[softwarelist] Re: Corrupt index

In message <506c5bcf79john@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
          John Harrison <john@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I have a fairly large document, the index of which I originally generated
> using Index-Pro applet.  Since then, the document has been heavily edited,
> including being split into two documents when it got too big.  As far
> as I remember, I did the split by making a copy and then deleting the
> later chapters from the first file and the earlier chapters from the
> second file.

Alas, IdxPro is not perfect. And such massive deletions in-one-go give 
IdxPro indigestion. David Pilling's initial comment is correct.

>  The index has had several manual changes, and I wanted to go back, make
> sure all the index entries are in the document, and re-generate the index
> with Index-Pro.

> I have met several problems that I can't currently solve.

Are you using the Win version or the RiscOS version of OvPro?

  ===RiscOS===
With RiscOS and on condition that you have the !!!!!!!BM -also known 
as 7!BM- applet active, deletion of the IDX entries is almost 
automatic. That is that in the new 1st half of your document all 
Bookmarks and/or Idx entries that were present in the 2nd half will 
vanish from your document.

Now for the 2nd half you can delete the 1st half of the original text 
by marking and using CtrlX. Be sure you have not activated the Idx 
applet because you will then have to confirm the deletion of every 
marker created/present in the 1st half of the original document. That 
will take a long, long time. especially under RiscOS.

You can check the deletion of the markers (i.e. Idx entries) if you 
have the !BMButton applet active on the Button Bar (shows as "BM").

To be on the safe side do not delete hundreds of pages at once, do it 
in batches. After a deletion you can check with the BM buitton.

  ===Windoze===
 Now follows the negative news
> 1 - Some of the index entries seem to be corrupt.  When using the Review
> window to scan through them, I get a warning that the entry isn't
> initialised.  It's hard to be sure exactly what is happening, since there
> doesn't seem to be a way to view index markers in the text - just click
> through and see which frame if highlighted.

>  2 - If I try to delete said entry, O-Pro hangs (Alt-Br to escape).  If I
> try to use Check File, the same happens.

Because indeed the Idx markers have been corrupted. Maybe I should 
state this otherwise: IdxPro has lost track of its markers. But the 
info is still present in the document. You can see this if you load 
the document in Edit and look at the end, about the last 25% of the 
document. Search for "Idx000", then you'll find the first entry. The 
actual index that has been created appears before this.

> Does anyone know how I can isolate and remove faulty index references?

The only way is by deleting the Idx entries one by one in that part of 
the text which you do not use in the split document, then delete the 
text. (For RiscOS see above.)

> Another thing I noticed when  I opened the file in a text editor, wondering
> if I might obtain any inspiration (I didn't) is that there seem to be large
> chunks of the text from each half of the book in the other.  I guess that
> this is some sort of left over garbAge, but it must have been there a long
> while (since before it was split in two).  Is there any way of compacting
> the document to clear it out?  The might perhaps reduce the size and make
> it sensible to put the two halves together again.

Save as DDL and reload. Then all your index entries will have 
disappeared and most, if not all, of what you call "garbage" as well. 
It is IdxPro that has created this "garbage".

> Any ideas welcome.

An unpleasant one: you'll have to redo your indexes. Use a windoze 
machine for this, it goes much faster than on the Iyonix.
  But then I presume you did colour-mark your index entries in the 
text before creating the original index?

Conclusions:
     1. Deleting text with Idx bookmarks should be done and 
     succeeds under RiscOS
     2. Checking and editing of the Index entries should be done 
     on a windoze machine for speed reasons
and a special request now to David:
     3. Windoze compatible versions of the 7!BM applet and the 
     !BMButton applet are needed. Any possibility, please?


-- 
Greetings,
JohnvV
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