Activate the Index Tool and select Export in the toolbar at the top:

A save dialog will be saved in which you can choose the name and location of the exported index XML file.

The structure of the exported keyword index file is quite simple, but it's important to know what you can edit and what you should leave untouched:

   <hmkeyword value=".ipp files" translate="true">
    <hmtopicid value="HM_Working_Graphics_Formats"/>
    <hmtopicid value="HM_Working_Graphics_Hotspots"/>
    <hmsubkeyword value="hotspots in old .ipp files" translate="true">
      <hmtopicid value="HM_Working_Graphics_Formats"/>
      <hmtopicid value="HM_Working_Graphics_Hotspots"/>
    </hmsubkeyword>
  </hmkeyword>

Each keyword is stored in a <hmkeyword> </hmkeyword> tag pair, with the actual keyword in a value attribute. The topics in which the keyword is used are listed inside the tag pair, in <hmtopicid /> elements. If the keyword has any sub-keywords, these are also enclosed inside the main hmkeyword element, in their own pair of <hmsubkeyword> ... </hmsubkeyword> tags that use the same structure, with the topics inside them in <hmtopicid /> elements .

Normally, you should ONLY edit the value attributes!

You should only edit the value="keyword" attributes, particularly if you are translating the index. If you change the topic ID references the keywords will be applied to different topics when you import the index.

Adding keywords to new topics

If you want to add the keywords to new topics or remove them from existing topics, you can achieve this by adding, removing and changing the hmtopicid elements for the corresponding keywords. You can also add new keywords in the same way, so long as you preserve the structure described above. However, make sure that the topic IDs you use actually exist in the project, otherwise you will get errors!

To import an edited index file, just select the Import icon in the toolbar of the Index tool:

You will see a dialog with which you can choose the XML index file to import. You will then be asked if you want to add the new keywords in the index to the current project or to replace the current index with the imported index.

Always select REPLACE for translated indexes!

If you merge a translated index with an existing index you will get index entries in both languages, which you probably don't want. So always select the option to replace the existing index when importing a translated index.

Select Merge/Add to update existing indexes

If you select the merge/add option any keywords in the imported index that are not found in the current index will be added as new keywords. This also includes slightly edited versions of existing keywords, so please do be aware of this!

Correcting import errors

If you make an error and merge an index you wanted to replace there are two ways to correct this:

•Re-import the index with the REPLACE option (this will delete any keywords that are not in the imported index)

•Close the Help+Manual project without saving (you need to save before importing the index for this to be possible, of course)