Generic style text not appearing in output

[JenniferR]

Hi,
I've created 5 generic classes so that my Typographical Conventions table displays the paragraph styles that users will see in the help. For example, I've got a 'p.note' and I'm using the generic '.note' in the table. The problem that I'm running into is with the output (both PDF and WebHelp)--the text that I've assigned the generic classes to either does not appear at all in the output or it appears without the a style applied to it, as if it were just a p tag.

Has anyone else encountered this?

[LTinker68]

I don't think you can have a generic class and a tag-specific class have the same name. I think that's what you said -- that in your stylesheet you have p.note and a .note created. Or rather, it's not that you can't, it's that you're working against yourself. If you have a paragraph and you apply a class called "note" to it, then the browser will load whichever of those styles is listed last in the stylesheet, since it loads the stylesheet from top to bottom. I'm not sure if Flare treats it the same way when it builds print output. But first I recommend changing one of those classes to another name, especially if those styles really have different attributes. And if they're not different -- if they're identical -- then just delete the p.note one. That way your topics will still be fine, because any paragraphs with the note class will not be associated to the generic class.

As for why it doesn't appear to be working in the table, it could be the problem above, or it could be that you applied the generic class to the <td> class, not the paragraph class, assuming you have classes inside the table cell. And although most attributes in a generic class will work on any tag, some won't appear to have any effect because the tag they're applied to doesn't support that particular attribute. For instance, a margin-bottom attribute may not have much of an affect on a <td> tag, since there are multiple td tags in the same row, plus the <tr> tag that contains them. I don't think I've ever tried setting a margin value on a td tag -- I usually use padding to control td tags.

Anyway, there are a few reasons it might not be working. Could you post the relevant styles from the stylesheet and the portion of the topic code containing the row you're having a problem with? That might help to diagnose it, if what I wrote above isn't the answer.

[NorthEast]

Is it just the output(s) that your generic classes don't work; i.e. do they work in the editor and preview?