PDF Output bookmarks and time consuming build

[DocuWil]

When I build a PDF Output, all bookmarks created in Flare are displayed in the left pane at the end of the left pane:

PDFOutput.jpg

Does anyone know if I missed a setting somewhere or is it just a bug?

Also it takes a lot of time to build the PDF output: 10 - 20 minutes!

[dmaiorana]

Hi there. I am experiencing some of the same things.
My PDF output contains a list of bookmarks at the bottom of the heading bookmarks, which I have to remove.
In addition, I am doing some modification of bookmarks to make the navigation exactly as I want it, and when I save the document, they become corrupted. Many of them simply drop off, or the bookmark pane actually *looks* corrupted, with partial images, as in a page not done loading online.

I am wondering if these problems stem from my acrobat version - I am using Acrobat 9 Pro Extended.

My document is about 80 pages and takes maybe 5 minutes to "PDF."

[dmaiorana]

Another note related to my previous post. When I am working in the PDF, I save repeatedly as I modify the bookmarks, and everything appears to be fine. It is only when I close the document and then reopen it again that the problem becomes apparent. Specifically, most of the bookmarks are now missing.

If I start adding them back in, this is where things get spotty. In a nutshell, every time I close and reopen I get some new, odd stuff happening in the bookmarks.

[mattbnh]

If you look at most of the PDFs from Madcap (see the left side of the footer on every Help topic), you will see that most of them show the same thing in PDF Bookmarks.

It's a new paradigm!

After all, they are bookmarks, aren't they?

Bookmarks could not possibly mean two different things, so they must belong there!

Who knew?

Edit: If you edit the PDF, change anything, save it, then rebuild the target, your edited version of the PDF is discarded and replaced with a generated one, so your edits are gone. Apologies if you realized this and your problem is a different one.

Also, the PDFs I have generated do not all exhibit the extra bookmarks problem. I found that if I built a Print TOC from scratch I did not see that issue. IF I built from an imported TOC, I did see these extra bookmarks. More later. Right now I am rebuilding and Flare is using 97% of CPU, so typing is too slow.

I have not seen the corrupted bookmarks problem you mention.

Nother Edit to clarify:
I am using Bat Pro 8, not 9, so that may be a factor. Does Flare 4 claim to support Bat 9?
We also have our settings for PDF creating PDF 5 compatible, because we have not needed the newer version features, and want to stay backward compatible (even though we ship reader 8 or 9 with the product).

[dmaiorana]

Yes I am not referring to rebuilding the PDF in flare, I am modifying the bookmarks in the PDF, saving the PDF, then re-opening that same PDF. It does not sound like you are experiencing the disappearing bookmarks, though. I am still searching on that one.

[mattbnh]

When I edited my Print TOC and removed the Index proxy, all the extra bookmark things went away (that is good).
So did the index (not so good).
So I added it back, manually recreating an Index.htm with an Index proxy, and ... Extraneous Bookmarks re-appear. Hmm.

As Yul Brynner once said "It is a puzzlement."

[DocuWil]

If you look at most of the PDFs from Madcap (see the left side of the footer on every Help topic), you will see that most of them show the same thing in PDF Bookmarks.

It's a new paradigm!

I can't see any of these in Help topic's. I have my bookmarks and in the WebHelp output they work normal.
Also, I have not created an Index yet. I checked it. Nothing is indexed.
My project already started in Flare 3.1, but that shouldn't be a reason.

Anyway, you initiated me do a test that came up in my mind.
I created the project sample from Flare itself.
Created the PDF. Everything ok.
Then added a bookmark in Chapter 1:

bookmarkadded.png

Created the PDF again. Still ok.
Finally I created the link:

bookmarkhyperlink.png

At this moment the PDF goes wrong:

pdfwrong.png

I will put this through to support.

[DocuWil]

I have had a quick response from the support department. They have logged it in their development database.
Also I have pointed to the long building time of the PDF output. At my place it takes more then 10 minutes!

