MadCap Software Forums

1. So how do we reference to these picture numbers that are not available at the time of writing the text and setting the link from the text without having to create a bookmark on the target and create a link to that bookmark on the origin, case by case? Is there some automated way to do this?

For ...

Hello,

On the project we are working on we have screenshots, and captions under each screenshot. And we have set conditions for the captions. In the on-screen output, we should only get the caption's text; on the printed output, Flare dynamically adds a number to each caption.

So I have two ...

Thanks a lot for your lengthy and thoughtful feedback, RamonS. Very helpful. Really appreciate it!

Daniel




Sorry for my late reply, but I was on a work trip until now and did not have time to check the new entries. Thank you very much again for your great support. May I ask you one more thing ...

Won't it be difficult for the author to organize them in a linear way in the ToC? Will he/she remember which topic goes before which other topic?

FWIW, you don't have to write all the topics and *then* put them in a TOC. You can put them in the TOC as you write. The TOC feature set supports this ...

I still don't understand the following concept: how do you work on the Content Explorer keeping in mind that the topics you are creating are going to be used in a non-linear way by the online help users and in a linear way by the printed help users.

The Content Explorer is a replica of the file ...

Hi RamonS,

Again, thank you very much for dedicating me so much of your invaluable time. Your answer was not what I was asking for, but it helped to clarify other points I was not aware of.

What I was really asking is this:

1. Because the online help is not linear (in terms of the reader) but ...

Hello RamonS,

Thank you very much for your thorough feedback. RE: your questions: I also believe that our clients don't need a printed manual (hardcopy), but the Board wants us to provide one, period. We might convince them to drop it in a year or so from now, but right now there is no way out of ...

Hello RamonS,

I like your schema better. But there is only one thing I still don't understand. My schema was based on the way you would organize the topics in the ToC for pdf/printing. I am aware that one does not need to follow that order in the Content Explorer. But... let's say that Subject 1 is ...

Thanks to all of you for your thoughts.

But I would still appreciate some feedback regarding my folder structure schema.

Regarding the technical writers discussion... the reason why we don't hire external technical writers is that our software is not only very scientific, but it is also addressed ...

Would it be simpler to do it in Explorer, outside Flare?

Copy the entire project folder and paste it. If into the same folder as the original topic folder, you will need to rename it.
Inside the folder, rename the .flprj file.

Thank you. That makes sense. I completely forgot I could do that from ...

Hi Daniel,

The directory layout is not actually relevant, in that the user does not see the physical structure, per se. The user views the help via a tree structure (Table of Contents) that is determined by the writer.

Hello Trent,

I know this.

I'm just trying to figure out the best way to ...

Hello,

Some background to help you better understand my questions, below.

I work in a company that develops extremely technical/scientific software tools, so we don't use professional technical writers but rather have the people involved in development or training write the manuals, as they have a ...

Hi,

I want to save an open project with a different name (as when you use "Save as" in Word). The File > Save as command in Flare only lets me do that with the active topic. How can I do that with the whole project?

TIA,

Daniel

Thanks to all of you for your valuable help. Much appreciated!

Daniel

On this page, Step 1, after 3. Select Tools>Concept>Concept Window or press SHIFT+F9 on your keyboard. The Concept window pane opens , there is a little down arrow with the word Example in green. How is this function/button called in Flare?
That is a toggler.

And below this sentence, there is a ...

You create predefined search filters in WebHelp when authoring.
That would help you narrow the search down for different audiences and meet the needs of your target audience.
To sharpen search results you can also specify synonyms.
See what search filters look like at the following link
http ...

http://webhelp.madcapsoftware.com/flare6/Content/Search/More_About_Search_Filter_Sets/Search_Filter_Set_Example.htm

On this page, Step 1, after 3. Select Tools>Concept>Concept Window or press SHIFT+F9 on your keyboard. The Concept window pane opens , there is a little down arrow with the word ...

But if one can add its own metadata at the top of each topic, that should be enough for my purposes, right? I mean, just add some keywords so that other authors can find the topics related to whatever they are authoring. How do you achieve this? Do you have to create some sort of metadata ...

Someone else here suggested to use some sort of metatags on each topic. Something like:

<author>Bla bla</author>
<date>blab la</date>
<tool>Bla bla</tool>
<output>blab la</output>

Does Flare allow for something like this?

Would the authors be able to search these metatags across projects?

Daniel

Have you bought Flare yet?

This seems like a situation where the sales rep could earn their keep, showing you how Flare can work for you. That way they can answer your questions as they pop to mind...

One thing you might consider is commenting your topics. You can create a paragraph style for ...

I don't think that Flare is going to provide what you're looking for here, at least not well.

Is this the type of scenario you are envisioning? Writer Jane has been assigned to create a manual for product X. Product X shares some features and concepts with other products in your company's product ...

Thank you for your answer. Let me try to address your points.

When you import your manuals, they can be split up into as many smaller pieces/topics as you want (automatically done by heading, or manually done after the import). if you create webhelp that includes all of your topics, you will be ...

Thank you for your answers. I'm quoting David because his answer is the closest to what I'm trying to find out.

The first person wrote that Flare is XML-based. Does this mean you can use metadata as tags for each topic? I don't mean exclude/include conditions (as in "exclude this image or text ...

And if such a system is not possible, is there another way to properly organize the information?

Please note that we are just about to start using Flare, so we don't really have any experience on this. I'm just trying to figure out the best way to organize the contents so that authors can benefit ...

Hello,

I'm trying to find out what are Flare's CMS capabilities in order to design and structure the contents we want to use.

We produce different software tools with some common functions between them (and thus common contents between the different printed guides). At the moment, each ...