Managing Merged Index Files

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Microsoft Corporation

Updated June 10, 1999

Merging index (.hhk) files from multiple compiled help (.chm) files requires some management of each index. Consider the following when creating the index files for each compiled help file in the collection:

• Index authors for each compiled help file should use similar indexing guidelines to avoid unwanted repetition of similar index entries.
• Keyword links (KLinks) and Associative links (ALinks) should be standardized for all the index files in the collection.
• Abbreviations should be standardized for all the index files being merged.
• site map index files cannot be merged with binary index files.
• If used, information types should be standardized for all the index files in the collection.
• Merged indexes are created at run time and any edits or customization to individual index files will be lost when the merged index is resorted.