Is there a maximum size to the Glossary?

Question

Under the gun here. My customer loves the Glossary
and wants to put a Data Dictionary there (htm file size of abotu
400 kb). Does anyone know if RH blows up with a large Glossary? Or,
are there size limits?

Answer 1

Kate,
The overall volume of the Glossary should not present a
problem. Depending on how you generate WebHelp (optimized for Web,
or for a network), RH breaks definitions into a few or several
files to load on the fly. For the user, a long Glossary seems to
load just as fast as a small one.
Here's some more advice, FWIW, since you didn't ask for it.
The Glossary has two parts:
--The master list displays in the navigation pane for
browsing and searching. The definition for a highlighted term
appears at the bottom.
-- RH lets you run topics against the master list and insert
a definition as expanding text. The text for the definition is
repeated in the topic, so the browser doesn't have to go look it up
somewhere else. (A downside: revising the Glossary doesn't
automatically update definitions in topics.)
If your definitions run more than a sentence, I'd recommend
against using the RH Glossary. Rather, put all of it in one A-to-Z
Glossary topic (or break it into two or more topics). Among the
options:
--Include all terms and definitions in the Glossary topic to
allow scrolling and reading without links.
--List terms only and link each to its definition in
expanding text or dropdown text. Scanning the list is faster, but
the user has to click to see the definition.
--Put definitions into text-only popups.
--Put a multi-paragraph definition into a separate topic and
link the term to an auto-sizing popup. (You can link to these
popups from other topics, too.)
Again, a long defiinition shouldn't be in a dropdown or
expanding text (in my opinion, anyway. How much is too long is a
judgment call.)
If everything is one place, you could insert bookmarks and
provide links from one definition to another, in case the user
needs the extra background to understand it. And updating is easier
if you haven't inserted Glossary definitions in other topics.
Another factor is how much time you want to put into it.
Obviously, expanding text, dropdowns and popups take more time to
do than a term-definition, term-definition format.
So if you don't intend to put Glossary text links in topics,
or you expect not much revision in later releases, and the
individual definitions aren't long, the RH Glossary is an excellent
way to present a lot of material. And RH automatically sorts it
alphabetically.
Harvey