MadCap Software Forums

I have been using Flare for many years and have just accepted its various anomalies. But a while back, I decided to note them down and now I have posted the list here. Does anybody else recognize them? Are there others?
* Table rows disappear. Save the topic and close it. Reopen the topic and the rows are back.
* Similar to above but applying to other text chunks on the page - such as a paragraph.
* Not possible to type anything in Find box. Close project. Reopen and all is working fine.
* Analyzer picks up Undefined variables but when I check the variables are there and working fine. Replace the variables with the same variables and Analyzer no longer reports them as undefined.

Yup, I recognise all of those. How about

Flare XML Editor isn't WYSIWYG, more like WYSIAWYGBNQ (What you see is almost what you get but not quite)

The first two of your problems are only problems when you're viewing it in Print layout, because it just doesn't seem to refresh properly. Try pressing F5 when it's not behaving properly, that might do the trick. But I agree, it's annoying.
That Find box thing is SO annoying! I think there must be something going on in the background, cache-y sort of things, and if I don't do a search for half an hour (because I've got other things to do) and then try again, it just starts working again.
When Analyzer misbehaves, I close the project and delete the Analyzer folder, then re-open the project. Flare is known for getting its knickers in a twist sometimes, and that is one of my go-to solutions to a lot of problems.

Almost relieved that somebody else has seen these anomalies - I thought it was just me
And thanks for the explanations...

There is one more thing in Flare's XML Editor (web layout). Starting from version 2017 sometimes it is impossible to scroll down to the end of a topic. The last two or three <p> or <li> paragraphs are hidden, and the displayed text jumps upwards. You can move to those hidden lines with the cursor, but after that it will scroll up immediately.
We have 6 licenses of Flare 2017 running and all have that issue. It does not occur in all topics but in most. And it does not occur in the print layout.
The same topics opened in Flare 11 are OK.

Anomaly number 5, perfect. Any more?

Enter an index key word for a topic and click save...doesn't save anything. You need to put focus back to the topic tab and then save. What else would I want to save than the currently worked on topic in this context? Wildly annoying.

If you double-click a word to highlight it, it automatically includes the space after. In Word, you can hold down the Ctrl key (or is it the Shift key?) and press the left arrow to move the end of the highlighted area back a space, but you can't do that in Flare. Which means any time I want to select a software term to apply a span to it, I have to use the cursor, very carefully, to select the term. A minor annoyance that I've got used to, but it can be hundreds of times a day if I'm slogging through an imported file that hasn't got software terms formatted.

Nice, keep them coming...

We might want to file bug reports for these issues if not already done. Only listing them here won't do much.

One of my pet hates:

When launching Flare, it grabs all focus while it fires up and begins opening project files and topics.
With any other piece of s/w, you can swap to an alternative window or program and type. However, Flare re-grabs the focus and any characters typed are inserted at the beginning of whatever topic might be being opened at that precise moment.
It is very easy not to notice at the time and then end up with random characters in file headings.
This is SO annoying.

I frequently find random characters in file headings which should not be there.
No other application that I use grabs the focus in this way. You should be able to work in other windows (write an email, type a URL in a browser, etc.) while Flare is launching.
I submitted this as a bug about 18 months ago, and it was replicated by support. However, it is still happening...
Feebeegeebee

@Feebeegeebee - I see that annoying behavior with plenty other apps. It is not specific to Flare, might even be a Windows bug.

Another one: Weird happenings with spaces when entering cross references. Not sure I can reproduce - but sometimes when inserting a cross reference, it sucks up the space before it. Not good if not spotted.