MadCap Software Forums

Ah, I love this time of year. Winter is starting to fade in my area of the NE U.S., "snow drops" are already blooming in my garden, and a new release of Flare is announced! I'm waiting excitedly to get the email with the download link.

Last year, I started a "Favorite Flare 7 features" thread, so I'm happy to start the "Favorite Flae 8 features" thread this year.

Once you've had a chance to start using Flare 8, tell us about your favorites.

P.S. I respectfully request that we keep this thread about positives. If you'd like to discuss any negatives, kindly go to http://forums.madcapsoftware.com/viewto ... 13&t=14703. (Thanks, Wayne, for getting that thread going. )

Well, I installed Flare 8 about 15 minutes ago, so the jury's still out but I think I'm going to like the HTML5 help. Currently, I use WebHelp, and have a li'l hunk of Javascript in my master page to display the "actual" frames-based topic URL, so that it can be grabbed and emailed (esp. by our support folks). I'm always keen to get rid of little maintenance headaches like that javascript.

I was/am a little worried that the topic URLs might change; that would be bad. They do change slightly -- they have Default.htm instead of Default_csh.htm -- but it appears that I can spoof that by just adding a copy of Default.htm, named Default_csh.htm, to my deployment directory. That's needed because those URLs have a life outside my site -- I know that Support keeps some stashed away as answers to FAQs, and various of our users have received topic URLs by email in past and will expect them to remain valid in our next rev.

Addition of output to ePub is a nice touch as is the HTML5 based output.

I like the look. Still not sure speed has improved or gotten worse (the jury is still out on that one).

Wayne

wbrisett wrote:I know, I know, this is only suppose to be positives, but ...

Hey Wayne, how about starting another thread and we can cross-link?

And I'm jealous of anyone who's installed it already. I'm still waiting for my download email

Folders in the Project Structure, that is simply awesome!

So easily pleased!!

Finally got my download email, am all installed, and am all happy now.

Here are things I like so far:

I'm going to like the new HTML5 Web format a lot. Having played with it a bit in the beta version (for which I was a tester), I think its user interface will be more self-evident that the WebHelp user interface. I especially like how results of searching now include brief "excerpts" from the found topics so one can make an informed decision about whether or not to visit a found topic.

I'm also looking forward to the refinements made for PDF output.

Lastly, I'm going to appreciate the easier-to-read font in Flare's UI. No more squinting when I'm trying to find or rename a file! A little thing that means a lot to this tired-eyed author.

Named Destinations!

Folks, this is huge. This feature means that Flare can now create links from PDF to PDF without having to resort to manually opening and using Acrobat to do this. I'm not aware of any other tool that allows you to do this.

Wayne

The big favorites are HTML 5 and ePub format. I will be using both of these. I especially like the default look and feel of the default HTML5 skin - have not had time to create my own yet.
And there are a few features that are minor but still a great improvement - folders in the Project Organizer, and the improved icons, properly renaming condition tabs and variables, and, I like the ribbon.

I very much like the new meta description feature. However, I wish that I could conditionalize it, as I need to use sligthly different terminology for the same topic in order to support two different products. I'll be submitting a feature request for that.

Nita Beck wrote:I very much like the new meta description feature. However, I wish that I could conditionalize it, ...

Since the description is an ordinary tag: Maybe you can insert the attribute for the condition when you open the topic in the text editor ...

Inge, we're on the same wavelength. That's the exact workaround I'm testing out. Would be nice also to use variables in the meta description, and I've already submitted an enhancement request for that, too.

HTML 5 Search
OK - I've had a chance to play around with it now, and I really love the search feature of the HTML5 skin/target. The search button is in the top right corner by default, and hence always available, and the results are displayed in the main body of the help in "google" fashion - MUCH better than the old search panel. The results seem more relevant as well.
Also like the way you can easily hide and display the navigation panel.

Being able to deactivate the software without having to submit a support ticket and wait for the serial number to be able to be used on another machine.

Table caption continuation for long tables and better handling of long tables in general. Getting long tables to behave was always a massive PITA.

Break types for Chapter/Page layouts. Waited a LONG time for this.

Clean Project. Flare 8 is less tolerant of "glitches" in Temp files when compiling, so it is good to not have to flick to Windows Explorer to blat the temporary files folder. Still have to put up with the annoying file locking clashes with Acrobat though.

Additional PDF output controls (e.g. open with collapsed bookmarks). Finally I don't have to do anything in Acrobat anymore other than check that everything looks okay.

Improvements in renaming things. Still a ways to go with reliability of renaming files and folders, but definitely less repair work needed after major renaming exercises now when re-purposing a project.

