than something from other users.

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Report · Sep 30, 2019

Thanks! I contacted support and they pointed me to the Output Search options dialog. They are going to research RoboHelp Server and get back to me.

Report · Oct 08, 2019

Follow up: RoboHelp support confirmed that RoboHelp does not support natural language search even with RoboHelp Server.

Report · Oct 08, 2019

I demonstrated predictive search to the client's representative and explained that a "what is" search is not supported. The client rep seemed satisfied with that and will test the current seach capabilities. This is all in Responsive HTML5 output. In addition, we found that enclosing a phrase in quotation marks limits the search to that phrase.