Student tech writer new to MadCap-New project best practices

[RamonS]

How much RAM does your box have and what OS? And my apologies if you already mentioned this somewhere in this (monster) thread.
Also, cleaned the temp folders out recently? Done disk cleanup? Did you use MyDefrag to defragment and optimize the local drive (don't use the tool that comes with Windows, that is just bloody garbage).

[seasonedrookie]

How much RAM does your box have and what OS? And my apologies if you already mentioned this somewhere in this (monster) thread.
Also, cleaned the temp folders out recently? Done disk cleanup? Did you use MyDefrag to defragment and optimize the local drive (don't use the tool that comes with Windows, that is just bloody garbage).

Windows 7 32 bit
4GB Memory
Disk wasn't junked up, but performed disk cleanup and defrag anyway. Four Flare crashes today. Don't know if it's a configuration in Flare or in Windows that would cause this, but every time the error popped up mid-sentence while I was typing.

[i-tietz]

What tool windows are open in Flare? E.g. I once found out that the index editor does try a refresh every now and then, which means scanning all topics ... I closed that window and performance got better.
And there are all sorts of features that run while Flare's open, like scanning the project for phrases that would make good snippets and others just like that. If you have them switched on, switch them off.

[RamonS]

Windows 7 32 bit
4GB Memory
Disk wasn't junked up, but performed disk cleanup and defrag anyway. Four Flare crashes today. Don't know if it's a configuration in Flare or in Windows that would cause this, but every time the error popped up mid-sentence while I was typing.

Should be enough....you might want to try a repair of .NET, but grasping at straws here. What else do you have running aside from Flare? How much memory is available / swapped out?

[seasonedrookie]

After five crashes yesterday, I emailed support. I was instructed to go to Window>Layouts>Reset Window Layout. I reset the window layout this morning. I'll report back. It's bothersome that making the Dynamic Help and Content Explorer side panels smaller would cause problems.

[seasonedrookie]

I got all of my unformatted text entered into the Flare doc today. I do have some graphics that will need to go into different topics. Should that be done now? What is the next step after getting all of the content in?

[LTinker68]

I do have some graphics that will need to go into different topics. Should that be done now?

There is no hard-and-fast rule about how you write your help system. Generally I do insert graphics as I write a topic because I might reference the graphic in the content and it helps to be able to see it as I write to it.

What is the next step after getting all of the content in?

Again, up to you. If you're going to do multiple outputs then you might want to build one of them now, say the online output, and see how it flows, how it looks (appearance and flow), how the search, index, and glossary behave, etc. Once you get the online help the way you want it to look and behave, then you can start on the print version. Or do it vice versa if you need to deliver a print output before a browser-based help.

When you test the online output, make sure you test it with multiple browsers to make sure they behave someone similarly, or at least enough that any of those browsers can be used. (Unless you're building for a company whose IT is locked into one browser and version, in which case you don't need to worry about cross-browser compatibility.)

[seasonedrookie]

I do have some graphics that will need to go into different topics. Should that be done now?

There is no hard-and-fast rule about how you write your help system. Generally I do insert graphics as I write a topic because I might reference the graphic in the content and it helps to be able to see it as I write to it.

What is the next step after getting all of the content in?

Again, up to you. If you're going to do multiple outputs then you might want to build one of them now, say the online output, and see how it flows, how it looks (appearance and flow), how the search, index, and glossary behave, etc. Once you get the online help the way you want it to look and behave, then you can start on the print version. Or do it vice versa if you need to deliver a print output before a browser-based help.

When you test the online output, make sure you test it with multiple browsers to make sure they behave someone similarly, or at least enough that any of those browsers can be used. (Unless you're building for a company whose IT is locked into one browser and version, in which case you don't need to worry about cross-browser compatibility.)

I'll be creating a print output only. Should I go ahead and get into formatting everything now?

[seasonedrookie]

Whoops, I think I'm okay. Just got to the appropriate chapter in my Flare book.

[seasonedrookie]

Before I proceed, I wanted to check with you all. I have read multiple resources for my next step, but I'm unsure of the proper way to proceed.

My output will be print. I have all of my text in the project. The text is currently unformatted. My plan is to go through each topic and put the proper tags on pieces of text, e.g. h1, h2, h3, list items, notes...

After tagging the text, I'm unsure of the best way to tailor it to my liking. Should I make the changes in the Stylesheet Editor? That seems like the best way to create global specifications for the looks of the document. The thing that is confusing me is if I should be concerned with a Master Page or if it is not needed for my intents and purposes. All I really need to do is specify things like font size for paras, headings, and notes and specify spacing for bulleted lists.

I believe that once I've made adjustments to the stylesheet, I may want to make a page layout in order to get my headers, footers, and page numbers in the doc (I could have done this at any point, but now seems like a good time).

After I've tailored the look of the document, I plan to insert tables, pictures, and text boxes from the Word document I started with.

It appears that Navigation Aids will be the next step, but I'm not concerned with that yet.

Does my plan of attack look okay? Am I missing anything, or am I going about this the wrong way?

[Nita Beck]

Ryan, let me answer one question quickly: If you are doing print output, you need page layouts, not master pages. You can completely ignore master pages.

[seasonedrookie]

Ryan, let me answer one question quickly: If you are doing print output, you need page layouts, not master pages. You can completely ignore master pages.

Yay!

[seasonedrookie]

Good Morning All,

I was able to manipulate the style sheet this morning and I'm comfortable enough moving forward with that.

