Problems with Index

[adrianaharper]

Working with TCS2 in Windows XP.

I have been working on a very large doc for some time now (1000 pages, 10 + chapters) with many files. Each individual file had an index marker which didn't work when they got amalgamated into one big doc so I did a find and replace with blanks for all my index markers and started doing index markers again. My index markers in FM are:

Item:item:item - and I can see them when I go to view Marker - Index.

When I generate the Index but I tell FM NOT to generate TOC in the UPDATE BOOK window... the index appears fine.

If I generate the index and tell FM to go ahead and generate IX and TOC in the UPDATE BOOK window...the index appears as a blank page.

Then when I link as FM into RH and generate the index from FM and produce the webhelp, when I go to index on the top nav tab, I get this error:

User Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible;  MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1; Trident/4.0; GTB6)

Timestamp: Wed, 25 Nov 2009 21:33:16 UTC

Message: 'aKs[...].sName' is null or not an object

Line:  704

Char: 6

Code: 0

URI: file:///D:/MyFileDirectory/!SSL!/WebHelp/whhost.js

If I create an index in the same RH online help file using the smart index tool and then generate using that index, works without issue.

So I created a new FM doc from scratch, made some test index markers, created TOC and Index in FM without issue (no updating issues where the index appears blank if I update TOC as per above) linked into RH and generated using the imported index from FM, and the index worked just fine.

So there is something wrong with the index in my large  FM book (or so I am assuming at this point). I deleted the index, saved the book, and re-generated the index in this large book - same issue. I am not keen on deleting the entire book and re-creating it as my TOC structure is quite complex and I don't want to have to re-do it.

I also want to know what I did wrong so that even if I do have to redo the book, I will know what I did wrong and next time I won't make the same mistake!

Thanks

Adriana

[Art Campbell]

Given the size of the book, I'm guessing that it may have started life in an earlier version of Frame... if so (can't hurt to do this anyway) I'd save all the component files out as MIF to remove any stray characters and just clean up the files. You can do this for all files with one command if you download the free eval version of MIF2GO from omsys.com -- it installs a WashToMIF utility on the Files menu.

Second, I'd try creating a new book file and copying a couple of the component files from your working book to the new one.

Then Add an Index and a TOC, Save, and Update, just to see what happens. This test would either confirm that the issue is with the component files and eliminate the possibility that the book file is corrupt or interfering with the process.

[adrianaharper]

Thanks Art- that is what I did (not the MIF step) but I created a new book and imported some component files and then played around with the index markers... and got the result I posted a few moments ago.

[Art Campbell]

I wouldn't skip the MIF step if I were you, just to eliminate the possiblity that there's something hinky in the files. Only takes a few minutes and removes that possiblity ...

Also, if I were you, I'd look at IXGen, an Index tool for Frame... makes the process much easier and quicker. One feature I especially like is that it opens all markers so they can be edited in the text stream....Another is that it will take whatever you have and allow you move forward pretty easily.

There are several other tools out there that help you either handle markers or index -- two different things -- and those would also be time savers, as well as helping you eliminate errors.

[adrianaharper]

Ok, a bit of an update.

I think the issue is in the format of some of my markers.

I have made some markers as such:

Index

Worked in RH np

Some are like this:

Index:Sub Index

Worked in RH np

And then I wanted to create a marker using one of the special characters that the index recognizes (  :   )

So what I understood from the FM instructions were: Use a backslash precceding the special character.  So I created this marker:

Index: Word with my\: special character

And it broke

1! So it doesn't like the backslah and :

Gotta figure out why... I thought the FM instructions said I could do that in my index.... In the help (F1) it says:

Note: To enter a backslash or any special character used in these building blocks—colon, semicolon, bracket, or angle bracket—as regular characters, precede it with a backslash (\).