Print glossary has terms, but no definitions

This forum is for all Flare issues not related to any of the other categories.
Post Reply
nhhale
Propeller Head
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Apr 28, 2008 2:24 pm
Location: Michigan

Print glossary has terms, but no definitions

Post by nhhale »

When I generate print output to Word, my PrintGlossary.htm topic (which includes a glossary proxy) includes only the glossary terms and not the text of the topics linked to those terms. Here's the background:

I have several projects in which I have recently converted manually maintained glossaries (Glossary.htm topic files with lists of special glossary topics, other topics with popup links to the glossary topics as appropriate) to use Flare glossaries. I've retained the individual glossary topic files, but I now use a Flare glossary that includes items which link to these topics. Since I already have links in the non-glossary topics to the glossary topics, I don't allow any glossary links to be automatically generated in the targets. My problem is that each time I compile to any target (WebHelp, Microsoft HTML Help, Word file) I get the following error for each glossary topic:

"Glossary Compiler: <path and glossary topic name>: Unresolved link to glossary definition topic. Topic may not be included in the output."

This seems to have no effect on the working of the glossary or the links to glossary topics in WebHelp or HTML Help, but today I discovered that my PrintGlossary.htm topic which includes a glossary proxy includes only the glossary terms and not the text of the topics. I'm not sure that the error messages and this problem are related, but since both are glossary-related, it seemed worth mentioning both.

Anyone have any ideas about what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks in advance,
Nancy
Nancy Hutson Hale
Director, Education Services
SalesPage Technologies
http://www.salespage.com
Certified MAD for Flare
KevinDAmery
Propellus Maximus
Posts: 1985
Joined: Tue Jan 23, 2007 8:18 am
Location: Darn, I knew I was around here somewhere...

Re: Print glossary has terms, but no definitions

Post by KevinDAmery »

If you haven't already, I would double check that the paths to the glossary topics are correct. The error suggests that Flare may be having a hard time finding the topics, and if that's the case it would also affect print output.
Until next time....
Image
Kevin Amery
Certified MAD for Flare
nhhale
Propeller Head
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Apr 28, 2008 2:24 pm
Location: Michigan

Re: Print glossary has terms, but no definitions

Post by nhhale »

Kevin,

Thanks for your reply; sorry for my delay in responding. The paths are correct; that was the first thing I checked. I submitted this as an issue to MadCap support, as I was seeing the glossary items showing up without any problems (in spite of the error messages) in my Help outputs, but not in my print output. It turns out that the glossary proxy for print is simply not designed to work with glossary items that are linked to separate topics, just those that use the definition slot in the Flare Glossary Editor. I've suggested that it would be a nice enhancement if it changed to support glossary items linked to topics.

I don't know why I'm still getting the errors, but since they are not affecting Help output in any discernable way, I'm ignoring them for now.

Thanks again,
Nancy
Nancy Hutson Hale
Director, Education Services
SalesPage Technologies
http://www.salespage.com
Certified MAD for Flare
navoff
Sr. Propeller Head
Posts: 201
Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2008 7:26 am
Contact:

Re: Print glossary has terms, but no definitions

Post by navoff »

nhhale wrote:It turns out that the glossary proxy for print is simply not designed to work with glossary items that are linked to separate topics, just those that use the definition slot in the Flare Glossary Editor. I've suggested that it would be a nice enhancement if it changed to support glossary items linked to topics.

Nancy
Yeah, that was a big disappointment. They didn't mention that little "feature" in the Flare Beginner/Intermediate training class and they had a project they were using as an example that included a "0defs" folder with topics of defined terms. I thought, "Cool!, that means I can use the topic example when I have a longer, detailed definition and I want to format paragraphs and lists." Eh, not so much. The only way to have one glossary and use it for both online help and PDF is to not use linked glossary items at all and to put the definition in the glossary file and have the text all run together in one big, ugly paragraph. Blech.

Also, I discovered that Flare doesn’t seem to have a way to ignore non-letters/numbers in the glossary term list. I have a glossary term, "(s)CCS". It's a goofy way they decided to do an acronym and it's been around for so long that changing it isn't an option. So, instead of sorting under the letter "S", it sorts under "(" at the top of the glossary list. Again, blech.

I've submitted both issues as enhancements I'd like to see addressed.
JRP
"How many slime-trailing, sleepless, slimy, slobbering things do you know that will run and hide from your Eveready?"
--Maureen Birnbaum, Barbarian Swordsperson
navoff
Sr. Propeller Head
Posts: 201
Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2008 7:26 am
Contact:

Re: Print glossary has terms, but no definitions

Post by navoff »

Of course, the most annoying thing is that the Flare documentation doesn't mention the whole, not-printing-if-the-definition-links-to-a-topic thing. The only thing I found in either the getting started guide or the printed output guide was this, 'For print -based output, it probably makes the most sense to use the "Text" option.' It doesn't actually say why it’s best (like, oh, the fact that your glossary item won’t show up in your printed glossary if you link the definition to a topic).

<sigh>
JRP
"How many slime-trailing, sleepless, slimy, slobbering things do you know that will run and hide from your Eveready?"
--Maureen Birnbaum, Barbarian Swordsperson
Post Reply