Anchor keywords do not display consistently in my index

Please post bug reports for earlier versions of Help & Manual (3 and 4) here, along with reports for TNT.

Moderators: Alexander Halser, Tim Green

Post Reply
Jim Lapierre
Posts: 20
Joined: Sat Nov 19, 2005 9:06 pm
Location: USA

Anchor keywords do not display consistently in my index

Unread post by Jim Lapierre »

Tim,

I have a single topic that includes multiple, anchored, subsections. I am finding that when I select from the HTML Help Index a keyword I specified in more than one of these subsections, I sometimes see the keyword itself listed (instead of the topic name) in the Topics Found display in the HTML Help. This is the behavior documented in the Help&Manual Online Help.

However, when I select in the HTML Help Index another keyword that is specified in more than one of these anchored subsections, the Topics Found display has a) one of the other keywords I had specified for the particular anchored section, or it has b) a keyword I had specified in a different anchored section. The keyword I selected in the Index is not itself listed. The a) or b) results depend on whether I remove the unexpected keyword from the index terms specified for the anchor.

Please let me know if my description of this problem is unclear or if you need more information about my situation.

Thanks,

Jim L
User avatar
Tim Green
Site Admin
Posts: 23156
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 9:11 am
Location: Bruehl, Germany
Contact:

Unread post by Tim Green »

Jim,

I think I understand what you mean -- however, much depends on how you entered your keywords: in the topic itself or as part of the anchor definitions. This makes a big difference to how keywords are displayed and handled. An "issue" in the HTML Help viewer makes it impossible to list anchor keywords in the same way as normal topic keywords in the index display.

If this is not the problem you are describing it would probably be easiest if you made a small demo project illustrating the problem and sent it to support. Then I'll have a look at it.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

Private support:
Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
Jim Lapierre
Posts: 20
Joined: Sat Nov 19, 2005 9:06 pm
Location: USA

Unread post by Jim Lapierre »

Tim.

I entered the problematic keywords in the anchor definitions. I understand that this means when I use the Index to find the keyword, and its multiple references are displayed in a Topics Found list, I'll see the keyword and not the topic name. For some of my keywords, this is indeed what happens. But for a couple keywords, when I use the Index, I see a different keyword in the Topics Found list instead of the keyword I expect.

I am attaching a demo project that shows the problem. If you generate the CHM file and search the index for "Add Watch button," you'll see multiple instances of "Add Watch button" in the Topics Found list. If you search for "Variable or Field text box," you won't see "Variable or Field text box" in the Topics Found list (in fact you'll see "Add Watch button" again).

Thanks for your help,

Jim L
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
User avatar
Alexander Halser
EC-Software Support
Posts: 4098
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 7:24 pm
Location: Salzburg, Austria
Contact:

Unread post by Alexander Halser »

Looks like a bug or limitation of the HTML Help viewer... :?

HTML Help displays topic titles in the "topics found" dialog box. The topic titles are pulled from the <title> tags of the HTML pages. Anchors, however, don't have a separate title and HTML Help normally displays keywords that point to anchors as "untitled topic".

To work around this limitation, Help & Manual exports an explicit title for anchor keywords. Your keyword is exported as follows (note the duplicate <param name="name"... tags.

Code: Select all

<OBJECT type="text/sitemap">
    <param name="Name" value="Variable or Field text box">
    <param name="Name" value="Watching variables and fields">
    <param name="Local" value="watching_variables.htm#add_item_to_watch_window">
    <param name="Name" value="Watching variables and fields">
    <param name="Local" value="watching_variables.htm#watch_global_variables">
    <param name="Name" value="Displaying the values of variables">
    <param name="Local" value="displaying_variable_values.htm">
    </OBJECT>
This usually works fine and I have no idea why the HTML Help viewer displays the wrong titles. It looks as if it takes the title or keyword from an earlier defined keyword. We'll investigate the issue.
User avatar
Tim Green
Site Admin
Posts: 23156
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 9:11 am
Location: Bruehl, Germany
Contact:

Unread post by Tim Green »

Jim,

I see what you mean. As far as I can see this is happening in anchors with multiple keywords, and one of the other keywords from the same list is being displayed. I've played with it a little but I can't see any pattern yet. I've alerted the developers and asked them to have a look at it.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

Private support:
Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
User avatar
Alexander Halser
EC-Software Support
Posts: 4098
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 7:24 pm
Location: Salzburg, Austria
Contact:

Unread post by Alexander Halser »

After some more tests I can confirm that this is a bug. Unfortunately not in Help & Manual, it's a bug in the latest release of the Microsoft HTML Help compiler.

The compiler ignores the extra titles that Help & Manual exports. Instead, it uses a keyword as the title: the first keyword that pointed to the same anchor location.

Workaround: none. Do not use anchor keywords or use anchor keywords that are unique and do not occur in other places. If you use unique anchor keywords, the HTML Help viewer directly jumps to that topic and does not display the "topics found" dialog.

Sorry for not having better news :cry:
Alexander Halser
Senior Software Architect, EC Software GmbH
Jim Lapierre
Posts: 20
Joined: Sat Nov 19, 2005 9:06 pm
Location: USA

Unread post by Jim Lapierre »

Thank you Alex and Tim for your prompt attention and explanation.

Jim L
pskart
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Nov 14, 2006 4:22 pm

Unread post by pskart »

Hi.

I've experienced this problem today, and got nice help from your postings here.

Does anyone know if this is still a bug in the compiler, or is it possible to download a fix from somewhere?

I'm using Vista SP1.

Petter
User avatar
Tim Green
Site Admin
Posts: 23156
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 9:11 am
Location: Bruehl, Germany
Contact:

Unread post by Tim Green »

pskart wrote:Does anyone know if this is still a bug in the compiler, or is it possible to download a fix from somewhere?
Microsoft does not ever fix bugs in their help compilers. They are full of bugs that are documented all over the web but Microsoft has never commented on them and has not made any changes for years. As far as anyone can see, they are not interested. :evil:
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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