Flare 11 - new user, new project, no content

[David Miller]

Hello all! I come from a background of eLearning - doing simulations in Flash (have done ActionScript since 1999) and laying out sites in Dreamweaver. I'm very familiar with HTML5 and typically hand code JavaScript and CSS.

BUT . . . all that means very little as I dive into Flare 11 for the first time. From videos I can see that it's a fantastic tool capable of so much, but as a n00b I'm clueless! =D

I'm tasked with creating a wireframe of empty pages and have an idea of the output I would like. In HTML this would be like others I have done. But Flare's single-sourcing is something I want to maximize and that means tossing out my own preconceived ideas on how things should be structured.

I have a high-level concept of conditional snippets, variables, and termbases, but feel at a loss for that very first step of creating my first page.

Are there tutorials you would recommend?

LOL, I don't have the luxury of taking a course as I'm tasked to have this initial framework up by Tuesday!

I have no content at all and no past project, so things like the 108 page PDF Tutorials Guide: Top Navigation Advanced Template aren't useful for me.

I'm a full-on n00b needing the simplest of things such as "how do I create a new page?", "how do I set up a hierarchy of folders and populate them with my placeholder pages?", and so on.

Any thoughts are very much appreciated and I look forward to using Flare. =)

[Paulie]

Hi there,

I'd start with the Getting Started Guide
Link: http://docs.madcapsoftware.com/FlareV11 ... dGuide.pdf

This guide is only 40 pages or so long and walks you through the basic things that you need to know to get started. This should be enough to get you the skeleton project that you need for your demo purposes.

If you have any specific questions after going through the guide, then feel free to ask. Somebody should be able to help you out.

[Lydia]

Hi David,
that's not a lot of time to create an initial framework.
Have you looked at the templates that come with Flare? You'll find them on the start page:

FlareTemplates.png

[David Miller]

Thank you Paulie and Lydia! =)

Those are exactly the resources I need! That guide isn't overwhelming (thanks for the link, I had not found that one but have others that were overwhelming me!).

And the tip on the templates is perfect, I saw them but wasn't sure if that was the best way to start.

Thank you both, you have helped me far more than you may realize. =)

[dorcutt]

A few other tips once you do get going:

• The initial temptation is to make topics much more granular than they need to be because it feels very 'single-source-y'. When deciding topic length, think about what would be useful to have on a single page of the Web Help, and break the content down there. Smaller bits of content that you reuse should be put into snippets.
• Whenever you find yourself manually typing the same information or copying and pasting something, sit up and take notice. There's usually a way for Flare to do that for you (typically variables, conditions, and snippets).
• You probably know this as a web guy, but avoid local formatting and use styles/classes/IDs when you can.
• When you are designing your conditions, a common mistake is to over-use "Include"-ing conditions. Specifically "Include"-ing a tag should be used only rarely because things are automatically included unless they're specifically excluded (think of Include as a powerful emergency override you should use only rarely). Set up your tags so that you can use "Exclude" to keep out the stuff you don't want.
• Stylesheet mediums trip everyone up quite a bit. Based on your experience, you're probably better off mostly handling the CSS as text (you can open a stylesheet directly in the internal text editor by right-clicking it). If I had to start over, I'd have the "default" be the styles for either Print or Non-print (whichever is more important to your company). Then, just have one other medium (either Print or non-print, whichever you didn't pick). Having three medium types for two primary output types helps no one and confuses everyone.

That's what I can think of off the top of my head. Good luck, have fun, think critically, and play around a bit. Flare is an amazing tool.

[Nita Beck]

If I had to start over, I'd have the "default" be the styles for either Print or Non-print (whichever is more important to your company). Then, just have one other medium (either Print or non-print, whichever you didn't pick). Having three medium types for two primary output types helps no one and confuses everyone.

I always suggest the following:

-- default -- for my online output
-- print -- for how my online output will look, *when the user elects to print it*. For example, if I have tables with fancy background colors online, I might remove the background colors when the online topic is printed, to save on toner and to make the cell contents easier to read, in print.
-- PDF -- for how my PDF output will look and behave (in terms of things like cross-references, pagination, auto-numbers, and so forth).

I would not use the "non-print" medium at all.

[David Miller]

Thank you dorcutt and Nita - excellent tips and I fully embrace your advice. I know that my temptation to "do it better" isn't making it better and will result in heartache down the road. Your advice is greatly appreciated and is what I will follow.

Great tips on the print CSS, I typically remove background colors, make margins wide and use smaller font.

I know that words of advice like yours pay off big time a year later when things get big (and messy!).

Thank you. =)