Beginner's issues

This forum is for all Flare issues related to getting started and installing the application.
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Milly
Jr. Propeller Head
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Dec 07, 2018 5:33 am

Beginner's issues

Post by Milly »

Hi,

I'm trying to get my head around the basics, but am not finding it very intuitive.

For instance I am trying to add an image to a page. I have added it, but it is not in the right location. When dragging the image it stops being visible (not very helpful) and in some areas of the page text will flow around it, but in others not. Then in other areas the image disappears entirely and I need to ctrl-z it back into existance. Sometimes Flare crashes.

I'm just playing around with how the system works and have been surprised that something as simple as this is not working for me. Any advice?
Nita Beck
Senior Propellus Maximus
Posts: 3667
Joined: Thu Feb 02, 2006 9:57 am
Location: Pittsford, NY

Re: Beginner's issues

Post by Nita Beck »

Hi Milly. Welcome to the forums. :)

It’s important to understand that Flare is not a page-layout program. One can’t position an image by simply dragging it around. (Well, that might be an oversimplification. One can drag a structure bar—say, a p block that contains an image—up or down in a topic in order to position that p block and its image vertically.) Instead, images are positioned via CSS.

If what you’re trying to achieve is to have an image appear, say, at the right and have content flow around it at the left, then the CSS attribute you need to get cozy with is called “float.” A place to start is https://www.w3schools.com/css/css_float.asp. And read up on “clear” as well because, I assume, at times you won’t want content to flow around an image.

HTH
Nita
Image
RETIRED, but still fond of all the Flare friends I've made. See you around now and then!
ChoccieMuffin
Senior Propellus Maximus
Posts: 2630
Joined: Wed Apr 14, 2010 8:01 am
Location: Surrey, UK

Re: Beginner's issues

Post by ChoccieMuffin »

Another thought for you, as I see you've posted a few starter questions. Take a look at the many webinars that are available from Madcap: https://www.madcapsoftware.com/resource ... aspx#flare

I particularly recommend the following ones as you're new to Flare but there are loads available, and that'd be time very well spent.

https://www.madcapsoftware.com/webinars ... are-works/
https://www.madcapsoftware.com/webinars ... ublishing/
https://www.madcapsoftware.com/webinars ... -sourcing/

There are also some very useful ones that talk about moving from other programs to Flare, so if you're used to using FrameMaker, for example, or you have Word documents to import, there is bound to be a webinar for you. And, of course, you're using the forums, which is a fab resource.

Best of luck with getting to grips with Flare. It's a very steep learning curve if you're coming from a DTP package or Word, but well worth the journey.
Started as a newbie with Flare 6.1, now using Flare 2023.
Report bugs at http://www.madcapsoftware.com/bugs/submit.aspx.
Request features at https://www.madcapsoftware.com/feedback ... quest.aspx
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