My next task is importing images. In the original Word document I have text boxes, tables, and graphics that I will have to get into the Flare doc. Copying and pasting doesn't work. When I worked with Frame and ArborText in the past, graphics always took some work to get right. Will I be dealing with a similar scenario in Flare? I've read up a bit on working with images, but I just need someone to get me started.

What is a good way to get graphics from a Word doc into a Flare doc? Do I need to copy/paste the images from the original Word manual into a Word file containing just the images, then import the Word file containing the images into Flare so I can insert them from a Flare location?

[seasonedrookie]

Perhaps I need to be more specific. Here are the note boxes I'm referring to:

note boxes screen capture.png

They were built in Word and the text boxes, the text, and the graphics are all independent of each other. When I attempt to copy/paste them from Word into Flare only the text pastes into the Flare doc.

The same goes for the tables that I'm attempting to get into the Flare project:

tables screen capture.png

The table won't copy/paste, only the text inside of the table pastes into Flare. See below:

table paste failure.png

Is there a workaround for this? My first thought is to do like I'm doing here and just doing a screen capture and put it in that way. The other option is to rebuild the note boxes in Flare. My employer likes them, so I'm trying to keep them. I'd be willing to build the tables in Flare, but the company I'm working for uses a lot of Excel for tables, so I need to figure out how to properly import them now.

[SteveS]

Hi,

When you paste in Flare at the bottom of the pasted section there is an icon - it can be a little bit faint.

Click the icon to select the paste action...

HTH

[seasonedrookie]

Hi,

When you paste in Flare at the bottom of the pasted section there is an icon - it can be a little bit faint.

Click the icon to select the paste action...

HTH

Great to know for future reference, but I was unable to accomplish what I'm trying to do. None of the paste options brought the whole note box into the Flare doc. Perhaps if I screen capture each note box, then crop them, then paste them, I'll have better luck. Not sure that that would be the best way, but it might work.

I was able to paste the table into Flare as a table, but the Flare table doesn't look the same as the Excel table. My manager who creates, and has a lot of pride in her tables will most certainly say something if I can't get the Flare tables to appear the same as hers.

[seasonedrookie]

Ugh, I cannot figure this out. I took all of the images I needed from my Word document and put them all into another Word document. The new Word document only contains images that I'll need to insert into my Flare project. Somehow, I was able to import the image-holding Word document into Flare as a new project. I did this yesterday.

How can I use the files from the Flare project that only contains the imported image-holding Word doc and get them into my ongoing Flare project?

I've tried to import the Word doc into my ongoing Flare project, but I can't figure out how I got it into Flare the first time.

[RamonS]

You should be able to copy the html files and images from the 'images from word only' project to the one you are working on.

[seasonedrookie]

You should be able to copy the html files and images from the 'images from word only' project to the one you are working on.

I know there must be an easy answer to this, but Flare only allows one project to be open at a time, correct? How should I go about copy/pasting from one project to another?

[Nita Beck]

Ryan, no and yes.

No, you cannot open more than one project at a time in Flare.

BUT, you CAN open more than one instance of Flare at a time, and open the other project in that other instance.

I've had as many as four instances of Flare going at the same time so that I could copy and paste stuff from other Flare projects into the project I was working on.

[seasonedrookie]

Ryan, no and yes.

No, you cannot open more than one project at a time in Flare.

BUT, you CAN open more than one instance of Flare at a time, and open the other project in that other instance.

I've had as many as four instances of Flare going at the same time so that I could copy and paste stuff from other Flare projects into the project I was working on.

Whoa, my mind has been blown, haha! So, I would first open the Flare project that I'm working on, then how would I go about opening an "instance" of another Flare project in order to copy images?

[RamonS]

Whoa, my mind has been blown, haha! So, I would first open the Flare project that I'm working on, then how would I go about opening an "instance" of another Flare project in order to copy images?

Minimize Flare and start Flare again, that will then run a second Flare application that is independent from the first.

[Nita Beck]

...an "instance" of another Flare project...

Glad someone else stepped in to help explain, given that I'm using jargon.

You can actually do this with almost any Windows program (guys and gals, I'm right on that, yes?). You could open Word and then open another "instance" of Word, for example. Of course, one rarely needs to do that because one can open more than one Word document in the same "instance" of Word at the same time.

A good example is Paint. Paint can open only one image file at a time. But you can start up as many instances of Paint as you need so that you can have multiple images open simultaneously. You'd just need to open each image right from Windows Explorer, not from within Paint; if you tried to open another image from within Paint, Paint just closes the first image and then opens the second image.

[seasonedrookie]

Great! Thanks everyone, I'm finally getting some of these images pasted into the Flare document.

[seasonedrookie]

...an "instance" of another Flare project...

Glad someone else stepped in to help explain, given that I'm using jargon.

You can actually do this with almost any Windows program (guys and gals, I'm right on that, yes?). You could open Word and then open another "instance" of Word, for example. Of course, one rarely needs to do that because one can open more than one Word document in the same "instance" of Word at the same time.

A good example is Paint. Paint can open only one image file at a time. But you can start up as many instances of Paint as you need so that you can have multiple images open simultaneously. You'd just need to open each image right from Windows Explorer, not from within Paint; if you tried to open another image from within Paint, Paint just closes the first image and then opens the second image.

Yes! Nita, I simply did not understand the term "instance".