What box am I forgetting to check?

[dwag]

I have one giant project with one giant TOC built as one giant webhelp output. From that giant project, I have several PDF outputs, each of which generates in a jiff. I also have a second webhelp target and a TOC that is a mere fraction of the master TOC. When I build to that target with the mini TOC selected as its master, the output looks fine; however, the build takes exactly as long as does the build for the giant webhelp output. Am I forgetting to check a box somewhere?

[Thomas Tregner]

Maybe Advanced > Exclude content not linked directly or indirectly from the target...
But I haven't tested it as a performance improvement.

[dwag]

Many thanks, Mr. Tregner. Would've worked perfectly, except I must have a version of Flare (6.1--I know, we're way behind the times) that doesn't offer that feature. Have looked all around the Target Editor but can't seem to find. Maybe it's right in front of my nose (been known to happen)? Thanks, again.

[i-tietz]

As far as I know in webhelp the TOC is not relevant for the volume of the output.
Do you use conditions to reduce the number of topics for the smaller webhelp? Or do you have the same number of topics in both outputs and just have a smaller TOC in one of them (for whatever reason you might have for that)?

[trent the thief]

Many thanks, Mr. Tregner. Would've worked perfectly, except I must have a version of Flare (6.1--I know, we're way behind the times) that doesn't offer that feature. Have looked all around the Target Editor but can't seem to find. Maybe it's right in front of my nose (been known to happen)? Thanks, again.

Perhaps you could use conditional text to mark text belonging to a particular build? I have a project with more than a dozen condition tags and about 8 targets. Each target has a different TOC and a different combination of tags for include/exclude. That would let you build the target using the chosen TOC and exclude things that aren't relevant.

[dwag]

Thanks for the thought, Mr. Thief. I've done exactly that, but as Mr. I-Tietz has suggested, for webhelp output, it appears that all files are processed regardless. I created a condition to exclude all topics that don't belong (about 98% of them), then applied the condition en masse through the file list, and the build moved along at a much faster clip; however, not sure I want the worry of having to apply the exclusion tag to most future topics.

[i-tietz]

Thanks for the thought, Mr. Thief. I've done exactly that, but as Mr. I-Tietz has suggested, for webhelp output, it appears that all files are processed regardless. I created a condition to exclude all topics that don't belong (about 98% of them), then applied the condition en masse through the file list, and the build moved along at a much faster clip; however, not sure I want the worry of having to apply the exclusion tag to most future topics.

Well - one way or another you will have to think of the purpose of the topic when creating it: The second way is stuffing the topics that are to be excluded into a folder (do not forget the link update!!) and assign the condition to the folder.

[dwag]

I appreciate the suggestions.

[trent the thief]

Thanks for the thought, Mr. Thief. I've done exactly that, but as Mr. I-Tietz has suggested, for webhelp output, it appears that all files are processed regardless. I created a condition to exclude all topics that don't belong (about 98% of them), then applied the condition en masse through the file list, and the build moved along at a much faster clip; however, not sure I want the worry of having to apply the exclusion tag to most future topics.

Perhaps if you set the conditions based on product features? The you can create a target for each particular combination you ship. Then you can build each target as required.

I agree that conditions can be crazy to manage at times, but it sure beats making extra projects to do the same thing.