Editor: Pressing ctrl-G takes 20-30% CPU and 2-4 seconds to

[Andrew]

That said, in this case, there is a reason for how they implemented the index: the old RoboHelp method meant that if you condition parts of a topic that contain the keyword you've associated with the topic, the keyword *also* gets conditioned automatically. The old RoboHelp method meant you had to condition the index too.

Uhhhh, Robohelp X5 does not behave the way you discuss above.

Uhhhh, no it doesn't. Unless you can explain how RobHelp automatically removes index keywords when you have only conditioned *part* of a topic (the part that contains the keyword, naturally!)? In X5, RH treated index keywords at the topic level, and not more fine-grained.

[samjones6]

In X5, RH treated index keywords at the topic level, and not more fine-grained.

Correct.

Works great, and no need to mess with conditions at the index-entry level (a huge time and complexity savings, though at the cost of some index entries you can't make due to conditionality).


I can tell you straight up that I know everything there is to know about the Flare index system, and that the quality of my index has gone down substantially since migrating to Flare. The Flare index paradigm is hard to use, lacks a wysiwig preview in the IDE, is slow and kludgy, and lacks the simple on-topic view of index entries that RH has. Or, as I put it: The Flare index paradigm is a really nice idea (but in practice falls far short of RH).

[nickatwork]

All this thread is turning into is Flare bashing - deserved or not...

If Flare support, or anyone on this forum, (or anyone, anywhere) can help the Flare IDE run comparably as fast as any other software on my machine, I will be most grateful.

The issue has been that while multiple users see the performance problems, and Flare tech support has seen most or all the issues, no one has been able to help me (or other users) resolve the issues.

Well I doubt this forum will be able to improve the Flare IDE. Obviously you are experiencing problems with response and load time. Something like that will surely need to looked at by MadCap.

I'm curious though, did none of these issues arise during any testing of Flare prior to purchase?

[Andrew]

In X5, RH treated index keywords at the topic level, and not more fine-grained.

Correct.

Works great, and no need to mess with conditions at the index-entry level (a huge time and complexity savings, though at the cost of some index entries you can't make due to conditionality).

A tradeoff that you are willing to make, but some other authors would find very limiting.

[samjones6]

I'm curious though, did none of these issues arise during any testing of Flare prior to purchase?

This was a huge failure on my part. I did two or three large cycles of pre-purchase evaluation, and failed to see the problems in Flare.

It should, perhaps, have been a red flag though, that during the eval cycles I was reporting bugs to Flare support... in retrospect that was ominous.


Look at the two shots below for bug of the day. The Flare IDE is really not professional quality (I am very sad to say).

select-itis-one.png

select-itis-two.png

[helen]

In my version of Flare (7.1), CTRL + Home goes to the start of the document - what am I missing? Cool link: http://www.clickstart.net/FlareShortcuts.pdf It could of course be my keyboard that's different - I know my function keys don't behave nicely at the best of times!

Just a note though, you don't need to select the full line if you want to apply a span style to the entire tag (it's not like Word). If the goal was to make the line 'bold' (I'm guessing) then click anywhere on the line and CTRL + B. I can't replicate that behaviour because CTRL + HOME goes to the start of the document. I did just try it with the first line though and again couldn't replicate it - it selected the whole line as I asked.

[nickatwork]

Shift+End.

Quite unique really. If you have a line that already has span formatting, then apply bold, italic, underline formatting (not a span style) is applied what you show happens.

But I wonder, why would you use bold rather than a span style?

[helen]

Ah now I can reproduce it (if there is a span already). Weird - then again I've never seen it as you just place the cursor anywhere on the line to apply it to the full line.

[samjones6]

Shift+End.

Correct. Sorry I have that wrong in the shot.

Quite unique really.

Unique in what sense?

The editor is full of broken behaviors on standard keyboard movement. v7.1 fixed three or four that I had reported.

This is just the one I found yesterday.... (And I have almost not used Flare this month)

[nickatwork]

Unique in what sense?

In the sense that its only going to happen if you are applying span type formatting not using styles to an entire line of text, where you would probably use a P style instead or at least a span style, but only when a span style already exists in the line.

I'm using Flare all day everyday, and I'm just as much of a keyboard warrior, and I have never seen anything like this. But thats because I would never use the bold formatting option, I would always use styles. Nor would I ever have the need to bold an entire line rather than use a P style or at minimum a span style.

Regardless, it is a bug and should not happen.

[samjones6]

and I'm just as much of a keyboard warrior

Great news! (I find so very many kbd issues in Flare, I feel like I must be the only one!)

Question: I find to apply styles to a P section, that I am forced to right click on the P (or I or img, or whatever element) on the left hand xml navigator. I asked Flare support how to do this via kbd, and they said no can do. Is there a way?

Thanks!

[nickatwork]

Question: I find to apply styles to a P section, that I am forced to right click on the P (or I or img, or whatever element) on the left hand xml navigator. I asked Flare support how to do this via kbd, and they said no can do. Is there a way?

Thanks!

Well you can, but its not very straight forward. I end up going to my mouse because its much quicker. It should be a right-click option when the curser is in a paragraph without any characters selected. Good feature request that.

To do it with your kb. (I always have Toggle show space option on, funny backwards P thing)
Home key to the start of the P block.
Shift+End (you might need to shift+arrow to jump down to the next line and shift+end again if necessary)
Now you've got the block selected, but its not enough.
Shift+down arrow again, this will highlight the P right to the end and includes the blue arrow character that shows the end of the line.
Now, using kb right-mouse menu, hit it and you can use style selection.



You can use F12, but that only brings up the style wnidow and arrow-ing through it only moves one style at a time and then applies it. Not ideal.

[Andrew]

Question: I find to apply styles to a P section, that I am forced to right click on the P (or I or img, or whatever element) on the left hand xml navigator. I asked Flare support how to do this via kbd, and they said no can do. Is there a way?

If you want to apply styles to the p or li (or whatever) without taking your hands off the keyboard (and I *hate* taking my hands off the keyboard while I'm typing), try Ctrl + Shift + H. That brings up the Style Picker. You can then type p.MyStyle (or just the first few characters of it), and the Style Picker highlights that style. Press Enter and it applies the style.

[nickatwork]

If you want to apply styles to the p or li (or whatever) without taking your hands off the keyboard (and I *hate* taking my hands off the keyboard while I'm typing), try Ctrl + Shift + H. That brings up the Style Picker. You can then type p.MyStyle (or just the first few characters of it), and the Style Picker highlights that style. Press Enter and it applies the style.

WIN!