MadCap Software Forums

Since upgrading to Flare 8 I have noticed that when a page is selected from the search results and the Contents tab is selected, Flare does not always display the selected page location within the TOC. I also generate a HTML Complied Help output, when the same problem occurs here, at least the option to use the Locate button is available, which unfortunatley is not the case for the WebHelp output

I have looked in the Help and Knowledge Base which does not seem to address this issue, getting really highly frustrated.com. Can anyone help?

Thanks

Just to confirm, you're outputting HTML5? Also, do these topics appear in the TOC, i.e., can you open the topic from the TOC?

If the topics are not in the TOC, two possibilities come to mind: 1) Check the Conditions of a suspect topic (Home tab). I've seen this in other apps, but not sure if Flare is the same. If you omit a topic from the TOC, but link to it in another topic, it is included in the output, but not the TOC. This is why the topic shows in the Search Results.

Secondly, check the Medium setting of the topic in the local toolbar. I'm still trying to get my head around this feature, so again, I'm guessing you might have some topics set to (print) and getting the same behavior as I've described with the Conditions.

Thanks for your response kwag_myers. No, I'm not using HTML5 I'm actually using the WebHelp output.

All of the topics / pages are within the project and display correctly in the search results. The problem is when selecting one of the results in the search and then clicking the Contents tab, The selected page should be highlighted in the TOC but this is no longer the case. Not sure why it does not show and highlight the page location anymore.

As far as the Medium goes, that is set correctly to Intranet for this project.

I've been playing around with various settings in hopes of re-creating the problem, but everything I've tried is global to the project. I think it must have something to do with the topics themselves and I can't find anything in the Topic Properties that might cause this. The only other suggestion I can make is to check the metadata:

1. Open a topic that works properly in the Text Editor.
2. Copy everything above the end head tag (</head>).
3. Paste it into a suspect topic. You may want to compare the two while you have them together to see if they are the same and note any differences.
4. Cut the original metadata and save. Just to be on the safe side, paste the original code into a NotePad file so you can go back to it after testing.
5. Build and test another output.

If it is something in the metadata, you may want to post it so someone who knows more about how Flare compiles its output can have a look. I'm afraid I'm running out of straws to grasp.

Thanks for your suggestion, I will have give it a try.

Does the auto-sync work in the same browser if you build the help with Flare 7?

I haven't tried to generate a build using Flare 7 since upgrading to Flare 8. Do you think the upgrade has something to do with this issue?

Just trying to eliminate error sources.
I think the auto-sync needs tons of programming and if they changed sth from 7 to 8 it might not work with your browser, at least not in the browser version you use or with the settings you have or ...

I did some limited testing of the auto-sync in Flare 8 with IE 8 and Firefox 16. My results were either all or nothing. This is what makes me think it's something at the topic level. If the same topics are affected build after build, there must be something unique about those topics.

1.
Maybe the topic is very long or has a complex structure (e.g. lots of dropdowns and/or tables and/or a javascript)? If it takes a long time to load it might well be, that the TOC is build and/or updated before the topic is loaded and by the time the topic is available, the TOC has been done already ...

2.
Those topics are in the TOC more than once and the auto-sync always goes to the first instance which is not the one you expect.


3.
Try to build a help in between these steps to see when the strange behaviour starts:
a. Generate a brandnew topic and copy the content. Enter the new topic in the TOC.
b. Delete the old topic (no link update) and the TOC entry. Rename the new topic (to name of old topic).

If nothing works: MC bug report is under https://www.madcapsoftware.com/feedback/bugs.aspx