Best practices for using Snippets?

[ccardimon]

I have started using Snippets, and I was wondering if there are best practices for using or organizing them?

[Nita Beck]

I'll get the ball rolling...

I like to organize my snippets into subfolders by content and to use a prefix for the snippets' filenames to identify what they contain. These two strategies make it easy for me to find snippets to insert into topics.

Code: Select all

Snippets
   HWControls
      hwd_backlight.flsnp
      hwd_rotary.flsnp
      hdw_emergency_stop.flsnp
   Notes
      note_re_login_reqs.flsnp
   TaskSteps
      step_click_OK.flsnp
      step_click_edit.flsnp
      step_position_marker.flsnp
   UIControls
      btn_reset.flsnp
      btn_trace.flsnp
      fld_actual.flsnp
      fld_radius.flsnp
      fld_username.flsnp
   Warnings
      wrn_re_danger_of_skin_damage.flsnp
      wrn_re_danger_of_pinching.flsnp

[i-tietz]

We have snippets 1. for reuse and 2. for patterns.
The snippets of the first sort have names that start with f_
and
they are stored in a place that is close to where they are reused.
I.e. if I use the snippet in four topics in the same folder that's also the place for the snippet. If I need it in another folder beside that one, the snippet goes up one level. And if there's more than one snippet I create a folder for them.

The snippets wue use for patterns are stored in one central place in the project - in subfolders that give the user a hint about their content.

[kwag_myers]

I haven't had to do this since I started using Flare, but with previous projects I put my snippets into one or more topics which allowed me to actually display the content on a web page with the file name as the title, like a glossary. I suppose in Flare you might need to make that a separate project with an HTML output. If you can get by with descriptive file names like the others have suggested, this is probably overkill, especially for single writers. But the older I get, the more often I have to remind myself of what I wrote.