Help: Word Import is a Mess

[nickatwork]

Hi all,
So I just got a trial version of Flare running.
I have my Word doc, about 100 pages, it has all been formatted in Word, using specific styles.

I have imported the doc into Flare, and now, I have about 200+ htm topics sitting in a single folder that are named by sentence beginning etc. The import has not split the doc based on heading levels and built any kind of folder structure for me, and when I publish I get nothing, a frameset and thats it.

My styles look to have imported corrently, I can see them all in the Styles pane, but if I click on one of those htm files, 95% of it is blank, and there are a few word at the top, it makes no difference if I look at it in print or web view.

When I look at the TOC in Flare, it looks perfect, everything is seperated out how I would expect, but the actual topics themselves havent been done like this.

Am I missing something really obvious?

[lacastle]

There's an option in the import to avoid empty topics and put a minimum on the number of words that show up in a topic. Also, make sure you limit the number of styles/headings that create new topics.

[nickatwork]

Thanks for that, I found that one after importing everything again.

Problem is, I'm still ending up with all topics in one folder, is there anyway to get the folder structure to be created based on those heading levels.....and if not, I'm creating folders manually, not really ideal, and pulling the topics in manually, however eveything is sorting alphabetically, and I cant for the life of me find where I can turn this off. Any clues?

Another thing I'm finding is that some topics are being created regardless of the heading levels, though I think this might be down to Word and page breaks.

[LTinker68]

Problem is, I'm still ending up with all topics in one folder, is there anyway to get the folder structure to be created based on those heading levels.....

No, it won't build a folder structure for you. However, it's easy to move the files. At the top of the Content Explorer there is an icon with a tooltip of "Show Files" or something like that. When you turn that on, it splits the Content Explorer into two frames. It's the same effect you get in Windows Explorer when you enable the option to show folders. In this split frame view, you can select multiple files and move them simultaneously. So create a folder, select a bunch of files, and drag them into that folder. If there are any links affected by the move, Flare will ask if you want to update the links -- select Yes.

eveything is sorting alphabetically, and I cant for the life of me find where I can turn this off. Any clues?

What other way would you want them to be listed? Flare follows the settings you have in Windows, so if you have Windows Explorer set to sort things alphabetically, then Flare will do the same. There is also a File List view and it might have a date column that might be sortable (don't have Flare running at the moment to check), but the File List view itself is a table displaying information about the files.

[nickatwork]

Thanks for the info.

Thing is, I'm importing a 400 page document, having to create all the folders etc is a bit of a drag, but if thats how it has to be done then theres not much I can do. I was just hoping for a bit more than Flare creating one folder with a load of topics in it and then I have to sort everything out, especially if those topics are sorted by alphabetical order and not the order the were imported.

As for the sorting, I would hope that once I create a folder, I could at least move its contents into the same order they will show in the output, basically Intro - Proc 1 - Proc 2 - Summary, where as now I'm stuck with it being sorted alphabetically and the folders are all sorted alphabetically as well. I would prefer to see folders sorted by how I want, so I can lay things out in a view that I could expect to see when I build my output

[lacastle]

You could separate your Word document into a few different files by section and import them. Then you'd get separate folders (if you import separately, not all the import files at once.)

if you try that and have any issues, see this topic - http://forums.madcapsoftware.com/viewto ... =5&t=10598. i had some problems importing Frame files one at a time using the same import file, but i eventually got it to work.

[lacastle]

By the way, the Content Explorer is not used to store the files in any particular order. are you getting a TOC with your import? that would have the files linked in the correct order.

[nickatwork]

Yeah I do have the TOC, but I would hope this would be displayed on the left, so at least I can have that open and work on content rather than opening in the topic pane. I dont know, I was using RoboHelp earlier, and I didnt like it at all, but some of those things I got used to were quite valuable. Rather than a double click opening the topic from the TOC, it opens the properties window, thats fine, but it means I need to right click to actually open the topic, or I need to find it in content explorer but with that being sorted alphabetically and not reflecting the TOC structure it just gets messy.

The Content Editor, in an ideal world, I would like to sort all of my content into the folder that it relates, this just keep things clean and tidy when publishing webhelp.

maybe this is just getting to me as its my first time using Flare and things arent as straight forward as I imagined. Friday afternoon probably isnt the best time to be doing this stuff either.....

[lacastle]

Rather than a double click opening the topic from the TOC, it opens the properties window, thats fine, but it means I need to right click to actually open the topic,

What version of Flare are you using? This issue was fixed recently and now i think there's a setting to open the topic directly from the TOC without right-clicking. i can't remember where that setting is, but that was a big step for Flare.

Yeah I do have the TOC, but I would hope this would be displayed on the left, so at least I can have that open and work on content rather than opening in the topic pane

If you right-click on the TOC tab, you have the option to float. Then you can move it anywhere on the screen. Recently, i've been moving mine to my other monitor, but most of the time i dock the TOC to the left with my Content Explorer and Project Organizer. To move it from the dock, click on the 9 little dot square in the top left corner of the TOC.

