Maximum Entries for Flare Glossaries?

[jimgilliam]

Hi. Is there a maximum number of entries for each glossary file? I have a glossary file that has around 2,100 terms and definitions (and I need to add more). When I build online or PDF outputs, everything works fine and the glossary generates.

However, when I attempt to open the glossary file in the Editor to edit the terms, Flare goes blank with a spinning icon (like it's trying to load), and then Flare just crashes.

Is there a limit to the number of entries in a glossary file? How can I work around this issue and edit my glossary file in the editor?

Note: If I open the glossary file in the Internal Text Editor, everything opens fine in Flare.

Thanks for your advice.

Jim

[Nita Beck]

I don’t know if there’s a limit per se, but you’re hitting a performance issue because of the length of your file. As glossary entries have been added to the file over time, Flare has added them to the end of the file (I’m pretty sure), which you can observe in the internal text editor. But when Flare tries to load the file into the Glossary editor, it has to show them sorted, which takes on-the-fly processing. So yes, it *is* trying hard to load the file.

Were I you, I’d split up that very long glossary file into smaller ones. There’s no rule in Flare that says that one must have just one glossary file. You can associate multiple glossary files with a target. So, perhaps split it up into shorter files, say A-E, F-J, etc. That’ll probably make for easier maintenance, too.

HTH

[jimgilliam]

Thanks, Nita. These terms haven't been added over time. I received an Excel worksheet from a developer with two columns: ColumnA=terms list and ColumnB=definitions list. I sorted them in alpha order and removed leading spaces (in the definitions column). Then I used the Kaizen plugin to "Import Glossary from Excel file" option. So, Flare shouldn't have to sort anything if the list is already sorted, right? I'm not sure about that though.

If I do separate the glossary into multiple glossaries, in the output Flare will still create one glossary output in alpha order?

Jim

[Nita Beck]

I am pretty sure, yes. But, just to be sure, create a second glossary file and throw a few terms in it, then make sure that your target uses both glossary files and then build. I’m fairly certain you’ll see the few new terms included. Yes, I’m hedging by saying “pretty sure” and “fairly certain,” but I am working on a project right now for which we have two glossary files, and terms from both are included in our HTML5 and PDF output in one consolidated, alpha-sorted glossary.