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lmnowels
Participating Frequently
February 18, 2010
Answered

Search by phrase and search with intelligence/planning

  • February 18, 2010
  • 1 reply
  • 1340 views

RoboHelp HTML 8 - Generating as WebHelp

When I try to enter "upgrade source," I only want the results that include that phrase, not any other combination of the two words. I need my users to get topics that relate best to the search word or phrase that was entered. If they ask for a certain word or phrase, I want the first result to be the one most likely to answer their question. I was planning to spend the time to set it up properly to make this happen.

But, as of right now, my search results appear to be almost random - just a mush and sometimes even excludes the topic that included the optimum content that the user was looking for.

I've spent time trying to set topic properties to include the optimum Index Keywords and setting the Keywords to Exclude from Search. I'm including my quotation marks in the search.

What am I doing wrong? Can you point me to a resource that can help me get the results I need? I appreciate your help.

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer johndaigle

    Hi, lmnowels.

    WebHelp's Phrase search was first introduced with RH 8. As you've noticed, by placing two or more words of a phrase in quotes, that phrase will be favored in the search ranking and the topics returned will only be ones where that exact phrase appears at least once.

    For example, in the sample project that ships with RH 8 called Web Graphics, I tested the phrase "graphic formats".  If I search without quotes, I get 16 topics for results. If I enclose the phrase in quotes I only get the 5 topics where the exact phrase appears. So, phrase searching is very helpful to a point. But it is not perfect. The downside is that search highlighting feature not only highlights the phrase instance, but individual words that make up the phrase. To my knowledge I don't think this can be filtered to show only the phrase instances. (This would be nice improvement for RoboHelp "Next")

    Here's a review of how search results are ranked (in this order) which might help in your design.

    1. Topics with the search query words in the topic title are ranked highest
    2. Topics with the search query words that have been manually added by the author in the Search Keyword dialog are strongly favored. (Topic Properties > Keywords) Think of this as a synonym at the topic level (instead of the whole project)
    3. Topics with the search query words in headings H1, H2, H3, H4 and so on are given greater weight.
    4. Topics with the same ranking are sorted alphabetically.

    One thing I'm confused a bit with your post is the comment about "setting the Keywords to Exclude from Search". These are actually two separate things. Whatever weight you give by creating a search Keyword, will be negated if you also check the box "Exclude from Search" as this refers to excluding the entire topic from coming up in the search results. Or, perhaps I didn't understand your post.

    Another tip that folks often forget is that RH 8 offers the option of adding project Synonyms. This is done from File > Project Settings > General tab > Language > Advanced > Synonyms. (e.g., if someone searches for images, they will also get topics with the word graphics.

    I created an Adobe Captivate movie which outlines the new search features here:

    http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/robohelp/videos/

    Look for the one on search.

    Of course, we as authors are always demanding better search for our end-users and Adobe continues to improve the experience. Meanwhile, if you are looking for other options/enhancements, you might check out Peter Grainge's favorite "add on" called ZoomSearch.

    http://www.grainge.org/pages/authoring/zoomsearch/zoomsearch.htm

    Hope this helps.

    John Daigle
    Adobe Certified RoboHelp and Captivate Instructor
    Evergreen, Colorado
    303-679-08955
    http://www.showmethedemo.com

    1 reply

    johndaigle
    johndaigleCorrect answer
    Legend
    February 18, 2010

    Hi, lmnowels.

    WebHelp's Phrase search was first introduced with RH 8. As you've noticed, by placing two or more words of a phrase in quotes, that phrase will be favored in the search ranking and the topics returned will only be ones where that exact phrase appears at least once.

    For example, in the sample project that ships with RH 8 called Web Graphics, I tested the phrase "graphic formats".  If I search without quotes, I get 16 topics for results. If I enclose the phrase in quotes I only get the 5 topics where the exact phrase appears. So, phrase searching is very helpful to a point. But it is not perfect. The downside is that search highlighting feature not only highlights the phrase instance, but individual words that make up the phrase. To my knowledge I don't think this can be filtered to show only the phrase instances. (This would be nice improvement for RoboHelp "Next")

    Here's a review of how search results are ranked (in this order) which might help in your design.

    1. Topics with the search query words in the topic title are ranked highest
    2. Topics with the search query words that have been manually added by the author in the Search Keyword dialog are strongly favored. (Topic Properties > Keywords) Think of this as a synonym at the topic level (instead of the whole project)
    3. Topics with the search query words in headings H1, H2, H3, H4 and so on are given greater weight.
    4. Topics with the same ranking are sorted alphabetically.

    One thing I'm confused a bit with your post is the comment about "setting the Keywords to Exclude from Search". These are actually two separate things. Whatever weight you give by creating a search Keyword, will be negated if you also check the box "Exclude from Search" as this refers to excluding the entire topic from coming up in the search results. Or, perhaps I didn't understand your post.

    Another tip that folks often forget is that RH 8 offers the option of adding project Synonyms. This is done from File > Project Settings > General tab > Language > Advanced > Synonyms. (e.g., if someone searches for images, they will also get topics with the word graphics.

    I created an Adobe Captivate movie which outlines the new search features here:

    http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/robohelp/videos/

    Look for the one on search.

    Of course, we as authors are always demanding better search for our end-users and Adobe continues to improve the experience. Meanwhile, if you are looking for other options/enhancements, you might check out Peter Grainge's favorite "add on" called ZoomSearch.

    http://www.grainge.org/pages/authoring/zoomsearch/zoomsearch.htm

    Hope this helps.

    John Daigle
    Adobe Certified RoboHelp and Captivate Instructor
    Evergreen, Colorado
    303-679-08955
    http://www.showmethedemo.com

    John DaigleAdobe Certified RoboHelp and Captivate InstructorNewport, Oregon
    Jeff_Coatsworth
    Community Expert
    Jeff_CoatsworthCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    February 19, 2010

    Hi John,

    Have you ever heard of anybody ever using that custom Google search on their WebHelp output? I wonder how hard it is to add to a project or just to the output pages.

    johndaigle
    johndaigle
    Legend
    February 19, 2010

    I am vaguely aware that some folks have tried it successfully, but don't have a clear recollection of who it was or what issues there might have been. Perhaps it would be some process similar to ZoomSearch which Peter Grainge fancies.Or Rick Stone may have more info on this. Perhaps they will chime in.

    (I did search the forums for "RoboHelp Google" and the results seemed to be more about Google Analytics rather than using Google's search engine as a substitute.)


    John

    John DaigleAdobe Certified RoboHelp and Captivate InstructorNewport, Oregon
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