open links in Webhelp in a new window

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RickHenkel
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Joined: Thu Jul 19, 2007 12:18 pm
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open links in Webhelp in a new window

Post by RickHenkel »

I know I've asked about this in the forum before, but I can't find the posts. And the forum search doesn't help because it tells me that my search terms are "too common."

I use Flare to convert FrameMaker to HTML. In my Webhelp projects, I have some links to other Web sites. By default, those links were opening in the main document pane with the Webhelp TOC on the left. I wanted to get those links to open in new windows, and I figured out that by changing the FrameMaker hypertext marker from message URL <web address> to message NewURL <web address>, I could get Flare to add the "target=_blank" to the links.

Now that I'm testing Flare 4, I've found that that trick no longer works. For some reason, Flare doesn't convert those hypertext markers the same way anymore.

Because I can't find the original post, I can't remember what other things I had tried to make this work. Because modifying each link in Flare isn't a viable option, does anyone have any other suggestions for what I might try?
GregStenhouse
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Joined: Tue May 13, 2008 3:27 pm
Location: Christchurch, New Zealand

Re: open links in Webhelp in a new window

Post by GregStenhouse »

To search for common words in the forums, use a google site search, e.g.
link new window site:madcapsoftware.com

It looks like your original post may have expired though.

Anyway, I've never heard of newURL used to open a new window, or seen it documented, so even if it worked it may have been a bit of a quirk. I would handle this via passthrough markers (create a new FrameMaker marker named "PassThrough", and in Flare import options, set Passthrough Marker Format to Fragment.

The code in FrameMaker will look like this (note [ ] means a PassThrough marker):
[<a href="http://www.madcapsoftware.com" target="_blank">]Flare SIte[</a]

Cheers
Greg
RickHenkel
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Posts: 22
Joined: Thu Jul 19, 2007 12:18 pm
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Re: open links in Webhelp in a new window

Post by RickHenkel »

Thanks, Greg.

I already use PassThrough markers in XML format, mainly to tag glossary items in FrameMaker and have them import correctly into Flare.

In the little bit of testing that I've done, it looks like those terms still import correctly when I import PassThrough markers as Fragment. I'll do some more test, of course, but so far it looks like this will do the trick.
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