MadCap Search

You can change the number of search results that appear on each page. This makes it easier to navigate between pages of search results and improves loading times, especially for users who access output from a mobile device. Setting a reasonable number of results per page also makes it easier for search indexing services (i.e., spiders, crawlers, or bots) to locate pages in output, improving search results. See Setting the Number of Search Results Per Page.

In HTML5 output, you can set a character limit for automatically generated abstracts that appear in your search results. This allows your users to see a brief summary of each topic in the search results, while keeping the search results page easy to scan. You can set the character limit as long or as short as you like. When creating an automatic abstract, Flare scans all text elements in the topic, including headings and paragraphs, and includes them in the abstract until the character limit is met. See Setting the Search Abstract Character Limit.

This allows part of a word to be searched in the target database. For example, the string "sear" could return results for "search." The Minimum word size field can be set from 3-10.

In HTML5 output, the Flare search engine uses a combination of factors to rank search results. The search engine considers the number of links to a topic (Importance) and the number of times a search term appears in a topic. This gives you the most accurate results. You can turn off Importance and search using only the number of search term hits in each topic. This is not recommended unless you have one topic that is linked too many times that it would skew your search results. See Setting Search Result Importance.

For HTML5 output, search results display glossary terms if they are used as the search text. This option to display glossary terms in search results is enabled by default. However, it can be turned off in the HTML5 Target Editor. See Including Glossary Terms in Search Results.

If you have a project that contains a lot of content that is not composed of regular letters and numbers (e.g., angled brackets), you can set your target to avoid these "non-words" when users perform a search in your Help system. This will improve the search performance that your users experience. See Excluding Non-Words From Search.

If you insert index markers in your project, those markers by default are included in searches that users perform in your output. If you want to exclude index entries from searches, you can do so. See Excluding Index Entries From Search.

If you have multiple projects whose outputs are set to be merged when you build the parent project, you can pre-merge search database files. For more information see Merging Projects. If you select to pre-merge the search database file, you disable runtime merging, which means that you cannot compile and publish a "sub-project" later. You must generate and publish all linked Help systems at the same time. Selecting this option may slow down the generation of the output, but it will significantly increase the speed with which the output loads for the end user.

You can control the size of "chunks" used when generating the search database files for a target. After you choose this option, select the number of bytes for each chunk. The chunk size affects the speed that a Help system loads for a user. Depending on the internet connection, different results will be seen. The smaller the chunk size, the greater the number of chunks that will be sent. A large number of chunks may result in a slower speed, especially if you have many merged "sub-projects" and the index is being merged. Chunking may slow down the generation of your output somewhat, but it increases the speed that the output loads for end users. For best results, you should test the different chunk sizes. Click the drop-down next to the Maximum chunk size field to set the maximum size of your search database file.

Select to control which pieces of micro content to include for the featured snippets area. See Micro Content and Featured Snippets.

• Do not include in search results No micro content is included in the featured snippets area.
• All micro content files Every phrase from all of your micro content files may be included.
• Specific micro content files In the drop-down(s), choose one or more micro content files. Every phrase from those files may be included.

• Micro content with meta tags In the additional drop-down(s), choose specific meta tag names and corresponding values. Micro content phrases that match may be included. For more details, see Meta Tags.

Select to control which pieces of micro content to include the Knowledge Panel. See Micro Content and Knowledge Panel.

• Do not include in search results No micro content is included in the Knowledge Panel area.
• All micro content files Every phrase from all of your micro content files may be included.
• Specific micro content files In the drop-down(s), choose one or more micro content files. Every phrase from those files may be included.

• Micro content with meta tags In the additional drop-down(s), choose specific meta tag names and corresponding values. Micro content phrases that match may be included. For more details, see Meta Tags.

Control the maximum number of micro content responses that are allowed to display in the Knowledge Panel. If you leave it set at 1, Flare displays only the best match from your micro content file(s); if you enter 3, Flare displays up to the best three matches (if that many exist).

For web-based targets, you can generate a sitemap when compiling your output. This helps with search engine optimization (SEO), making it easier for search indexing services (i.e., spiders, crawlers, or bots) to find your output. Therefore, the entire output is indexed and search engine results are improved. See Generating Sitemaps.