Target "Output Folder" list — Clearing old entries?

[Phlawm53]

For Flare 7 (and 6, for that matter).

IF one has worked on a variety of Flare projects over time, how does one remove very old lists of path names retained by the "helpful" drop-down lists stored by the program?

For example:

1. In a Flare project, double-click a project Target to display its properties in the Flare Target Editor.

2. In Target Editor, in the General Tab, click the Output Folder drop-down list.

The list contains a (potentially) VERY long list of path names to projects, some of which may not have been accessed in years, or may no longer exist.

How can one tidy up that list by removing entries one knows are obsolete?

I've poked around a bit (admittedly not too extensively) and can't find out where this information is stored.

Cheers & thanks for your help,
Riley

[Andrew]

If you are comfortable with editing the registry, you can edit the list. Here's where you find it in the registry (I used the built-in Regedit tool to browse the registry):
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\MadCap Software\Flare\DialogSettings\B3.CatapultTargetEditorKit.BasicDialogPage version.1\Values_sync_attribute_OutputFolder

In that key, you'll find values that match what you see in the drop-down, and you should be able to delete those values that you want to remove.

NOTE: When editing the registry, make sure you make a backup first!

[Phlawm53]

Andrew:

Thanks. I'm a registry editor from way back…

I think I'll also file an Enhancement Request to provide some user-friendlier way to maintain this list. (My current list has projects I haven't opened in more than one year…)

Cheers & thanks 'gain,
Riley
SFO

[Phlawm53]

Okay, so with some help from Andrew, I've found out how to clean up a variety of detritus Flare 6/7 stuffs into the Windows Registry.

But the more I think about Flare's use of the Registry in this way, the unhappier I become.

First, and per my preceding post to this thread, there needs to be some straightforward user-facing way to clean up this detritus. There's no need for Flare to permanently remember and suggest mis-typed Find/Replace strings, or the names of CSS files for completely unrelated or even long-deleted projects.

Second, I'm unhappy that Flare is using the Windows Registry for this purpose. I realize this risks becomeing a theological issue, with partisans both strongly for and strongly against the use of the Registry. As for me, I'm unhappy that Flare 7 isn't taking a more intelligent approach to the problem. To wit, I'd prefer that:

· Information about path names, Find/Replace strings, CSS file names, and the like be stored in an XML file or some such, ala the rest of Flare's project configuration information.

· Information be limited by default to the project in which it was used. If there's a need to share information among projects, I'd prefer a means of adding it to a Global Resources project. This is how I share and efficiently maintain CSSs / Variables / Page Layouts / Text Conditions / Etc. among a group of projects.

· Information be readily editable and deletable by a user.

A key point is that for more than a year now, I've been very pleased with both Madcap the company and Flare the product. But the cluttering of a computer's Windows Registry with more or less ephemeral program data, and the lack of a straightforward user-facing way to clean up and otherwise maintain that data, bothers me more than it perhaps should…

Cheers & hope this helps,
Riley
SFO

[Andrew]

While I don't share your objections to the use of the registry, or the "most-recently-used" lists, I wouldn't have any problem with those being user-editable. I don't use them for anything. I rarely modify my targets once I've set them up (except to modify the output file name, the variables, and sometimes the conditions, and in none of those cases do I find MRU lists helpful).

Seems like a candidate for a feature request!