Conditional help for conditional text (on one condition)

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Lumpy
Jr. Propeller Head
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Aug 24, 2015 11:40 am

Conditional help for conditional text (on one condition)

Post by Lumpy »

I am amazed at how byzantine and non-intuitive the 'conditional text' feature is... Can't figure out how to implement the following:

I have two versions of a whiz-bang module; One that uses "hydro-static" cooling, and one that uses "air" cooling.

However, the company is first going to bring to market the air-cooled version. In the current document (that I didn't write, I'm just trying to complete) there are numerous instances of the phrase "hydro-statically cooled" along with the air cooled variant. There are also a few instances of specification paragraphs that ONLY apply to one or the other.

After repeated attempts to follow the onboard Flare help (all but worthless), I'm sitting here wondering how Madcap ever got as far as they apparently have... Still can't figure out how to output a version that only includes the "air cooled" variation, and a separate version of the document for the "hydro-statically cooled" variant.

A bag of decimal points and a chrome-edged snark hook for the first person who accomplish what Madcap hasn't, and explain the precise steps to do this.
peckerdunne
Propeller Head
Posts: 32
Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2010 12:19 pm
Location: Watford, UK

Re: Conditional help for conditional text (on one condition)

Post by peckerdunne »

It's fairly simple but extremely tedious.
1: Make a pot of coffee and turn off your phone.
2. Tag your content as needed. I found that it's sometimes easier to repeat paragraphs and tag them (for ease of reading and spell checking purposes)
3. Make air-cooled and hydrostatic targets. Don't know if it matters but I specifically include or exclude conditions.
4. Create the manuals.

Here's an example of the output: http://www.breeam.org/BREEAMUK2014Schem ... h%3D_____4
ChoccieMuffin
Senior Propellus Maximus
Posts: 2632
Joined: Wed Apr 14, 2010 8:01 am
Location: Surrey, UK

Re: Conditional help for conditional text (on one condition)

Post by ChoccieMuffin »

Me, me, me, I've ALWAYS wanted a chrome-edged snark hook!!!

I agree pretty much with peckerdunne, but I don't use "INCLUDE" conditions.

1. Coffee on, phone off - definitely. Don't forget to drink the coffee during the next three steps.
2. Tag your content.
* For this step, create two conditions - Hydro_Only and Air_Only (or call them Fred and George, but it's easier if you give the conditions sensible names).
* Apply conditions as sparingly as you can get away with, so that you don't tag stuff that applies to both. Personally I don't repeat paragraphs for each condition if they're identical, but if you're going for translation you might want to consider the smallest bit to condition should probably be a sentence or a complete phrase rather than just a word. (Having "This sectionchapter describes how to..." works fine in English can cause problems for languages where "section" and "chapter" are different genders, so easier to repeat the sentence, or if you're being more economical, have "This section describesThis chapter describes how to...", but be careful with spaces.)
3. In your Hydro target, EXCLUDE the condition Air_Only. You don't need to do include Hydro-Only as include is the default behaviour. Do the opposite for the Air target.
4. Build, check, and congratulate yourself on a job well done.

So how are you going to get me my hook and points?
Started as a newbie with Flare 6.1, now using Flare 2023.
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