Creating a Keyword Index

The keyword index for a help volume is similar to the index for a book. The keyword index is displayed as a sorted list of the keywords you marked using the <idx> element.

In any general help dialog displaying your volume, the user can access the keyword index by choosing Keyword from the Search menu (Ctrl+K). The Filter field in the dialog lets the user reduce the number of items by typing an initial letter or two. When a keyword is selected, the titles of the topics in which it occurs are listed. To display a topic, the user selects one of the listed titles.

To mark an index entry

• Within the topic you want to index, use the <idx> element as shown:

  <idx>keyword<\idx>

  Or, the short form:

  <idx|keyword|

• Or, to control how the entry is sorted, use the <sort> subelement as shown:

  <idx>keyword<sort>sortkey<\idx>

  Where keyword is the text you want to display in the index and sortkey is the text used during sorting.

The <idx> element can be used anywhere within the topic. Neither the keyword nor the optional sortkey are displayed in the topic.

Examples. Here's the start of a topic with two keyword index entries:

<s1 id=getting-started>Getting Started with Helpview <idx>starting Helpview<\idx> <idx>Helpview, starting<\idx> Welcome ... . . .

The following example indexes the plus character (+), putting it in the keyword index where the word "plus" would appear:

<idx>+<sort>plus<\idx>