None of my targets are displaying proper styles (they were!)

[jessemds]

Hi.

I think Madcap is making me mad! I'm not knocking it. There's just so much to learn and I am trying to cram it all down in a short amount of time. Plus, I never claimed to be a technical writer. Anyway, with that out of the way, here is my latest...

I had one long topic with all sorts of heading levels and such. When I generated my targets, both word and webhelp, the formatting looked good. I then decided to split this one very long topic up into smaller ones so that it is easier to handle. I copied and pasted the actual topic file from within Flare until I had enough copies. I then deleted out of each one the content I didn’t need, slimming down each topic.

NOW, whenever I generate my targets, the output is not the same as what I am seeing in Flare. When I send it out to word, the correct style names are selected but the correct styling is not being displayed. Here is what I checked...
1) Target is set to use the custom style sheet that I made, as is the project (Project Properties).

Well that's about all I checked b/c I don’t know what else could be throwing this off. I did go to inspect my style sheet and I noticed that when I select "Show Set (locally) properties...", there are several attributes set. However, I searched all of my code in the text editor for "span", which I believe is what specifies if there is local formatting. I found nothing. Anyway, I have no recollection of ever doing any inline formatting anyway.

Ah... what am I doing wrong?

Thanks..

Jesse

[wclass]

I'd check that each topic has the style sheet assigned, not just the target - look in Properties (or F4) > Topic Properties. The linked style sheet can become "unstuck" if you copy/paste and move files around.
You can modify the assigned stylesheet for many files at once using the Show Files button in the Content Explorer.

[jessemds]

My original post should have mentioned that I checked all of the following as well:

Project property's master stylesheet is set to use "Manual.css"
Each topic is set to use the "defualt" style sheet and I cannot change that.
Each Target's master stylesheet is set to "Manual.css"

Also, when I generate my MS Word target, all text that I applied a style to in Flare is saying that it is using that style. It just doenst reflect that actual style.

BTW, I should add that most styles do translate properly and it is mainly lists that are not coming over right.

Is it possible that it has something to do with local formatting, even though I do not think I have any? How can I verify that there is no longer formatting and would that even matter?

What else can I check?

Thanks

Jesse

[Richard Ferrell]

Do you have the correct medium set? What is the layout in the Editor? Print or Web?

[jessemds]

Hi Richard,

I have set my target to use all three mediums: print, non-print and default. I get the same results each time. I do believe that both mediums are the same anyway.

Thanks

Jesse

[TalanaRay]

Every time I generate a Word Document from Flare it picks and chooses to not apply styles correctly sometimes for no reason. The paragaph above the messed up style will have the same tag and still look wrong. I have guessed this is some sort of bug.

[KevinDAmery]

Talana, any chance you could describe the problem you're having in more detail? What happens exactly?

[TalanaRay]

This is the Generated Word Document. The table headers are different but are tagged the same in Flare. They use the same Table Style.

[jessemds]

Hi,

My problem is specifically with list items and I have narrowed it down some more but do not really understand what it happening.

I have a style called li.numtask. When I pull up that style in the style editor and select "Show properties in this or imported stylesheet", no properties show up in the list. However, when I click "show property groups", my two padding setting shows.

Does that mean anything?

Basically, I am seeing the padding in these list items correctly in the XML editor in both print and layout mode but when I generate my word doc, there is no padding.

Any takers?

Thanks

[jessemds]

I just realized that this style I am talking about is an inherited style. I tried deleting it and it told me that. I guess that is the root of my problem. Correct? Is my best bet to create a new style in the style sheet and then reassign all of my lists to that style? That seems time confusing.

Also, I am worried that I have a bunch of inherited styles due to a sloppy import. What is my best way of making sure that I am working solely with the project's css?

_jesse

[KevinDAmery]

This is the Generated Word Document. The table headers are different but are tagged the same in Flare. They use the same Table Style.

Check the paragraph / cell style as well. Table styles determine the appearance of the table (i.e. the columns and rows, the existence and appearance of lines and background shading, that sort of thing), but your regular stylesheet controls the td, th, etc. tags within them.

[LTinker68]

I just realized that this style I am talking about is an inherited style. I tried deleting it and it told me that. I guess that is the root of my problem. Correct? Is my best bet to create a new style in the style sheet and then reassign all of my lists to that style? That seems time confusing.

Is the inherited style a custom style or a standard style, like <p>, <ol>, <li>, etc.? If it's a custom style (e.g., p.note) then you're getting that error because you tried deleting it in one medium but it also exists in another medium and you'd have to delete it in both locations to be able to get rid of it. But that's a clue that you have it in two spots so you may just need to modify that style in the medium that matches your output.

If it's a standard style, then it may just be that you didn't specify any styles for it. Even though you see it in the Stylesheet Editor, it doesn't mean that it has actually be added to the stylesheet file. It won't get added to the stylesheet file until you modify one of the properties in that style (say, making it bold). If you have never edited that style then it hasn't been added to the stylesheet file so the output will use whatever the default values are for that tag. The exceptions are that Flare has preloaded the stylesheet file with the heading styles set to Arial, I think, with graduated font sizes. And a couple of other tags were preloaded/preset, but I don't remember what they are off the top of my head.

[TalanaRay]

This is the Generated Word Document. The table headers are different but are tagged the same in Flare. They use the same Table Style.

Check the paragraph / cell style as well. Table styles determine the appearance of the table (i.e. the columns and rows, the existence and appearance of lines and background shading, that sort of thing), but your regular stylesheet controls the td, th, etc. tags within them.

I beleive the styles on the style sheet are correct as well. I have the TR style set to be correct. I think what's happening is it sometimes doesn't apply the print medium style in the generated document. The text is 11pt in the (default) medium and 8pt in the Print medium.

[jessemds]

This post is getting confusing as we now have two different topics going on!

Well here is where I stand and thanks to everyone that has chimed in so far.

All styles and attributes convert over fine to my target (word, in this example) except for the PADDING on my list items (li). I am definitely associating the right style sheets because when I change things like font color on my list items, those changes reflect in my target, in this case Word.

I do not know what else to do!

Thanks

Jesse

[LTinker68]

All styles and attributes convert over fine to my target (word, in this example) except for the PADDING on my list items (li). I am definitely associating the right style sheets because when I change things like font color on my list items, those changes reflect in my target, in this case Word.

Word may not recognize the padding attribute. Are you trying to add padding between line items (between <li> tags) or between the text in the line item and its number/bullet? If you're trying to add spacing between the line items, then use the margin-bottom or margin-top values instead of padding. I use that and it translates over to Word. Also, make sure that you use a unit of measure that Word will recognize. For instance, I have 1.2em specified for the margin-bottom property in the <li> tag in online output (stylesheet medium = default) but it's set to 14pt for print output (stylesheet medium = print).