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May 22, 2019
Question

Exclude topic from search not working RH2019Hi,I'm

  • May 22, 2019
  • 1 reply
  • 555 views

Hi,

I'm using RH 2019 Classic to edit merged CHM files.

They have a lot of field level help "popup" topics that I don't want to include in the search as they don't contain useful information if viewed out of context.

These  are one line mini topics with no header or footer, just text that is shown when the user clicks on a field in the end product.

However, when I set the individual topics to "Exclude topic from search" in the Topic Properties, they still show in the search after compilation.

Is there something I'm missing? I need them to be in the CHM they are in now, just not visible in search. I can't put them into another CHM as this product is over 30 years old, and no-one wants to do the work to move them I just want RH to do what is says it's doing.

As you can see, the topic is shown in the search results.

(I'm aware the topic title is Deactivate, but Activate is the actual topic content. Don't ask, I didn't write it!)

Thanks,

Nicola

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1 reply

Peter Grainge
Community Expert
Peter GraingeCommunity Expert
Community Expert
May 22, 2019

The exclude option was added long after Microsoft stopped updating the CHM compiler so I am guessing it is simply not understood. There may be a workaround. Compile the help as webhelp and then use the WebHelp to CHM script. I have seen that allow things that don't work direct.

See www.grainge.org for free RoboHelp and Authoring information.

@petergrainge

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AdvancedHelp
AdvancedHelpAuthor
Known Participant
May 22, 2019

Thanks, that's the bit of missing information I needed.

And thanks for the workaround...

Nicola

Captiv8r
Captiv8r
Legend
May 22, 2019

Hi there

Methinks this one is a bit of a tough nut to crack.

In addition to what Peter offered up, you might want to experiment. Try creating a topic with a unique term, then copy it to a different folder. Then delete it from the project and add it back in as a baggage file.

My thought is that perhaps as baggage, the search will ignore it. But I'm not 100% sure this will work. (which is why I'm suggesting only a single file)

If it DOES work, you could then consider doing the same for the other topics.

If that fails, you might also consider changing the file extension to something like SomeFile.FMT (for FieldMiniTopic) and adding that back as a Baggage file.

My thought on that is perhaps the help compiler won't recognize a file extension of FMT. But your developers should be able to work past that when they need the topic content to be presented.

Cheers... Rick

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