Searching in LabVIEW Help

[Simon_Stenfeldt]

I suggest a better sorting of topics in the "Search" function in help. I usually find the LabVIEW Help search functionality so poor that I start out with a google search online.

An example:

I would like to look through the 'VI Server Class Hierarchy'. I open LabVIEW Help and type 'vi server class hierarchy' n the search field. In this case what I looked for turned up as rank 21 of 24 - in a search where I actually typed the full title of the page! Turning to Google I typed the following: 'site:ni.com vi server class hierarchy' and the first hit was what I was looking for.

The Help documentation in LabVIEW is generally very good, but it is a very hard job to search through it. I always have a hard time finding documentation unless I a direct link (from Context help or similar) to the Help item I am looking for.

[donkdonk]

I agree that the LabVIEW help topics that come up often are different from what I'm looking for. Poor results indeed.

So kudoos.

However I suggest you should better state your idea as it does not directly follow from your head line.

[David S.]

Is the search function in the compile help manual (CHM) viewer customizable? The files themselves are just collections of basic HTML; the viewer is built into the Windows OS and likely hasn't been revised since Win95.

[johnsold]

I advocate using Help extensively but agree that the search process is sometimes slower than reading the whole thing from page 1.  I have seen the same kinds of results as simon mentioned - to the point where I often look at the middle of the list first because that seems to be where what I want is most likely to be.

David S., The search is equally bad on all platforms so I do not think CHM and MS have anything to do with it.

Lynn

[David S.]

Hi Lynn -

I just confirmed with one of our more senior technical writers: NI doesn't have any control over the search algorithm in CHM files. The algorithm is part of the CHM viewer, which is part of the Windows OS, and as explained by Wikipedia, hasn't been updated by Microsoft since it was introduced in Windows 98. Moreover, the CHM format has been deprecated by Microsoft, so I wouldn't expect any improvements in the future.

Maybe one of the viewers mentioned in the Wiki link will have better search capability?

[AristosQueue (NI)]

The search on my Mac is actually pretty good. On Mac, we rely on Spotlight, which is part of the OS. Still, nothing is as good as Google and I doubt that short of NI licensing Google's search tech directly (which I am guessing would have a non-trivial impact on the purchase price of LabVIEW), I'm not sure what can be done here.

[David_L]

In case anyone didn't already know this, the entire LabVIEW Help is also available on-line and can quickly be searched via the search box on any ni.com home page.  Just make any search and click on the "Online Help" facet on the left hand side.  For those with internet access, this is (IMO) the easiest method of searching the LabVIEW Help.