We have recently merged two different documentation groups from two different sections of our company. The other team is currently using Help & Manual to generate it's help systems and PDF guides, whereas our team has been using Flare. We have decided moving forward, that we will all be switching to Flare because it is more versatile and provides more flexibility for where we want to take our help systems. That said, we need to convert (or import - it that's what needs to be done) the Help & Manual project files to Flare project files. Has anyone done this type of conversion, and if so, what do we need to do to prepare the files ahead of time and what "gotcha's" do we need to look out for? Help & Manual source files are XML not HTML, though we could probably use the HTML import on the output files if that is the only choice we have.
Thanks for any help offered!
Candee Hellberg
Sr. Communication Analyst
LexisNexis
Converting Help & Manual Project to Flare Project
Converting Help & Manual Project to Flare Project
Candee Hellberg
Sr. Communications Analyst
LexisNexis
Raleigh, North Carolina, United States
Sr. Communications Analyst
LexisNexis
Raleigh, North Carolina, United States
-
- Senior Propellus Maximus
- Posts: 2632
- Joined: Wed Apr 14, 2010 8:01 am
- Location: Surrey, UK
Re: Converting Help & Manual Project to Flare Project
I haven't done this kind of change, but the normal guidance is to clean out as much in-line formatting as possible.
If you are thinking about merging stylesheets so that both parts of the business use a single master stylesheet you could do a comparison and check how the two projects use styles. I recently tried to use a Help project generated by a different program and found it didn't use ANY of the same styles as I did - headings were actually table cells, it was very weird - so you might find it helpful to have a dig around.
If you are thinking about merging stylesheets so that both parts of the business use a single master stylesheet you could do a comparison and check how the two projects use styles. I recently tried to use a Help project generated by a different program and found it didn't use ANY of the same styles as I did - headings were actually table cells, it was very weird - so you might find it helpful to have a dig around.
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Re: Converting Help & Manual Project to Flare Project
Thanks ChoccieMuffin.
We are planning on merging the CSS, and that work has already started. We are removing as much inline styling as possible. Any that need to remain at this time we know we will need to reformat in Flare once the files are moved into Flare. My main question is; is there a specific process for converting from Help & Manual to Flare? Has anyone done such a conversion, and if so, what files were used - the HTML files that Help & Manual outputs, or the XML files, which are the source files for Help & Manual? I was hoping that for now, we could do a conversion of the H&M project to a Flre project, but I don't know if that is a possibility. Does anyone have the answer to that question?
Thanks!
We are planning on merging the CSS, and that work has already started. We are removing as much inline styling as possible. Any that need to remain at this time we know we will need to reformat in Flare once the files are moved into Flare. My main question is; is there a specific process for converting from Help & Manual to Flare? Has anyone done such a conversion, and if so, what files were used - the HTML files that Help & Manual outputs, or the XML files, which are the source files for Help & Manual? I was hoping that for now, we could do a conversion of the H&M project to a Flre project, but I don't know if that is a possibility. Does anyone have the answer to that question?
Thanks!
Candee Hellberg
Sr. Communications Analyst
LexisNexis
Raleigh, North Carolina, United States
Sr. Communications Analyst
LexisNexis
Raleigh, North Carolina, United States
-
- Senior Propellus Maximus
- Posts: 3669
- Joined: Thu Feb 02, 2006 9:57 am
- Location: Pittsford, NY
Re: Converting Help & Manual Project to Flare Project
To the best of my knowledge, Flare does not have a native Help & Manual importer. You might experiment with a few workflows. One you've already identified, to import the HTML output files. (I don't think that Flare can directly import XML files, though I might not have that right.) Another possible workflow might be to have Help & Manual output to another format that Flare can import; the one I have in mind is .chm help. If Help & Manual can produce a .chm, then you can import that into Flare.
Nita
RETIRED, but still fond of all the Flare friends I've made. See you around now and then!
RETIRED, but still fond of all the Flare friends I've made. See you around now and then!
Re: Converting Help & Manual Project to Flare Project
Thank you Nita!
I did not think about exporting to another format. Help & Manual can indeed export to CHM, so that would be a good test. Thank you again for the suggestion!
I did not think about exporting to another format. Help & Manual can indeed export to CHM, so that would be a good test. Thank you again for the suggestion!
Candee Hellberg
Sr. Communications Analyst
LexisNexis
Raleigh, North Carolina, United States
Sr. Communications Analyst
LexisNexis
Raleigh, North Carolina, United States