I'm starting to dip my toes into the Global Project Linking pool. I have several Flare projects going for our various applications, and want to use a global Style Guide project to control/maintain a consistent design for all the outputs.
Since I'm just starting the process, I'm currently only looking to use the Style Guide for the basic formatting of WebHelp and HTML5 outputs.
So my question is: What are the bare minimum files I should be importing/linking to my projects so the WebHelp and HTML5 outputs are consistent across projects?
Here's the list I have so far:
- Skin (one for WebHelp, one for HTML5)
- Stylesheet (WebHelp; HTML5)
- MasterPage (WebHelp; HTML5)
What am I missing, if anything?
(Once I get the basics down, I will expand usage of the global Style Guide project to include variables, conditions, common images, etc. For now, I'm just trying to get my WebHelp and HTML5 outputs styled the same across all my projects.)
Global Project Linking - which files to import?
Global Project Linking - which files to import?
Software Documentation Specialist (but really, Tech Writer)
Re: Global Project Linking - which files to import?
Also table stylesheets, if you have any.
If your stylesheets, master pages or skins reference any images, you'll need those too (although I seem to remember that some images are actually hard-coded into skin files rather than referenced so this won't apply to those).
You may also want to add your dictionary to the list of things you globalize.
However, I found I couldn't single-source my WebHelp skin, because I needed a different caption for the browser window for each project, and you can't do that. The caption is set as part of the skin, not the WebHelp target.
A tip (although I'm certainly no expert on global linking myself yet). When you link to a global project, copies of the global files are imported into each project that uses them. So I have given all my global files names that start with GLOBAL. That way, when you're working in a project, it's really easy to see what files are global, so it's crystal clear that any changes to one of those files will impact other projects too.
If your stylesheets, master pages or skins reference any images, you'll need those too (although I seem to remember that some images are actually hard-coded into skin files rather than referenced so this won't apply to those).
You may also want to add your dictionary to the list of things you globalize.
However, I found I couldn't single-source my WebHelp skin, because I needed a different caption for the browser window for each project, and you can't do that. The caption is set as part of the skin, not the WebHelp target.
A tip (although I'm certainly no expert on global linking myself yet). When you link to a global project, copies of the global files are imported into each project that uses them. So I have given all my global files names that start with GLOBAL. That way, when you're working in a project, it's really easy to see what files are global, so it's crystal clear that any changes to one of those files will impact other projects too.
Marjorie
My goal in life is to be as good a person as my dogs already think I am.
My goal in life is to be as good a person as my dogs already think I am.
Re: Global Project Linking - which files to import?
You don't need to worry about skin images as they're all embedded in the skin file (flskn); you can't have images that are linked/referenced from the skin.
It's worth including the skin files in the import; even if you need to copy and customise them, as it means you're using the most up-to-date skin. Otherwise, people are likely to find a copy of the skin from somewhere else, which may or may not be the most recent version.
One tip for setting up the global project is to use a condition to select which files to import.
In the global project:
- Create a new condition file and tag, e.g. Global.Template. It's a good idea to set a colour you will easily recognise, to make the imported files stand out.
- Apply the condition tag Global.Template to all files that you will want to import into projects (apply this to the condition tag file too).
When you set up the project import file:
- Set include files to *.* (all files).
- Set Import conditions to include Global.Template, and set Auto-Exclude Non-Tagged files.
This will only import only files with that condition, which makes setting up the import a bit quicker (and less prone to error).
I just use one condition for my imports, but if you wanted to import different groups of files into different projects, you would just use a separate 'global' condition for each group.
It's worth including the skin files in the import; even if you need to copy and customise them, as it means you're using the most up-to-date skin. Otherwise, people are likely to find a copy of the skin from somewhere else, which may or may not be the most recent version.
One tip for setting up the global project is to use a condition to select which files to import.
In the global project:
- Create a new condition file and tag, e.g. Global.Template. It's a good idea to set a colour you will easily recognise, to make the imported files stand out.
- Apply the condition tag Global.Template to all files that you will want to import into projects (apply this to the condition tag file too).
When you set up the project import file:
- Set include files to *.* (all files).
- Set Import conditions to include Global.Template, and set Auto-Exclude Non-Tagged files.
This will only import only files with that condition, which makes setting up the import a bit quicker (and less prone to error).
I just use one condition for my imports, but if you wanted to import different groups of files into different projects, you would just use a separate 'global' condition for each group.
Re: Global Project Linking - which files to import?
Thanks for the feedback. Got my global project set up and have linked a few existing projects. Just a few items to clean up (created global Welcome and Support topics to use, but had to revert back since our products use different emails for support), but seems to be working great.
I ended up using a file naming convention to select which files to import (as opposed to condition tags). Structured all the files in the global project as SG_[filename].XXX (SG = Style Guide) and set the import to include SG*.* files. No problems.
This is already proving to be very useful. Quick little formatting updates to WebHelp are easy to populate out to the various projects, and maintaining consistency across projects is a no-brainer.
Challenge I have now is applying this global Style Guide project to the WebHelp of an acquired application (company was bought by mine). Their WebHelp is structured differently than how I've set ours up so far, so may need to make some tweaks to both that project and the Style Guide so things look/work correctly.
But all in all, the global project linking is a great resource. Thanks again for the input.
I ended up using a file naming convention to select which files to import (as opposed to condition tags). Structured all the files in the global project as SG_[filename].XXX (SG = Style Guide) and set the import to include SG*.* files. No problems.
This is already proving to be very useful. Quick little formatting updates to WebHelp are easy to populate out to the various projects, and maintaining consistency across projects is a no-brainer.
Challenge I have now is applying this global Style Guide project to the WebHelp of an acquired application (company was bought by mine). Their WebHelp is structured differently than how I've set ours up so far, so may need to make some tweaks to both that project and the Style Guide so things look/work correctly.
But all in all, the global project linking is a great resource. Thanks again for the input.
Software Documentation Specialist (but really, Tech Writer)