Lists playing up in Flare 10

[ChoccieMuffin]

Hi all

I have generated a CHM in Flare 9, and my nested lists behave as they are supposed to.

Flare9.png

But when I build the same file (same resources, same stylesheet, etc etc etc) the lists misbehave - an <ol> has dots instead of numbers and the indent is wrong, and the nested <ul> also has the wrong dots (too small) and the indent is wrong.

Is there something really obvious I've missed when moving to Flare 10, or is this a bug?

[NorthEast]

I'd suggest building the output as HTML5/WebHelp, then inspecting the CSS (using Developer Tools or Firebug).

It should pinpoint whether it's something thats originated from your stylesheet, or one of Flare's generated stylesheets.

[ChoccieMuffin]

I've built the help and viewed the source, and it just shows a bog-standard <ol> with a <li> and a <ul> inside.

<ol>
<li value="1">
<p>Create a ... </p>
</li>
<li value="2"> Update the ...</li>
<li value="3">
<p>Assign the ...</p>
<ul>
<li value="1">To assign ...</li>


The only CSS file referred to is the stylesheet I want it to use, ( <link href="../Resources/Stylesheets/My_Stylesheet.css" rel="stylesheet" /> ) and I just can't see why it's not doing what it's supposed to, when building with exactly the same files in Flare 9 gives the correct result.

What do you suggest I look for in the compiled HTML? I'm not a developer so I'm struggling.

Thanks.

Meanwhile, it's back to Flare 9 we go!

Edit: Submitted a bug, as it does the same in a new project with my stylesheet attached. Let's see what happens...

[techwriter31]

i just tested this, and we're having the same issue with the bullet appearance. Using Flare 9, our bullet lists appear correctly. Using Flare 10, the bullets appear as small dots. We're not having any indent issues though.

[NorthEast]

The only CSS file referred to is the stylesheet I want it to use, ( <link href="../Resources/Stylesheets/My_Stylesheet.css" rel="stylesheet" /> ) and I just can't see why it's not doing what it's supposed to, when building with exactly the same files in Flare 9 gives the correct result.

What do you suggest I look for in the compiled HTML? I'm not a developer so I'm struggling.

As suggested, check the CSS in the WebHelp/HTML5 output. Firebug (Firefox) or Developer Tools (IE, Chrome) have an 'inspect' tool, which shows you what CSS is being used and from which stylesheet(s).

You will have more than just My_Stylesheet.css linked in your output topics, they will have links to additional Flare-generated stylesheets like Topic.css and TextEffects.css - and the issue/difference with the CSS may be in these stylesheets.

Also, are you building exactly the same project and target in v9 and v10? i.e. is it the same project, or is it two separate projects and just some of the files are the same (like stylesheets).

I'd also pass on the project to MadCap support, if you suspect Flare might be at fault.

[ChoccieMuffin]

Dave, I have built exactly the same project, first in Flare 9 and then in Flare 10, making no changes at all to any files.

I'm building HTML Help, not HTML5 help.

I have already submitted a bug to Tech Support, let's see what they say.

And in the meantime my colleague has identified the cause of the problem! Here's what he said:

"If you uncheck the Add meta tags to content setting in the Advanced tab of the CHM target and rebuild all should be back to normal.

See the Adding Custom Meta Tags topic in Flare help - it's one of the What's New features!
...

I’ve added the following line at the end of the </Destinations> section to all the CHM targets using FAR:

<MetaTags
Enabled="false" />

The targets created with Flare V9 and earlier do not have this line. When a Flare V9 or earlier CHM target is built using Flare V10, Flare assumes the MetaTag to be true and so applies the compatibility setting:

<MetaTags
Enabled="true" />

It also applies the following setting taken from the text box in the Advance tab of the CHM Target:

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=7,8,9,10" />

This upsets the alignment of lists in CHM files since the setting is for online targets only."

So now I'm fixed (happily) and thought others might want to keep an eye out for this gotcha with Flare 10.

[joy]

I'm having the same problems in Flare 10.1 (exactly what ChoccieMuffin posted). The bullet size is smaller and the indent space has nearly tripled.
I haven't changed anything except my Flare version!

I'm reporting it as a bug.

[ChoccieMuffin]

Joy, see the post directly above where my colleague identified the cause of the problem, and then told me the solution.

[joy]

Joy, see the post directly above where my colleague identified the cause of the problem, and then told me the solution.

Thanks ChoccieMuffin. I did see the post.

The solution works in an HTML5 target build, so thanks for that, but changing the target property does not change the XML editor view. I can't see what lists actually look like unless I preview the topic.

[Nita Beck]

Joy, if you make your HTML5 target the project's primary target, that should cause the XML Editor to show content as styled for that target. HTH.

[joy]

Joy, if you make your HTML5 target the project's primary target, that should cause the XML Editor to show content as styled for that target. HTH.

Thanks Nita. It is my primary target and lists still don't display properly in the XML Editor.

[ChoccieMuffin]

Joy, it's not just you - my lists don't display properly in the XML editor either (the indent is all wrong), but the output - which is what really matters - does generate correctly, so I'm just living with it.

Does anyone have any suggestions to make the WYSIWYG view a bit more accurate, rather than being WYSIAWYGBNQ (What You See Is Almost What You get But Not Quite)?

[joy]

Joy, it's not just you - my lists don't display properly in the XML editor either (the indent is all wrong), but the output - which is what really matters - does generate correctly, so I'm just living with it.

Does anyone have any suggestions to make the WYSIWYG view a bit more accurate, rather than being WYSIAWYGBNQ (What You See Is Almost What You get But Not Quite)?

WYSIAWYGBNQ made me laugh! I'm living with it for now too but it's very frustrating. I did file a bug but I sure hope they fix it before Flare 11...

[techwriter31]

I'm now seeing the small bullets in our PDF outputs too. In this case, there is no meta tag to disable (I don't think). I'll contact support...

[joy]

This is what Madcap support told me:

Based on my test, it looks like the issue has been corrected in Flare 10. The indention in the XML Editor in 10 is identical to the output, the indention in the XML Editor in 9 is much less.

When I asked for clarification, he said that with the Flare 10 "fix", my li tag margin-left settings (which I've used for years) were now indenting my lists too far to the right. I changed it to a smaller number. The result previews fine in WebHelp but not PDF. I can't preview HTML5 (different issue, I guess) but upon building, it now looks the same as the XML editor.

This isn't an ideal solution or explanation to me, since I did not have any problems before Flare 10, but I'll live with it for now.