RESOLVED: Flare 2017: New Preview feature weirdness?

[Phlawm53]

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For a trial instance of Flare 13 / 2017 alongside existing V11 licensed version, Windows 7 64-bit.

The new Flare 2017 Preview feature is behaving badly. I suspect there's something simple I can do to teach it some manners. My hope is someone can tell me what that something is.

1. With a topic opened for editing in the Flare XML Editor (a.k.a. topic editor), I click Preview as PDF.

RESULT: Per the following screenshot, Flare opens the Preview, followed immediately by two File Download message boxes, one for an HTML page and PDF. (The HTML related dialog looks like the execrable Internet Extorter; which is NOT my computer's default Web browser.)

2017-03-24_Flare13Preview.png

2. If I click my way through the two message boxes I finally receive the PDF page in my default PDF viewer/editor (Adobe Acrobat 9).

3. I close Acrobat, then click my way out of the Preview window.

4. In the XML Editor, I close the current topic, open a different topic, then repeat Step 1, above, to preview the current topic.

RESULT: Flare 2017 repeats all the nonsense that followed Step 1, above, BUT as shown in the File text entry area in the preceding screenshot, does not display the Preview for the topic currently in the XML Editor. Evidently Flare 2017's new Preview feature expects me to manually inform it that I'm working with a different topic file than I had originally previewed(?)

What the Hell is all this? Is it perhaps a consequence of running (a trial instance of) Flare 2017 along with a licensed version of Flare 11?

More to the point, is there any way to make 2017 just do what it's asked to do ala earlier versions of Flare? (Fortunately this is only a trial instance of Flare 2017. I'm so glad I can go back to doing real work with V11...)

Cheers & thanks,
Riley
SFO

[Nita Beck]

Riley,

This has been reported and discussed here: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=28508. Note that near the end of that thread, someone reported the issue with PDFs that you're seeing, and there's a link to another forum topic that apparently had a solution.

HTH

[Phlawm53]

This has been reported and discussed here:

Thanks Nita -- glad it's not just me. I tried a quick search but nothing popped up that seemed pertinent.

Cheers & thanks 'gain,
Riley

[Nita Beck]

At the end of that first thread I pointed you to, someone mentioned that "Apparently in our case this was more of an issue with Adobe Reader than with Flare. My coworker's version of Adobe Reader recently was automatically updated, and now her topic preview as PDF works properly. (Except for the delay in opening)."

Did you see that bit?

[Phlawm53]

"Apparently in our case this was more of an issue with Adobe Reader than with Flare. My coworker's version of Adobe Reader recently was automatically updated, and now her topic preview as PDF works properly. (Except for the delay in opening)."

Did you see that bit?

Yes. In response I ran the Acrobat Reader updater. BUT I now need to quit babysitting V2017 and use V11 to do some work. So I'll have to wait until later to see if it helped. With that in mind, I now worry that the fact that Acrobat 9 is my default PDF viewer / editor will somehow become involved in this. I'm not upgrading full-featured Acrobat to make Flare 2017 work...

In the meantime, has Madcap offered any guidance to anyone on this? I confess I'm not delighted that a version of Flare that 's two releases newer than my existing version is exhibiting so much flakiness. (I'm experiencing other nuisances such as Flare 2017 displaying an error-like message, sometimes even displaying it twice, that MadCap Flare Has Stopped Working when I perform a normal exit. Sigh...)

Cheers & thanks,
Riley

[Phlawm53]

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OK, updating Adobe Reader DC 2015 enabled Flare 2017's preview feature to work as one might expect. (Not elated that Flare's operation is so apparently dependent on the state of a third-party product, though...)

-> The question I now have is, has a particular type and version of Adobe Reader DC become a Flare System Requirement?

For example, I greatly prefer the free Foxit Reader to Acrobat Reader. Foxit's PDF products provide a better user and customer experience. And the company's for-a-fee PDF products do as much as full-featured Acrobat at a fraction of the price.

So does anyone happen to know, IF one does not care to install Acrobat Reader DC, but does have Foxit Reader installed, will Flare 2017's Preview feature work? (I'd prefer not to have to perform the experiment...)

Cheers & thanks for your help,
Riley
SFO

[Phlawm53]

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A bit of additional information for others who encounter problems with Flare 2017's Preview feature.

I filed a support request, Case 110021, that essentially said, "add my name to those who had problems with Flare 2017's Preview feature" and cited this Forum thread.

As part of that support issue, I asked whether or not a particular sort and version of Adobe PDF reader had become a Flare system requirement. The answer I received this morning was:

It is not a requirement to have Adobe for a PDF viewer on the machine. If you prefer to use a viewer such as Foxit's PDF Reader, you just need to have it set as your Default Program for viewing such file types on your machine.

Apologies for any confusion, the Adobe Reader DC is just a recommendation if Adobe is installed and set to the Default Program so that the preview function can properly render. However, please feel free to use your own desired reader if necessary.

I then suggested both to Madcap support and via an Enhancement Request that IF some sort of PDF reader is required to enable Flare 2017's Preview feature to work, THEN that requirement should be unambiguously stated in the Flare System Requirements.

In the meantime I remain confused because full-feature Acrobat 9 is my default PDF viewer / reader. So I'm not sure how, exactly, to interpret the "set to the Default Program" bit...

In the meantime, I've documented the requirement in this forum thread...

Cheers & hope this helps,
Riley
SFO

[dogsma]

I am running 2018 r2 and using Adobe Reader created hidden pdfs that I couldn't open. I had to create an email, attach the pdf to an email in order to open it. And of course preview didn't work. I downloaded the latest adobe etc etc.

I am now using Foxit, and so far, it has solved it. Thank you to you all. I can open pdfs generated by Flare and I can preview. Taken me some hours to suss this one out.

[mariaflores]

Has anyone else encountered similar issues with Adobe Reader in Flare 2017, where hidden PDFs couldn't be opened without resorting to emailing them, and the preview feature didn't work? How did you resolve it, and did switching to Foxit help, as mentioned in this post?