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Creating Index Links

In addition to creating regular index entries that point to a specific place in your project, you can also create index links. An index link is an entry in a generated index that points to another entry. There are two kinds of index links—"See" and "See Also."

example

Let's say that you have written several topics about dogs, and in each of those topics you have inserted an index marker labeled "Dogs." Therefore, when users look in the index under "Dogs," they will be able to quickly find any of those topics. But what if users do not look under "Dogs," but rather "Canines"?

There are a couple of options to solve the problem. First, you could add index markers labeled "Canines" in all of those topics. A second option is to create an index link for "Canines" that points users to "Dogs." In the output, it might look something like this:

You can create index links in the Index Links Editor, or you can create them when inserting index markers.

How to create index links using the Index Links Editor:

1. Select Project>Advanced>Add Index Link Set.

   The Add Index Link Set dialog opens.

2. In the Template Folders area, select one of the folders.

   The Templates section to the right displays the auto-index set templates contained in the folder you selected.

   Click here to find out what templates are all about.

3. In the Templates area, select an auto-index set template.
4. In the File Name field, provide a name for the index link set file.

5. Click Add.

   The Index Links Editor opens in the middle of the interface. Also, the index link file (.flixl extension) is added to the Advanced folder in the Project Organizer. In the future, you can open the index link set from there.

6. For each "See" or "See Also" index link that you want to create for a particular term, complete the following steps in the Index Links Editor.
   1. In the local toolbar, click . The Properties dialog opens and a new row is added to the editor.

   2. In the Terms field, type the term that you anticipate users may look for in the generated index. Please note that the fields in this dialog are case-sensitive; therefore, if you enter a term in all lowercase letters, that is how it will be displayed in the output.

      If you want to create a multi-level index entry, separate the first-level term and the second-level term with a colon (e.g., a single-level entry might be "Pasta"; a multi-level entry might be "Pasta:rigatoni").

   3. Select the kind of link—See or See Also.

      Use a "See" link if the term in question does not exist in the project as an index marker. The idea is that, if a user looks for that term in the index, you want to point the person to a different term instead of the one originally sought. You can enter one "See" link per term.

      Use a "See Also" link if the term in question does exist as an index marker somewhere in the project. The idea is that, if a user looks for that term in the index, you want to point the person to a different term in addition to the one originally sought. You can create as many "See Also" links for a term as you like.

   4. In the Linked Term(s) field, enter the existing index entry that you want users to look for. If you want to create a multi-level index entry, separate the first-level term and the second-level term with a colon.

   5. Click OK.
7. Press CTRL+S or click to save your work.

How to create index links when inserting index markers:

1. Open a topic.
2. Click at the location in the topic where want to insert an index keyword.

3. Select Tools>Index>Index Entry Window, or press F9 on your keyboard.

   The Index Entry window pane opens.

4. Click in an empty field in the Terms column.

5. Type the index link using one of the following formats, depending on whether you want to create a "See" or "See Also" link:

   {nopage}My Entry{see}Linked Entry

   {nopage}My Entry{seealso}Linked Entry

   Use a "See" link if the term in question does not exist in the project as an index marker. The idea is that, if a user looks for that term in the index, you want to point the person to a different term instead of the one originally sought. You can enter one "See" link per term.

   Use a "See Also" link if the term in question does exist as an index marker somewhere in the project. The idea is that, if a user looks for that term in the index, you want to point the person to a different term in addition to the one originally sought. You can create as many "See Also" links for a term as you like.

   example

   Let's say that you want to see this in the output:

   

   In that case, you would type this in the Index Entry window pane:

   {nopage}Insects{see}Bugs

   If you want to add a second level to either index keyword, type a colon after the first term, and then type the second term.

6. Press Enter.

   The index keyword link is displayed within a marker in front of the word where you added it (as long as markers are turned on).

7. Press CTRL+S or click to save your work.

Note: The second option (creating index links when inserting index markers) is not supported in Microsoft Word or Adobe FrameMaker output.

Note: If you create an index link to another term, you must make sure that you have added that other term to the index (by manually inserting index markers or creating an auto-index). If a linked term is not found when the index is generated, a warning is issued and the link is skipped. Also, if a link term (the one pointing to a linked term) has been added to the index, a warning is issued and the link is skipped.

WHAT'S NEXT?

If you are creating print-based output, make sure you also create a topic with an index proxy.

You also may want to edit your index links. For example, you may want to use span styles to change the look of the index links (e.g., displaying the term in bold to make it stand out). Another way to edit index links is to change the "See" or See also" references to different text (e.g., change "See also" to "Also see"). See Editing Index Links.

Note: The span style method is not available for the WebHelp outputs (WebHelp, WebHelp Plus, or WebHelp AIR).

See Also

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