Searching across multiple projects

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droberts
Posts: 12
Joined: Tue Apr 28, 2015 1:56 pm

Searching across multiple projects

Unread post by droberts »

Hi,

I've had a couple of users ask if there was a way to search for key terms within a help product across multiple projects. I currently have multiple projects that interrelate to some degree, but still need to have separate projects for each.

I've done some researching into this and I'm not sure if Help & Manual can do this. I'm thinking it might not be able to from what I've seen (short of combining the projects into one project), but maybe I missed a capability?

If there isn't a way for H&M to do this, might anyone know of any third-party programs that could search across multiple projects to find key words?
Simon Dismore
Posts: 454
Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2006 1:29 pm
Location: London, UK

Re: Searching across multiple projects

Unread post by Simon Dismore »

droberts wrote:users ask ... to search for key terms within a help product across multiple projects... I'm not sure if Help & Manual can do this... maybe I missed a capability?
Zoom indexer can scan multiple projects. A fairly simple what to get started is:
  1. Create a new output folder called "merged".
  2. Open C:\Users\Public\Documents\My HelpAndManual Projects\Examples\HTML5 Tricks\HTML5-and-CSS.hmxz.
  3. Project > Publish > 'Webhelp, No skin' to the "merged" folder replacing 'index.html' with something recognizable like \merged\html5-tricks.html
  4. Make sure that the flag 'Delete all files in output folder' is clear.
  5. Close HTML5-and-CSS.hmxz.
  6. Open C:\Users\Public\Documents\My HelpAndManual Projects\Examples\Feature Images\Feature Images.hmxz
  7. Once again Project > Publish > 'Webhelp, No skin' to the "merged" folder replacing 'index.html' with something recognizable like \merged\feature.html
Search will now work across both projects. However, the topic header will not be updated if you move between projects, and there will be no common "home page" unless you create one. These are left as "an exercise for the reader".
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Tim Green
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Re: Searching across multiple projects

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi D,

Simon's answer applies to published WebHelp on your web server. If your question refers to searching the source of multiple projects, that is a different matter. Help & Manual itself only searches in the current project. However, if you use the uncompressed .hmxp XML format (and you should, the benefits are large) then all your topics are stored as plain-text XML files. You can then use a multi-file search tool like PowerGrep or WinGrep, or an editor with multi-file search facilities like the excellent free Notepad++, to search all your topics in as many projects as you like.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
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