Hey, I'm happy that all the browsers seem to support my Help again....
Opera was gone for a year. Google Chrome for a year and a bit prior to that.

Now I'm browsing the Help with IE9, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, SRWare Iron, and Opera.
I might even boot up a Linux instance and see if it works with Konqueror.
If nothing else, it means I can remove the Readme.txt file that I normally include, explaining that, from time to time, this-or-that browser might decide to stop rendering WebHelp, and Mr./Ms customer, please try another browser...

And I, too, really like that the page URL now shows the actual page that my reviewers are looking at. Neither they nor I will have to guess, in future.

wbrisett wrote:I like the look. Still not sure speed has improved or gotten worse (the jury is still out on that one).

Wayne

I've noticed that Flare 8 slows my system down. My mouse pointer stutters considerably, for example.

I am running Flare 7 (and on Windows 7 under VMWare Fusion 4.1.1 on my MacBook Pro.

A small but potentially helpful little addition in Flare 8 (or at least I didn't know about this in Flare 7):

1. In Flare 8, in the Ribbon U.I., press and release ALT.

Flare overlays cues for a given feature's keyboard shortcuts onto the U.I.

2. Press ALT again to remove the keyboard shortcut cues.

This is a feature of the ribbon UI and can be found in other ribbonized apps as well. One of the few ways to cope with an otherwise dysfunctional design.

Where to start?
Perhaps with the ability to open, edit and automatically update a picture with your Graphics software (SnagIt) without needing to exit Flare?
(recent convert from RoboHelp)

That Ribbon keyboard shortcut feature seems not ready for prime time. Here are the major issues I've discovered in my early testing (which I'll be submitting in a bug report).

ACCESSIBILITY FAILURE
Each key selection removes focus from the topic's insertion point and therefore requires the user to click the mouse at that insertion point, each time (the marker changes from the right bracket to the grey vertical dumbbell). Therefore, the process to get to the Insert Image command from the Home tab is:

1. Place cursor at topic insertion point.
2. Press Alt.
3. Click at insertion point.
4. Press the N key.
5. Click at insertion point.
6. Press the A key.
7. Make your selection in the Insert Image window.

COMMANDS UNAVAILABLE ON ACTIVE TAB
You cannot access commands on the tab that is active when you press and release the Alt key. That is, only the tabs you navigate to have their commands enabled.

FEATURE HIDDEN IN FLARE HELP
Just couldn't find anything on it.


Leon

One more reason to change the UI options and use the menu.

Caution - IRONY:
You're right to put this in the "feature" list of Flare 8, because modern software is made to be used with touchpads & co. - just like in StarTrek
For a desktop computer that means: mouse driven ... you're not supposed to use it with keyboard shortcuts ...

Did you have a look at the Windows 8 demo online? You should do so to see what your working future looks like ...

i-tietz wrote:Did you have a look at the Windows 8 demo online? You should do so to see what your working future looks like ...

I did and I thought that was some comedy piece from Microsoft until I realized that they were serious. W8 on desktops is DOA....and on tablets there are better alternatives, which are available right now.

lauraj wrote:Well, I installed Flare 8 about 15 minutes ago, so the jury's still out but I think I'm going to like the HTML5 help. Currently, I use WebHelp, and have a li'l hunk of Javascript in my master page to display the "actual" frames-based topic URL, so that it can be grabbed and emailed (esp. by our support folks). I'm always keen to get rid of little maintenance headaches like that javascript.

I was/am a little worried that the topic URLs might change; that would be bad. They do change slightly -- they have Default.htm instead of Default_csh.htm -- but it appears that I can spoof that by just adding a copy of Default.htm, named Default_csh.htm, to my deployment directory. That's needed because those URLs have a life outside my site -- I know that Support keeps some stashed away as answers to FAQs, and various of our users have received topic URLs by email in past and will expect them to remain valid in our next rev.

lauraj, have you had a chance to try your idea of copying Default.htm? Looking at the files that Flare automatically creates for my WebHelp target, Default.htm and Default_CSH.htm are different, so I'm wondering whether a simple copy of that file would suffice.

Similar to you, I also need Default_CSH.htm to remain in the deployment directory, because without it, the HTML5 build target breaks our existing CSH calls. So I'm looking for ways to work around that problem.

gus1980_99 wrote:Similar to you, I also need Default_CSH.htm to remain in the deployment directory, because without it, the HTML5 build target breaks our existing CSH calls. So I'm looking for ways to work around that problem.

Just set the Output File in the target to be Default_CSH ; then you'll just have one file, Default_CSH.htm.

This also means any internal links/references in the help output point to this file too, rather than Default.htm.