Instability with long topics - is there a maximum length?

[Centauri27]

We have a reference topic that has grown over the years. It has now reached 34 pages long in the Print Preview and is now definitely acting weird within Flare. I am trying to float the topic, but instead it vanishes and I must close/reopen my project to get it back.

What's the longest topic that you have in your project? How far have you pushed it before Flare starts acting squirrelly and unpredictable? Does MadCap have a recommended maximum?

Thanks.
Carl

[RamonS]

My (antiquated) experience is that it is not just the length, but a combination of length and content. Does that topic contain a lot of tables or images or other special stuff? If yes, that might be why. I don't have a proven workaround, but if faced with this dilemma I would try splitting the topic into several snippets even if that topic is the only place the snippets will be used. That allows for working with smaller chunks and Flare (and .net) should be happier that way.
As far as I know there is no hard limit, it is more a practical limit that you apparently reached with that topic.

[Centauri27]

You're right Ramon--my huge topic is almost all tables. I imagine this adds to the complexity immensely and would destabilize any topic.

Thanks for the idea of pulling them in as snippets--I'll give it a try. (I did try splitting that topic up several years ago, but our Support people told me that our customers preferred pull up a single topic and then search for the codes they need, rather than search across topics.)

Thanks.
Carl

[Spectre]

The recommendation I received from MadCap is to work in web layout for long topics where Flare appears to be struggling. In my case this has certainly improved things. A topic with a very long table that could not be worked with in print layout is okay in web.

Cheers.