Moving the Primary Page Lout

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andy_smith
Propeller Head
Posts: 24
Joined: Wed Jun 16, 2021 5:41 am

Moving the Primary Page Lout

Post by andy_smith »

Sorry this is a bit long.

For some reason a previous author where I work has set the Primary Page Layout to a folder deep within the project in a sub folder that has a very long path.

I’m new to Flare, having started a year ago. In that time I’ve often had issues where a document fails to build with Flare reporting that it can’t find a file. Madcap Support has diagnosed long paths to files which I’m slowly trying to fix. Changing the root local Git folder from 22 characters to 3 characters made a difference but I’ve recently had a reoccurrence of the problem.

I’m not sure, because I didn’t write down every error message over the last year, but I think I’ve seen this long path to the folder to the Primary Page Layout mentioned in many of those build errors. Could this path to the Primary Page Layout be the cause of the problem?

According to a colleague the fact that the Primary Page Layout is in that location was discussed on a conference call we had with Tech Support last year but at the time the conversation might as well have been in ancient Greek so I didn’t understand. I also don’t understand why it was decided to leave the Primary Page Layout in the position.

Having gained more experience I have now seen that other layouts are stored in Resources>PageLayouts so I would like to move the Primary Page Layout to that folder regardless of whether it is the cause of the problem. At this stage I don’t want to edit the Primary Page Layout, it’s just in the wrong place.

Running the link checker on the file currently designated as the Primary Page Layout it’s only linked from a couple of TOCs and a single target. However, in the Associated Targets window there is a huge list of targets associated with it. Of course, this long list of associated targets is expected if it’s the Primary Page Layout.

So, how do I move the Primary Page Layout file from its current location into the Resources>PageLayouts folder without breaking my whole project? I can think of two options.
- I drag the file from the current location into the Resources>PageLayouts folder and hope that Flare will do the job of updating all the links.
- I copy the file from its current location into the Resources>PageLayouts folder and then set that new copy as the Primary Page Layout from the Project Properties button.

I’m just trying to avoid any surprises that might occur with either of these strategies.

FYI, I publish almost exclusively in PDF although there is evidence in the project that other targets have been used in the past.

Any advice on this would be gratefully received but please don’t assume too much knowledge of Flare.
I'm on UK time (UTC+0). I work Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday so I may not see replies outside of those days.
sarrantsvt
Propeller Head
Posts: 47
Joined: Mon Jun 28, 2021 8:02 am

Re: Moving the Primary Page Lout

Post by sarrantsvt »

You can move the layout from within Flare. Flare will find every use and ask if you want to change the links to match the new location. But before you do so, I'd ask again what is the reason for it being outside of the Page Layouts folder. If you don't understand, ask for a simpler explanation. No shame in asking for what you need in the format you need.
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robdocsmith
Sr. Propeller Head
Posts: 247
Joined: Thu May 24, 2018 3:11 pm
Location: Queensland, Australia

Re: Moving the Primary Page Lout

Post by robdocsmith »

The drag and drop in Flare works well I've found, fixing links as it goes. The worst that would happen is when a target gets built you'd get an error stating the page layout was missing. If you get that, update the target to point to the right one and you're golden.

Cheers,

Rob
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