The Content Editor, in an ideal world, I would like to sort all of my content into the folder that it relates, this just keep things clean and tidy when publishing webhelp.

Again, this isn't the purpose of the Content Explorer. As Lisa said, you can easily sort the files into folders, but they won't be in any particular order. In my Flare project right now, i can view a topic in three different ways depending on how i want to look it up:

1-Content Explorer: my files are sorted by section/manual (since i am importing all my manuals into one project), i have the View Files option turned on so i can see the folders and the topics/images next to them. (shortcut Ctrl+J)
2-TOC: docked to the left, my files are sorted in the order i will see them in the output so i can see the hierarchy relationships (shortcut Ctrl+F8)
3-File List: docked to the right, ALL my files can be sorted by condition, date modified, filename, or many other options (shortcut Ctrl+Shift+J)

There's a lot to learn about all the features in Flare. I've been using it for a few years now so i've found most of them, but i still learn new shortcuts and best practices all the time.

[LTinker68]

As for the sorting, I would hope that once I create a folder, I could at least move its contents into the same order they will show in the output, basically Intro - Proc 1 - Proc 2 - Summary, where as now I'm stuck with it being sorted alphabetically and the folders are all sorted alphabetically as well. I would prefer to see folders sorted by how I want, so I can lay things out in a view that I could expect to see when I build my output

Two things about this. First, since Flare sorts things alphabetically (if Windows is set that way), then you can create your own order by how you name your folders. For instance, "1_Introduction", "2_Procedure1", "3_Procedure2", etc. Try to avoid periods in the folder names. Although Windows is fine with that, URLs aren't as happy with them except in certain situations. I also recommend not having spaces so the URLs have to translate those spaces into %20, which makes the URL look messy (IMO) and some browsers sometimes have problems with them, although that's not as much a problem as it used to be.

Second, keep in mind that one of Flare's greatest strengths is its ability to single source content into multiple outputs. If your background is mostly in print then you probably think more linearly, as least in the flow of the document. However, online outputs are interactive and can have special effects in them that aren't supports in print output. For instance, in online output you could have a screenshot that acts as an image map and when the user clicks on a field or area of the image a popup window appears describing the purpose of that field or area. You can also include in online output reference documents that may not fit well in the print output. So as your organize your folders and topics, do so in a way that makes sense, but still allow for some flexibility to support single sourcing. And conditioning of topics, folders, images, etc., that may be used in single sourcing.

[ChoccieMuffin]

Rather than a double click opening the topic from the TOC, it opens the properties window, thats fine, but it means I need to right click to actually open the topic,

What version of Flare are you using? This issue was fixed recently and now i think there's a setting to open the topic directly from the TOC without right-clicking. i can't remember where that setting is, but that was a big step for Flare.

There's a little button-y thing in the local toolbar or whatever it's called, that toggles between double-click to open the topic and double-click to open the properties. There's another option to do with viewing tips somewhere, and if you have tips visible (is it under the <t> dropdown??? Sorry, don't have access to Flare at the mo, due to a fatal hard disk failure, but that's another story) you will see this reminder at the top of the topic window.

Yeah I do have the TOC, but I would hope this would be displayed on the left, so at least I can have that open and work on content rather than opening in the topic pane

If you right-click on the TOC tab, you have the option to float. Then you can move it anywhere on the screen. Recently, i've been moving mine to my other monitor, but most of the time i dock the TOC to the left with my Content Explorer and Project Organizer. To move it from the dock, click on the 9 little dot square in the top left corner of the TOC.

Laura, I LOVE you for telling me that! It's such a pain to have to have the TOC open in a pane, this is the best bit of information I've had all weekend. (yes, I know it's only just Friday evening, but things have been disastrous since Thursday so I'll take the good bits where I can.)

The Content Editor, in an ideal world, I would like to sort all of my content into the folder that it relates, this just keep things clean and tidy when publishing webhelp.

Again, this isn't the purpose of the Content Explorer. As Lisa said, you can easily sort the files into folders, but they won't be in any particular order. In my Flare project right now, i can view a topic in three different ways depending on how i want to look it up:

1-Content Explorer: my files are sorted by section/manual (since i am importing all my manuals into one project), i have the View Files option turned on so i can see the folders and the topics/images next to them. (shortcut Ctrl+J)
2-TOC: docked to the left, my files are sorted in the order i will see them in the output so i can see the hierarchy relationships (shortcut Ctrl+F8)
3-File List: docked to the right, ALL my files can be sorted by condition, date modified, filename, or many other options (shortcut Ctrl+Shift+J)

There's a lot to learn about all the features in Flare. I've been using it for a few years now so i've found most of them, but i still learn new shortcuts and best practices all the time.

Like I said, Laura, I really love you..