[dmaiorana]

I have a workaround for my problem, which ultimately can be stated like this, and may be useful for people doing book-PDF output but who want their content to be created in a topic-based style (that is, not have a whole chapter of hierarchical content in a single topic).

Problem:
- Topics can stand alone.
- I need to organize them as a book for my output.
- I created topic files that act as section/chapter breaks in the output. Basically just consist of a heading. These are put at the appropriate places in the flare TOC.
- I have trouble getting the topics that go *under* that section to be organized in the PDF bookmark hierarchy appropriately. Don't want to make the content into snippets for the obvious reasons re: topic-based content model. I planned to just move them in the PDF (acrobat 9 pro), but that didn't work, due to broken acrobat something. Adobe hasn't gotten back to me.

The good news. In Flare, I can put all the topics for a section into a topic as if they were snippets, so that I don't need to modify the bookmarks in the PDF. To do this, select to insert a snippet and then just browse to select the topic. This totally works. It is not necessarily supported by Madcap.
I like being able to put a topic in a topic.

I still suspect there is a better way though, and would love to hear it.
Thanks
Dina

[cbdebris]

I planned to just move them in the PDF (acrobat 9 pro), but that didn't work, due to broken acrobat something

Check your links in the PDF. It's not automatic. Typically if you add an external item and don't fix the bookmark links for that item, you'll get an error.

I have trouble getting the topics that go *under* that section to be organized in the PDF bookmark hierarchy appropriately.

Open your Target and click Printed Book. Look for Use TOC Depth for Heading Levels, select it, save your changes. Make sure your TOC settings in all places are exactly the way you want (that is, you have indicated exactly how many levels of TOC you want to show).

Caveat: I am working in V4 of Flare so your mileage may be different.

[dmaiorana]

I think you have misunderstood my issues. If you'd like to discuss in more detail, feel free to contact me directly.

[cbdebris]

I'm pretty sure I understand the issue. I have the bookmarks I want, no extraneous bookmarks, or "what is that doing there?" bookmarks. And they link.

The "Printed Output Guide" provided by Madcap is very useful.

[navoff]

Hi there. I am experiencing some of the same things.
My PDF output contains a list of bookmarks at the bottom of the heading bookmarks, which I have to remove.
In addition, I am doing some modification of bookmarks to make the navigation exactly as I want it, and when I save the document, they become corrupted. Many of them simply drop off, or the bookmark pane actually *looks* corrupted, with partial images, as in a page not done loading online.

I am wondering if these problems stem from my acrobat version - I am using Acrobat 9 Pro Extended.

My document is about 80 pages and takes maybe 5 minutes to "PDF."

I don't think it's specific to Acrobat 9 since I had similar issues in 8. In my case, I was attempting to follow the suggestion in the Printed Output Guide for setting up page layouts for h1 headings (i.e. two body frames in a first page layout, one for the h1 header and the second for the remaining text; used only when an h1 was always the start of a new chapter). Using the suggested layout causes a number of problems with the output one of which is that I ended up with a bookmark for each chapter appearing twice (once at the beginning and again at the end of the bookmarks for that chapter).

Acrobat-Bookmark-1.png

Then I edited the bookmarks to delete the extra chapter listings:

Acrobat-Bookmark-2.png

I save the file and re-open it and this is what I end up with:

Acrobat-Bookmark-3.png

Blech.

I've edited bookmarks in Acrobat that were generated from a Word file converted to PDF and never had these problems so I think there must be something about how Flare generates the PDF that confused Acrobat.

[pantherts]

Yes, the bookmarks appearing is a bit annoying. They do seem to appear when a link in a topic is connected to another location in the project. It's a bit random though and I too must go into my output files and delete the Bookmarks section and re-save the PDF. I agree that it's time consuming and I'm glad I'm not alone on this one. I will submit this as a bug also and see if they can find a way to hide these "links" from the output as they are not needed with a properly constructed TOC.

[dmaiorana]

my problems were resolved by madcap updates