Applying style sheets to a document imported from MS Word

[khad87]

When I import a document from MS Word to MadCap Flare, I have to alter heading and paragraph styles manually, which is not efficient. I created a CSS in Flare and made it the Master Style Sheet, but when I tried applying the new style I created to the document I imported from Word, it didn't work. I just couldn't apply the style I created. I followed the instructions in the Flare Help feature, but I didn't have any luck.

In my job, we import a lot of very long documents from Word to Flare, so manually changing styles with every document we import is too time-consuming.

Can someone please tell me how I can apply my CSS to all of the topics in the document I imported from MS Word?

[ChoccieMuffin]

You may need to have several attempts at importing your Word document until you get things close to how you want them. For example, your headings can come in in several ways, depending on what you select - as paragraph tags, as heading tags, as sub-classes of those tags, and so on. You should give yourself several hours to play with the import and tweak the settings until you find something that works for you, and then you can save it and re-use it for any future imports.

[khad87]

I know how to manually modify styles and get them how I want them, but I don't know how to save them so I can apply them later. How can I save my changes and apply them to other documents I import from Word? I know that a CSS will be saved and can re-used later. Is there any way to apply a CSS to a document imported from Word?

[wclass]

If you have created a CSS and want to map those styles to the topics that will be generated by the Word import (technically can't apply a CSS to a Word doc) then check the following items in the Import dialog:

• On the Stylesheet tab, select your CSS file and choose "Don't preserve Word styles"
• On the Paragraph Styles tab, map your Word styles to a Flare style - the list of available Flare styles is taken from your CSS attached. You can map headings and paragraph styles, but tables and lists can't be mapped exactly.

This will map the styles as the import happens - you usually need to do this at import rather than attaching a stylesheet later as the style names need to be renamed from Word (unless they were called "H1"?). All generated topics should now be linked to the selected stylesheet.
You can create an import file with these settings and copy it for re-use later.

[lacastle]

I figured out how to import many different FM files using 1 import file (but not all at one time), and I think this would work for importing Word docs too.
http://forums.madcapsoftware.com/viewto ... =5&t=10598