Index Files

An Index file is the data file where the Contents and Index entries are stored.

When Hi HelpIndex starts, it reads the index file and displays the appropriate Contents, etc.

Hi Lab is your main tool to produce index files. (It also lets you edit Language files.)

Index Files are static

Note very carefully that you build up the index file in advance and Hi HelpIndex uses this index file to do its keyword searches. It does not actually search through pages to find a keyword - this would be far too slow.

So if you change your web site then you will need to update your index file. This is not done automatically.

More Index Files

You can ask Hi HelpIndex to look at more than one index file. In the Select tab card, each index file will be named, alongside its corresponding language file.

A common use of more than one index file, is to have an English index, a French index, etc to match your English and French sets of web pages. You can specify up to two index files when using Hi Lab's wizard to build a new web page. Hi HelpIndex itself can cope with any number of index files.

See also:	Building a new web page