Defining Keywords for a Topic

The keywords that appear in the Search dialog box come from the keywords you add to individual topics in your Help file. A topic can have many keywords, and the keywords can be from a single index or from multiple indexes (see “Creating Multiple Keyword Indexes,” later in this section).

When you create a new topic, you can define the keywords you want to associate with that topic. The topic must have at least one keyword to be included in the Search dialog box (if you don’t want an index entry for the topic, don’t define any keywords). You use an uppercase K footnote to create keyword entries for a topic.

To assign a keyword to a topic

1.1.Position the cursor at the beginning of the topic text.

2.2.From the Insert menu, choose Footnote.

3.3.Type an uppercase K as the custom footnote mark, and then choose OK.

A superscript K ( K ) appears next to the heading, and the insertion point moves to the footnote window.

4.4.Type the topic keyword(s) to the right of the K in the footnote window.

Use only a single space between the K and the first keyword. Separate multiple keywords with a semicolon (;). For example, you might type the following keywords for the “Cardfile” topic:

K Cardfile keyword go here PLACEHOLDER

Figure 6.8 shows this footnote window.