Basic Working Procedures > Keywords and Indexes > Index section header separators

When Help & Manual generates keyword indexes in Webhelp and PDF, it automatically adds section headers corresponding to the letter of the alphabet. The keywords are then organized beneath the section headers by letter, which makes them easier for the user to find quickly:

Example of index section headers in Webhelp

You can edit the index section header separators if necessary, for example to add letters for non-English languages.

1.	Locate the separators setting for Webhelp or PDF:

Webhelp:
In the Project Explorer go to Configuration > Publishing Options > Webhelp > Keyword Index.

PDF:
Open the print manual template for your project in the Print Manual Designer and select the Keyword Index section. Then select File > Page Options and choose the Keyword Index Section tab.

2.	Then edit the list of separators for your own requirements. For example, for German you would enter:

A,Ä,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,Ö,P,Q,R,S,T,U,Ü,V,W,X,Y,Z

Note that you don't need to enter separators for non-alphabetic characters like "#" and ".". If there are keywords starting with characters like these the section headers for them will be generated automatically and placed at the top of the list.

It is practical to have "letter links" at top of the index that take you down to the corresponding letter in the index when you click on them:

The "letter links" in the Index

You can create links like these for your own help by adding some code to the HTML template for the Webhelp index. You need some experience with editing HTML manually to do this.

1.	In the Project Explorer go to Configuration > Publishing Options > Webhelp > Keyword Index and select the HTML Source Code tab.

2.	Locate the <%KEYWORD_INDEX%> variable. This variable inserts the content of your keyword index, so you want to insert your link list directly above it.

3.	Insert one or two <br /> line break codes to create some space, then insert one link for each letter in your link list, using the following syntax:

If you want links to keywords beginning with non-alphabetic characters you must also enter lines for them yourself. The result will look something like this:

...

<a href="<%HREF_CONTENT_PAGE%>">Contents</a>

<IF_INDEX_PAGE> | <b>Index</b></IF_INDEX_PAGE>

<IF_SEARCH_PAGE> | <a href="<%HREF_SEARCH_PAGE%>">Search</a></IF_SEARCH_PAGE>

</p><hr size="1" />

...

<%KEYWORD_INDEX%>

...