Help Index

Have a problem? A question? This is the place for answers from other Express users.
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TimK
Posts: 18
Joined: 2004-09-11 00:04:01

Help Index

Post by TimK »

For some reason, the Help Index never comes up with anything in Nisus Express. If I put in a term that is definitely in the text (eg 'copy', 'styles') I either get the message saying it can't be found, or just a list of items from other Helps, like the Mac Help.
Is there something I'm doing wrong here? (Yes, I've downloaded the pdf version, and that works fine, but it would be easier if I could use the menu Help.
dennisg
Posts: 73
Joined: 2004-05-16 07:51:28
Location: Seattle, WA

Post by dennisg »

I found the same thing, then I made a guess that it might be case sensitive. Sure enough, when I typed the menu command I was looking for with the first letter of each word capped, it found it.
- Dennis

"Is that your little friend in the wood chipper?"
cchapin
Posts: 424
Joined: 2004-02-25 18:28:40
Location: Nagoya, Japan

Post by cchapin »

I have been having a problem with Help, too. The Help viewer appears, but it is an empty window. Nothing I type in the search field produces any results -- capitalized or not. The window stays empty. I haven't snooped around to figure out whether I'm missing files or anything yet.

--Craig
suthercd
Posts: 4
Joined: 2003-10-24 02:33:18

Post by suthercd »

Searching in Help yields only "No matching help topics were found." The topic I searched for was spell, and I tried Spell, Check spell and other variations. The subject matter is in the help topics, but search did not work.

The Nisus Writer Express 2.0 User Guide.pdf has the same info and is available for download.

No APEs or haxies installed.

Craig

OS X 10.3.5, 1Ghz PB, 1 GB RAM.
cchapin
Posts: 424
Joined: 2004-02-25 18:28:40
Location: Nagoya, Japan

Post by cchapin »

I finally got around to rummaging through my hard disk. The help files for NWE 2.0 are there, tucked inside the application's icon, but I can't access them through the Help Viewer. When I click on the magnifying glass in the Help Viewer's search field, the top item in the list is "Search (null)". I suspect that the Help Viewer doesn't know where to look for the NWE files. Does anyone know how this can be rectified?

--Craig C.
rmark
Official Nisus Person
Posts: 428
Joined: 2003-02-11 10:49:05
Location: Solana Beach, CA
Contact:

Help Index

Post by rmark »

We can't help you at the moment.

Help Viewer needs us to come up with keywords for every HTML page before the help is searchable. We know that's lame, but, it's true nonetheless.

We didn't have time to make the keywords, but it is on the list.
Write On!
Mark Hurvitz
Nisus Software Inc.
TimK
Posts: 18
Joined: 2004-09-11 00:04:01

Post by TimK »

thanks. I appreciate the staightforward reply
cchapin
Posts: 424
Joined: 2004-02-25 18:28:40
Location: Nagoya, Japan

Post by cchapin »

After I installed 2.0.1, the problem was fixed.

--Craig
marc
Posts: 83
Joined: 2004-07-06 08:45:15
Location: Australia
Contact:

Re: Help Index

Post by marc »

rmark wrote:We can't help you at the moment.

Help Viewer needs us to come up with keywords for every HTML page before the help is searchable. We know that's lame, but, it's true nonetheless.
Bad Apple, that is lame.
rmark wrote:We didn't have time to make the keywords, but it is on the list.
Mark, what about a bit of a community effort, to get that done? Maybe it's impractical, but I reckon I could do a couple of pages, maybe others would be prepared to some as well? Obviously there are quite a few help pages, but at least some basic keywords (the obvious stuff) would be better than nothing, until you have the resources to do it properly.

Another issue, for me, is the index. It'd be great if you could CSS style the index to remove the indent from the lists, and use a smaller font, to better fit the long page titles. :)
marc
Posts: 83
Joined: 2004-07-06 08:45:15
Location: Australia
Contact:

It's already been done

Post by marc »

Ask and you shall receive! For those not on the Dartmouth Nisus list, Kino has already fixed this problem for us, and apparently this fix will be included in the next release.

If you really want search in the NWX help now, follow the instructions below:
Kino wrote:I just tried it. For me, Mac Help did not open. But search did not work
either for the very good reason that NWE2 Help does not have an index
file ;-)

I'm not sure if this works for you but please try...

1. Quite NWE2 if it is running.

2. Quite HelpViewer if it is running.

3. Download the following file
http://quinon.com/files/nisus_files/NWE ... elpidx.sit
which will be expanded as "Help idx".

4. Using Show Package Contents, open your copy of Nisus Writer Express;

5. Put "Help idx" in
Nisus Writer Express.app/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/Help/

6. Delete "com.apple.helpui" folder in
/Users/you/Library/Caches/
Don't worry about this. It stores caches only.

7. Launch NWE2 and try to search something, e.g. "footnote", in Help.

Kino
Works for me. A big thanks to Kino! :)
TimK
Posts: 18
Joined: 2004-09-11 00:04:01

Post by TimK »

Should the help search function have been fixed on 2.1?

Very strangely, I can search for help on my ibook G3, but when I try exactly the same search on my ibook G4, I just get the "can't be found" screen.

could this be something to do with old files left over from previous versions? If so, what?

TimK
DavidK
Posts: 72
Joined: 2004-10-26 15:35:19
Location: Grand Rapids, MI

Post by DavidK »

3. Download the following file
http://quinon.com/files/nisus_files/NWE ... elpidx.sit
which will be expanded as "Help idx".

4. Using Show Package Contents, open your copy of Nisus Writer Express;
Perhaps I don't understand the instructions: I downloaded the "help IDX" file and started to launch it, but it began launching Classic OS. What is "show package contents"?

David
midwinter
Posts: 333
Joined: 2004-09-09 18:07:11
Location: Utah
Contact:

Post by midwinter »

DavidK wrote:
3. Download the following file
http://quinon.com/files/nisus_files/NWE ... elpidx.sit
which will be expanded as "Help idx".

4. Using Show Package Contents, open your copy of Nisus Writer Express;
Perhaps I don't understand the instructions: I downloaded the "help IDX" file and started to launch it, but it began launching Classic OS. What is "show package contents"?

David
control+click on the NWX icon and select "show package contents" from the contextual menu that comes up. This will reveal the hidden folders and whatnot.
charles
Posts: 481
Joined: 2002-11-26 11:40:35
Location: San Diego, CA
Contact:

Post by charles »

FYI: A help index is now included in the 2.1 release. It is no longer necessary to download and install this file. Thanks for Kino for contributing this to the community!

-Charles
Charles Jolley
Nisus Software, Inc.
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